Global changes have taken place in education in the 21 st century. Changes relating to how education is theorised, provided and assessed. In Africa, education provision faces challenges and opportunities. Traditional methods of teaching are still being practised. Adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is still slow while in other sectors, like the Bank sector, it has contributed significantly to its growth. In future people will change jobs frequently and employment patterns will be different. This calls for acquisition of competencies fitting into the knowledge age. The paper argues that policy implementation in Africa is still a major challenge. The Delphi Real Time questionnaire, a futures thinking methodology, provides scenarios that describe the future education systems up to 2025. Which scenarios seem probable or preferable for the African continent? The paper further explores how the following signals and trends shape education and training in Botswana: transformed education, lifelong learning, youth bulge and new technology influencing educational transformation. Reflections and implications of the four signals and trends show proliferation of private tertiary institutions, entrepreneurial skills development and opportunities for self-employment among others. The government's role in the provision of education in the knowledge age is highlighted and contextualised.
Commuter students can be found at practically every institutional type in higher education. Despite their increasing numbers as students returning to pursue Master’s and PhD programs, little is known about postgraduate commuter students and their experiences at US and international universities. A mixed-methods embedded design was utilized to investigate whether and how postgraduate commuter students at a rural public research-intensive university in Botswana perceived they mattered or were marginal to their university. Findings revealed that the physical, human aggregate, organizational, and socially constructed environments of the university influenced perceptions of mattering among study participants. Postgraduate students perceived they did not matter to the university because of its focus on undergraduates, its approach to managing postgraduate education, its failure to provide postgraduate housing, and the cost and unavailability of transportation. However, the availability of a teaching assistantship and supervisors’ interest and support fostered the sense among these students that they were receiving attention, considered important, depended on, and empathized with.Keywords: mattering, marginality, commuter students, postgraduate student experience, campus environments
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