Publisher: African Minds Publishers, South Africa
Pages: 176
Year: 2018
Category: Education & Teaching, Social & Political Aspects
Dimensions: 254 x 178mm
Going to University
The Influence of Higher Education on the Lives of Young South Africans
Around the world, more young people than ever
before are attending university. Student numbers in South Africa have
doubled since democracy and for many families, higher education is a
route to a better future for their children. But alongside the
overwhelming demand for higher education, questions about its purposes
have intensified. Deliberations about the curriculum, culture and
costing of public higher education abound from student activists,
academics, parents, civil society and policy-makers. We know, from macro
research, that South African graduates generally have good employment
prospects. But little is known at a detailed level about how young
people actually make use of their university experiences to craft their
life courses. And even less is known about what happens to those who
drop out. This accessible book brings together the rich life stories of
73 young people, six years after they began their university studies. It
traces how going to university influences not only their employment
options, but also nurtures the agency needed to chart their own way and
to engage critically with the world around them. The book offers deep
insights into the ways in which public higher education is both a
private and public good, and it provides significant conclusions
pertinent to anyone who works in – and cares about – universities.
£32.00 – £34.00
About the author
Jennifer Case is Department Head and professor in the Department of
Engineering Education at Virginia Tech in the USA. Previously she was a
professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of
Cape Town, in a position focused on academic development. Her research
on the student experience of learning, mainly in science and engineering
education, has been widely published. She also researches more broadly
in higher education around issues of teaching and learning, curriculum,
and relations of higher education to society.
Delia Marshall is a professor in the Department of Physics at the
University of the Western Cape, with a research interest in
undergraduate physics education and higher education studies. She has a
particular interest in students’ experiences of the transition from high
school to university studies and has been very involved in the UWC
Science Faculty’s extended curriculum programme.
Sioux McKenna is the director of Postgraduate Studies at Rhodes
University where she also coordinates the Centre for Higher Education
Research, Teaching and Learning PhD programme. She researches a variety
of issues related to higher education but has a particular interest in
who it is that gets access to the powerful knowledge of the academy. She
has supervised a number of postgraduate studies focused on social
justice in the university.
Related books
Low-Income Students, Human Development and Higher Education in South Africa
£51.00 – £53.00
Inside the Higher Education Space
£25.00 – £27.00