Browsing by Author "Hendry, Jane"

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    The analysis and prediction of student progression through degree programmes : a cohort analysis of undergraduate students at the university of Cape Town
    (1998) Hendry, Jane
    A simplified cohort survival analysis was used to investigate the academic progression of first-time entering undergraduate students within four large bachelors' degree programmes at the University of Cape Town. The rates of graduation, academic exclusion and voluntary drop-out were quantified in relation to the matriculation authorities and prior matriculation performance of the students within each of the four cohorts. The results of the analyses served to identify specific areas of concern with regard to the internal efficiencies in student progression through each of the four degree programmes, and it is suggested that the availability of information of this type will be essential in the attainment of the institutional transformation goals set out in the 1997 White Paper on the transformation of higher education in South Africa. Significant relationships between the matriculation criteria and the final academic outcomes of students within each cohort were detected using log-near modelling. By means of multiple discriminant analysis, significant predictor variables of the final undergraduate academic outcomes within each cohort were identified. However, the relatively weak discriminatory powers of the multiple discriminant models and the poor predictive accuracy of the associated classification functions suggest the variables included in these analyses did not adequately explain the variability in the final undergraduate academic outcomes of students within the selected cohorts. The extent of the voluntary drop-out phenomenon within each of the cohorts was quantified in relation to matriculation criteria, and further analysis of the cohorts indicated that factors other than academic difficulty appeared to have prompted the greater proportion of the voluntary withdrawals. Those students who had dropped out voluntarily were therefore not included in either the log-linear models or the multiple discriminant analyses.
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    From Gatekeepers to Gateways: Courses Impeding Graduation Annual Report 2019
    (University of Cape Town, 2020) Shay, Suellen; Collier-Reed, Brandon; Hendry, Jane; Marquard, Stephen; Kefale, Kende; Prince, Robert; Steyn, Sanet; Mpofu-Mketwa, Tsitsi; Carstens, Rondine
    The Courses Impeding Graduation (CIG) Project is a research and development initiative of the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) addressing the problem of high failure rates in courses that are obstacles to student retention and progression. This report report lays out the background, aims, objectives, and outcomes of the project in 2019, with a particular focus on first-year Mathematics courses in the Faculty of Science, examining which students are at higher risk of failing these courses. The report includes student perspectives gathered through focus groups.
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    UCT's admissons policies: Is the playing field level?
    (2010) Favish, Judy; Hendry, Jane
    The article outlines how UCT’s commitment to redress and diversity has officially guided the university’s approach to admissions planning. In 2009 the Senate requested the Vice Chancellor to conduct a review of the admissions policy particularly to determine whether race continued to be an adequate proxy for disadvantage. This article analyses data prepared by the Institutional Planning Department of the University to support the review process, reflecting changes in the demographic profiles of all students and first-time entering (FU) intakes between 1994 and 2009. The data provide a more nuanced picture of offers, rejections and enrolments by race and poverty quintile of the 2009 new undergraduate intake. The article then goes on to assess the effects of various policy instruments used to facilitate access to UCT, demonstrating that the Academic Development Programmes have been the most significant instruments of facilitating access. Drawing on the analysis of the data, the article concludes that there is no empirical basis for arguing that race should no longer be a factor in admissions, given that the proportion of black students at UCT is still far from approximating that of the South African population, and that the percentage of black students in 23 of 44 programmes is less than 24 (the Western Cape proportion of blacks).