The Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) is an academic foundation programme established and supported by South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training as a route and an enabling environment for educationally disadvantaged, underprepared, unprepared, and at-risk students to access and succeed in higher education. However, beyond the academic concerns for students enrolled on this programme, there are social issues that could hinder the success of the enrolled students. This study examines the challenges of students enrolled in Extended Curriculum Programme in a selected university in South Africa. Using a qualitative research method, data was collected following a focus group discussion comprising twelve groups in the Faculty of Management and Commerce ECP first-year students. This study found that students face a number of challenges including information asymmetry, mismatch between high school subjects and university courses, transitioning from high school to university setting, inadequate and unequal academic support, and stigmatization. The findings imply a need for guidance and counselling in the choice of a future career at high school level, an awareness about ECP, and strengthened support beyond academic support by improving social integration and boosting ECP students’ self-confidence. Government and institutions need to introduce educational anti-stigma interventions to correct individuals’ and society’s misinformed perceptions about ECP programmes and to promote awareness about the potential and possibilities of the programme.
Financial sector development has been receiving a great amount of attention in literature over the years. The finance-growth nexus has been revisited several times with the desire to understand the link between the two as available empirical evidence often fails to explain what is observed in practice. Financial development and sophistication have, in more instances than one, failed to propel growth of economies, with the focus now leaning towards the role of the financial sector structure and competition in this relationship. Making use of cross-country data by applying robust panel data analysis techniques, an analysis of the paradox -the nexus between financial depth, competition and economic performance -was undertaken in the study. The findings have implications for both policy and future research.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.