“The Four-Year Degree” Curriculum renewal in higher education in South Africa: Drivers and possibilities Ian Scott &amp

1. “The Four-Year Degree”Curriculum renewal in higher education in South Africa: Drivers and possibilities Ian Scott & Nan Yeldissues@chedApril 2009

2. Drivers of curriculum reform internationally • ‘Modernisation’: adjusting to changing world and regional conditions • international moves for ‘transformation’ • Equity • international moves to widen participation, for economic and social reasons • Standardisation, mobility and management • e.g. Bologna, credit recognition systems • in SA, the ‘Hons’ problem

3. The importance of increasing ‘good’ graduate output in South Africa • Essential for ‘economic growth … and social cohesion’(Pandor 2005)

4. Inter-related agendas for improving graduate output in South Africa • Towards equity of access and outcomes • in the interests of national developmental needs • Improving the effectiveness of curricula for contemporary conditions • breadth of subject matter • multilingualism • the literacies: academic, quantitative, career, information/ICT • the ‘employability’ agenda • education for responsible citizenship • experiential and service learning

5. The development and equity agendas • Development and equity agendas now inter-dependent nationally • Successfully linking these agendas depends on • the effectiveness of our ‘teaching’ • the effectiveness of the curriculum as enabling framework • Focus here on curriculum reform • historically neglected in SA higher education • but now a CHE priority: the “4-Y degree” project

6. Some common responses to the notion of the 4-Y Undergraduate Curriculum

7. In favour …. • It would sort out the issue of the Honours year • It would allow more content to be packed into the undergraduate curriculum (3 years not sufficient to cover ground adequately to prepare for postgraduate study or work) • It would obviate the need for ‘academic development work’ (such as curriculum differentiation and flexibility)

8. Given the level of preparedness (& factors such as language of instruction), we are simply not able to deliver an undergraduate degree of quality in 3 years to all students. 4 years gives time and space for such matters as:- • curriculum differentiation to cope with diversity in preparation • building in of skills, graduate competencies etc.

9. Against …. • It would cost too much • It would lower standards • Why should higher education pay for the problems in schooling? If higher education gives in like this, it’ll take the pressure off the schools to improve • It should not apply to all institutions: some should be designated to cater for students who need a longer time while others continue as now

10. Main Purpose of 4-Y Undergraduate Curriculum to improve graduate output (numbers, quality, relevance and mix) Key means to achieving this end curriculum renewal

11. Two key parameters

12. Quality & relevance There are both positive & negative quality indicators, seen for example in: • HEQC institutional audits (rec’s and com’s) • High graduate employment rates in certain fields and/or from certain institutions, but worryingly low in others (& overall problem of graduate unemployment) • Pervasive complaints about graduate competencies especially in relation to communicative skills, information literacy, and numeracy

13. In what ways are quality & relevance curriculum issues? • Most obviously, in relation to content • Less obviously, in terms of curriculum structure and delivery: the curriculum must build on top of secondary schooling (for the majority of undergraduates) – higher education in any country must begin where schooling leaves off, not where it ‘should’ leave off. • Where schooling is poor or uneven in quality, the implications for curriculum are considerable.

14. Some schooling issues – implications for higher education • Generally low levels of performance, especially in key subjects • Low levels of performance even at elite schools • Constituting the class: context and the impact on quality

15. TIMSS 2003: Scores by Former Racially Based Departments Reddy, V. 2003. TIMSS 2003 results. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). http://www.hsrc.ac.za/research/programmes/ESSD/timss2003/index.html.

16. Context & quality “… the haves in our society are divided from the have-nots by virtue of the SAT scores of their college companions …” as much as by virtue of their own SAT* scores.(Adelman, C. 1999). *the SAT1: Reasoning Test

17. Proficient Intermediate Basic

18. Entering performance levels (example from highly selective institution)Preliminary data from the National Benchmark Tests Project

19. Entering performance levels (example from medium selective institution)Preliminary data from the National Benchmark Tests Project

20. (1) THE EQUITY AND EFFICIENCY ARGUMENT • Considerable achievements since transition • extensive policy development • a single system • substantial growth: over 50% since 1991 • diversity in the student intake • But focus on input data (e.g. enrolment) can be misleading

21. Quantitative measures of HE’s contribution • Performance analysis derived from DoE’s cohort studies of the 2000 and 2001 intakes of first-time entering students (Scott, Yeld and Hendry 2007) • Acknowledgements: • Council on Higher Education: ‘Improving Teaching and Learning for Success’ • Department of Education • Jane Hendry (UCT)

22. Student performance after 5 years: Overall

23. Student performance after 5 years: Contact university programmes

24. Graduation within 5 years: General academic first B-degrees, excl Unisa

25. Graduation within 5 years: Professionalfirst B-degrees, excl UNISA

26. Student performance after 5 years: Contact technikon programmes

27. Graduation within 5 years:National Diplomas, excl distance ed (TSA)

28. Outcome • Students ‘lost’ from 2000 intake: 65,000 Is this ‘normal’, or unavoidable in our context?

29. Participation rates* and their significance • Overall: 16% • White: 61% • Indian: 50% • Black: 12% • Coloured: 12% * Approximate gross enrolment rates derived from HEMIS 2004:all participants as % of 20-24 age-group

30. Implications of the participation rates • The view that a large proportion of current students ‘do not belong’ in higher education is not tenable • Essential backdrop for assessing equity and growth prospects

31. Whose responsibility? • Factors beyond the higher education sector’s control • ‘money and poor schooling’ (M&G 2006) • Factors within the higher education sector’s control • Institutional culture • The educational process in higher education is itself a major variable affecting who succeeds and fails

32. Equity of outcomes: the central challenge • Under 5% of the black age-group are succeeding in any form of higher education • cf higher education GER of 5% in sub-Saharan Africa (UNESCO 2007)

33. Equity of outcomesGraduation within 5 years in general academic first B-degrees, excl UNISA

34. Observations • Among the CESMs and qualification types analysed in the contact university programmes: • in all cases the black completion rate is less than half the white completion rate, and • in all cases the number of black graduates is less than the number of white graduates • so lack of equity of outcomes is neutralising the gains made in access

35. Equity of outcomesGraduation within 5 years in National Diplomas, excl distance ed (TSA)

36. Observations • Among the CESMs and qualification types analysed in the contact technikon programmes: • black and white completion rates are much closer • the great majority of participants are black • loss is high across the board

37. Implications of the patterns • Output not matching national needs in respect of ‘economic growth … and social cohesion’(Pandor 2005) • Current system not meeting the needs of the majority • Pressing need to widen successful participation • high stakes of improving graduate output

38. Improving graduate output • The performance patterns are persistent • Limitations on increasing output by increasing the intake • If the educational process does not change, increasing the intake will perpetuate or worsen existing performance patterns

39. Improving graduate output • The groups from which growth in output must primarily come are those that are least well served by the current system • Improving output depends primarily on improvement in the performance of (disadvantaged) black students • The equity and development agendas have converged • Substantially improving the performance of the disadvantaged majority requires systemic change

40. The ‘articulation gap’ as an example of the need for systemic change • Indicators of the ‘articulation gap’ as a key cause of attrition (White Paper 3: 1997) • Shortage of qualified and/or prepared candidates in key areas • 1st year attrition (22% of contact students) • Small minority (< ⅓ of contact students) graduating in minimum time

41. Graduated in regulation time:General academic first B-degrees, excl Unisa

42. Graduated in regulation time:National Diplomas, excl distance ed (TSA)

43. Graduated in regulation time:General academic first B-degrees, excl dist ed

44. Dealing with diversity in educational background • A small minority of students complete curricula as planned • Curriculum structure and assumptions not aligned with the changing realities of the intake • Existing curricular frameworks an obstacle to equity and development • Who benefits from the status quo?

45. Dealing with diversity in educational background • AD experience with extended programmes • Most successful AD interventions made possible by extending the duration of the curriculum • Key contributions to black graduate output, especially in SET programmes • But effectiveness constrained by being on the margins • Unitary programme structures not effective in dealing productively with diversity of ‘educational capital’

46. (2) MEETING CONTEMPORARY NEEDS • Contestation over value of non-core-disciplinary learning esp. in ‘formative’ programmes • dangers of superficial, decontextualised ‘generic skills’ approach • and of conflating the whole ‘modernisation’ agenda with this • But focusing on graduate attributes is non-trivial • not least in professional programmes - cf. current issues in Health, Law and Engineering • includes the key question of the meaning of UCT’s ‘research-led’ identity irt undergraduate education

47. What would it take to achieve wider graduate attributes? • History of resistance or non-achievement in this area at UCT (with notable exceptions) • e.g. ‘cross-field outcomes’ (NQF), Academic Planning Framework (‘programmes’ and resistance to ‘coherence’), Strategic Planning Framework (1997), the ‘Action Guides’ • cf. MBChB, and ECSA-sponsored broadening of Engineering curricula (process incomplete)

48. So why is it such a problem? • Resistance arising from, inter alia: • epistemological or ideological considerations • vested interests, including ownership of curriculum space and related resource benefits • Chronic shortage of curriculum space • cf. experiences with initiatives in multilingualism, writing, numeracy, experiential and service learning • What would give way, without reducing necessary standards?

49. Conclusion from research and experience • In SA context, not possible to responsibly address equity or contemporary needs without extending the standard ‘formal time’ of first degrees • Hence new CHE investigation, at behest of the Minister, into the need for and feasibility of (undergraduate) curriculum reform

50. (3) THE ‘HONOURS PROBLEM’ • View that Hons should be added on to current 3-year degrees to make a single 4-year degree the standard ‘formative’ qualification • Effect of this on ‘equity’ and ‘modernisation’? • no allowance for diversity • likely deterioration in equity of outcomes • likely reduction in existing Hons standards • no space for non-core development