Factors Underlying Technikon and University Enrolment Trends in South Africa

Abstract

This was a descriptive survey involving four South African higher education (HE) institutions. Specifically, the study sought to critically investigate factors that could explain enrolment patterns in universities and technikons. The findings indicated that the choices of the institutions were mainly made by the respondents themselves, based on their career preferences. Affordability and other financial considerations did not come out as a major factor in the ultimate choice of the institution by respondents from historically white institutions (HWIs). However, this was a major point of consideration for respondents from historically black institutions (HBIs). Furthermore, accessibility to financial aid did appear to be a major factor for all respondents. Other determining factors included the public image of the institution of choice; the perceived quality of staff; institutional stability; teaching resources and other facilities available to students; administrative efficiency (including the friendliness of staff); the operational and instructional language of the institution; admissions and course registration processes and procedures; fairness in the allocation of facilities and other resources; and physical appearance/attractiveness of the institutions. However, catering services did not come out as a critical factor in attracting students to the institutions. K E Y W O R D S declining enrolments, South African Higher Education Institutions

University choice: what do we know, what don’t we know and what do we still need to find out?

“…Imenda et al (2004) conclude, nonetheless, that career choice is an important factor in a respondent's choice of institution, and that the public image of the institution plays a major role in decisions. Public image is related to the quality of programmes, quality of staff and the teaching and other related facilities .…”

“…Following a radical change in the funding of higher education, especially in the UK (Brown, 2011), it is not surprising that several papers have recently focused on the influence of the introduction of variable tuition fees and the fear of debt on choice of university (Dawes and Brown, 2004;Imenda et al, 2004;Pasternak, 2005;Callender and Jackson, 2008). Callendar and Jackson's (2008) comprehensive study uses a large sample (1,954) of young people from over 100 institutions and examines to what extent the cost of going to university affects decisions about choice of institution.…”

“…Considerable research on university choice also relies on arguing that increasing competition for international students as a result of globalisation (Mazzarol and Soutar, 1999;Czarniawska and Genell, 2002) necessitates research in the field of choice better to understand the choice process and associated factors. Changes in funding arrangements and concerns about the rising cost of tuition fees (Hemsley- Brown and Oplatka, 2006) are also provided as the rationale for research on choice, and aligned with these concerns are topics such as employability post-university (Imenda and Kongolo, 2002;Imenda et al, 2004) future earnings (Strayer, 2002) and student performance (Bratti, 2002). Concern about equal access to higher education has led to a number of papers which focus on social inequality, for example Baker and Brown (2007), and these studies are particularly prevalent in the UK, whilst in the USA studies on equality of access for non-white racial groups is a well-research field (Hagy and Staniec, 2002;Thomas, 2004).…”

Experiences of university students regarding transformation in South Africa

“…However, affordability and other financial considerations were major factors determining choice of the institution by those from historically black institutions (HBIs) (Imenda et al, 2004). Altbach (2002) argues that higher education in Africa faces unprecedented challenges which include amongst others the inability of students to afford tuition rates necessary for economic stability.…”

Getting into a Russell Group university: high scores and private schooling

“…Much research in the field, however, has been based on studies using secondary data from high school students (often dating back 5–10 years), regional (including some single institution) studies, studies with relatively small and often convenience samples (for example an insightful qualitative study by Baker and Brown () relies on interviews with 14 students), and studies conducted in countries outside Europe with somewhat unique education systems (e.g. Imenda & Kongolo, ; Imenda et al ., ).…”