The past decade has seen a sturdy increase in the literature on higher education and policy discourse on the absorption of graduates in the labour market. To understand students', post graduate experiences, a case approach was adopted. Participants comprised of employed and unemployed students who were registered at the University of Zululand in 2016 particularly those who successfully completed their undergraduate degree in any South African tertiary institution.An empirical study shows that Graduates lack job market information and experience to enable them to undertake this arduous journey. Unemployment and under employment was found to be due to lack of certain personal attributes, serious skills mismatch and general lack of capability.The article argues that there is a gap between qualifications and capability-employment in the labour market. Higher education institutions and industry should bridge this gap by emphasising on labour market needs, individual attributes and social inequalities in programme design.
The direct crediting of book allowances to student accounts was, among other reasons, underpinned by the belief that students would be able to substitute prescribed study material with online content. The article attempts to understand if the local open educational resources (OER) funding policy environment was prepared for this significant transformation. The paper applied a critical theory paradigm and a documentary research strategy to identify policy-level documents on OER funding in the South African higher education sector. Content analysis was then applied to review what they said about OER funding. These outcomes were then measured against the National Policy Development Framework 2020, which also dominated the study’s conceptual framework. The study’s significant findings were that the OER funding policy did not meet the policymaking principles of the framework, and this exposed Higher Education to a poorly funded OER environment. The study recommended hastening the finalization of OER policy and the flexible application of current policy terms to include OER as a fundable higher education cause.
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