1. ENHANCING STUDENT SUCCESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE FACILITATIVE ROLE OF STUDENT AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS Presented at the NASDEV Conference Riverside Hotel, Durban 17 October 2015 Mr Theo Bhengu Acting Executive Director: Strategic Operations Office of the Vice-Chancellor & Principal

2. Opening remarks. Higher education stakeholders. The current situation. Why include students in QA? Objectives of quality assurance. Nature of involvement. The QEP: Focus. Role of Student Affairs. Conclusion. CONTENTS

3. OPENING REMARKS Almost every country in the world has an agency responsible for quality assurance in higher education. Mandates differ, but include institutional audits (reviews) and programme accreditation. Every university in SA has a department or directorate responsible for quality promotion or quality enhancement.

4. CHE Quality assurance Monitoring and Evaluation Advice COUNCIL ON HIGHER EDUCATION

5. Council on Higher Education HEQC Monitoring and Evaluation Institutional Audits Programme Accreditation Quality Promotion and Capacity Development National Reviews AdviceAdvice Standards setting

6. MANDATE Programme reviews. Departmental reviews. Audits. Advisory role to faculties. Surveys and impact studies. Tracer studies. Quality promotion. Capacity development. Handle students’ complaints. Quality management system. TYPICAL UNIVERSITY QUALITY PROMOTION DIRECTORATE

7. NOTION OF A STAKEHOLDER  Group or individual who is affected by or can affect the achievement of an organization’s objectives” (Freeman, 1984: 46). The principle of who or what really matters. Share, interest or investment in an entity. In order to investigate which stakeholders enjoy highest priority, three criteria are used: power, legitimacy and urgency. Higher education: those actors who have a ‘stake’ - may influence the university’s behaviour, direction, process or outcomes. The ability of a particular actor/group to influence the university’s definition of quality of teaching and learning and internal quality assurance processes.

8. Students are generally unaware of many quality assurance and enhancement activities in SA. Although most students participate in such work (e.g. course evaluations and other surveys), only a certain number of them see the outcome of it resulting in changes that are relevant to them. This means that the outcomes of quality assurance activities could be more transparent and open to all participants. Those activities should not be limited to teaching and learning processes because the quality of higher education is also influenced by other factors, incl. the out-of-class curriculum. THE CURRENT SITUATION

9. Students are co-constructors of knowledge. Students do not come to university to be passive recipients of quality; they bring quality to higher education. That is why institutions scramble for the top NSC achievers. Students play a critical role in the assessment of the quality of HE. Student involvement in internal or external QA processes provides an improvement of these processes. Students often provide new solutions, including aspects not previously taken into account. HEIs and QA agencies where students are involved appreciate their participation and commitment, perceiving it as inspiring and seeing good, solid results from their involvement, valuing the students as partners and a great resource in this work. WHY STUDENT PARTICIPATION?

10. Assure and enhance the quality of HE programmes by granting recognition status to programmes that satisfy the HEQC’s minimum standards for provision, or demonstrate potential to do so. Protect students from poor quality programmes through accreditation and reaccreditation arrangements. Encourage and support providers to institutionalise a culture of self- managed evaluation that builds on and surpasses minimum standards. Increase the confidence of the public in HE qualifications. Facilitate articulation between programmes of different higher education sectors and institutions. OBJECTIVES OF QUALITY ASSURANCE

11. NATURE OF INVOLVEMENT At institutional level: Providing information (by responding to surveys on a regular basis, focus groups, etc.); Participating in the preparation of self-assessment reports (as members of the self- evaluation group, writing the report, providing feedback to the report etc.); and As members of the bodies responsible of internal quality assurance processes. External QA: Providing information (in consultation during external reviews), and As members of external review panels of higher education institutions and/or programmes. As planners of the evaluation/accreditation programmes; As members of the governance bodies.

12. QUALITY ENHANCEMENT PROJECT The aim of the QEP is to enhance all aspects of teaching and learning in order to improve student success, which is defined as Enhanced student learning with a view to increasing the number of graduates with attributes that are personally, professionally and socially valuable (CHE, 2014). Poor throughput in higher education is a national challenge and requires collective responsibility and wisdom.  QEP is underpinned by an interface between students and those who teach them.

13. 1.Enhancing academics as teachers. 2.Enhancing student support and development. 3.Enhancing the learning environment. 4.Enhancing course and programme enrolment management. CHE has advertised a call for QEP reviewers. Close relationship with Quality Promotion departments. PHASE ONE: QEP

14. FOCUS OF THE QEP The quality of student learning needs to be enhanced so that students not only receive information but are also provided with the support they need to develop understanding, cognitive and metacognitive skills, productive learning dispositions and sound values. The number of graduates needs to be increased. South Africa needs more graduates to undertake a host of professional and leadership roles in business, industry, government, public service, academia and society. Graduates need attributes that are personally, professionally and socially valuable. Graduate attributes appropriate for high level functioning in the 21st century need to be identified, and ways of effectively developing them need to be incorporated into the student experience.

15. THE ROLE OF STUDENT AFFAIRS DIVISIONS  Real question: what is the role of student affairs professionals in enhancing student engagement and success?  Student Affairs incumbents do not exist on the peripheries of university life. As such, incumbents must view themselves in terms of the mission, values, and goals of the institution, and see how they can promote student learning through their own professional growth.  The notion of seeing no role for student affairs professionals in the teaching-learning process is an archaic one.  Initiate seminars on how teaching, learning, and student affairs could be integrated into a seamless web of programmed activities. Therein lies our answer to improving throughput rates.  Universities need to move away from the schism between academic and support at university and look for an innovative model that integrates the two. Avoid functional silos.

16.  Increasingly, there is a demand for interface between learning that happens in the classroom and learning that takes place outside the classroom. A lot of learning happens outside the classroom.  Residences are seen as spaces of living and learning.  Creating social and intellectual programmes in the residences and outside the classroom.  Student Affairs units should start engaging in the discourse of the integration of their work with that of the academics.  Academic collaborative model: invite academics to unpack some key concepts in their disciplines.  Debating forums in residences.  Invite guest speakers to deliberate on a particular topical issue. THE ROLE OF STUDENT AFFAIRS DIVISIONS…

17. QE in HE should be the measure of what we do, and the extent to which our practices in teaching and learning, research, and community service meet the expectations that we set for ourselves, including a system of benchmarks that we use to make sure that we maintain and improve standards on a continual basis. The time spent in lectures and laboratories and the library is not enough to develop the student as a whole person. This requires student affairs professionals who are grounded on higher education issues, understand student learning and can integrate their programmes with the academic mission of the university. This can only be achieved by deepening the competencies of student affairs professionals. CONCLUSION

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