Rural students drop out because the higher education system has not adapted to their needs, according to research into the factors that bring about success for disadvantaged students.
The research, across five South African higher education institutions, was commissioned by the Rural Education Access Programme (Reap), an NGO that supports poor rural students.
It highlights the struggle for financial survival of many of these students, academic and social alienation and a lack of support services, which signal institutional underpreparedness. The research also indicates that students and institutions share responsibility for ensuring success.
According to the research, financial problems are exacerbated by academic and sociocultural challenges. Reap’s study of two groups of students with loans from the government’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), one of which was on the Reap programme, illustrates that a tendency among higher education institutions is to distribute NSFAS funding to cover mainly tuition, but leaves poor rural students struggling to pay registration, accommodation, food, books, equipment and travel costs.
Time and energy that especially first-year students should spend in orientation and classes is taken up in sorting out financial difficulties and worrying about financial survival. The reality is stark: as one student put it: “If I am hungry, I cannot pass.”
Another finding pointed at disadvantaged students who often have to cope with social isolation and adapting to an unfamiliar environment the academic and social demands of which are experienced as hostile. For example, higher education requires the ability and self-discipline to think and study independently as well as proficiency in the language of tuition.
The schooling system does not adequately prepare rural youth for independent study or build sufficient English proficiency. Most rural youth grow up without graduate role models. They battle to develop conceptual confidence, to read academic literature critically and write academically sound arguments.
With few exceptions, universities in the study sample offer academic and psychosocial support services independently of the core system of faculties and departments. They assume that weak students will make use of support services of their own accord.
Although they are busy, these services are typically under-resourced and marginalised, and disadvantaged students report low awareness and reluctance to use them because they are concerned about stigmatisation or because it is culturally unacceptable, the research found.
Reap director Clairissa Arendse said: “Reap has proved that with the right kind of support these young people will make the best of an opportunity [to study].
“In contrast to the national average graduation rate of 11% to 14% for black students, the 2002 Reap intake had a 55% success rate,” she said.
Reap has eight years’ experience working across public universities to help some of South Africa’s most economically disadvantaged youngsters to access funding from NSFAS and supported them with ongoing regular individual counselling through a network of trained advisers, group workshops and top-up financing.
Consequently students who are participating in the Reap programme reported heightened motivation from frequent interaction with their student advisers. Reap monitors its students by making financial aid dependent on self-developed budgets and monthly phone calls to request payments.
The Reap study illustrates examples of good practice, including selection processes that measure attitudinal and behavioural qualities, such as drive and willpower, as well as academic achievement and potential; careers counselling; orientation programmes; compulsory tutorials; and peer mentoring implemented within the security of university residence communities.
According to the study, integrating academic support with mainstream course work ensures it is normalised and avoids stigmatisation and isolation, as does prioritising residence placement for first-year rural students. Early identification of students at risk and targeted development of academic literacy with study and time management, numerical and English language skills are essential.
Academics can leverage their reportedly high influence to build personal approachability and reduce rural students’ sense of intimidation and reluctance to ask for help by actively recommending psychosocial support services.
The Reap study emphasises the importance of higher education institutions adopting an integrated approach to student support across the full life cycle of their studies. Arendse said the research provides the opportunity for institutions, government departments and external stakeholders such as Reap to form a sectoral response to help rural students succeed.