The development of graduate attributes in higher education is enjoying much attention worldwide. Employers consistently rank communication skills, in particular writing ability, among the most important skills for graduates to possess. The inclusion and development of graduate attributes in undergraduate curricula have received little attention.…

This article builds on and contributes to work in writing pedagogy, with a particular focus on multimodality. Research on writing and academic literacies have examined changing texts in higher education, yet there has not been a particular emphasis on how these texts are reconfigured in the multimodal moment. This article examines the implications…

The challenge of translating equity of access into equity of outcome with students from a differentially resourced secondary education system which may have advantaged or disadvantaged them in demonstrating their academic ability in the conventional matriculation/national senior certificate (NSC) examinations necessitated that Universities…

This article considers students' performance in an identical Economics test at two universities to investigate the predictive power of the NBT against that of Mathematics in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam. We find that, on average, both NBT and NSC results are useful predictors of performance in first year Economics. However, for…

The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) lays the basis for the protection of consumer rights in South Africa and comprehensively sets out obligations for "suppliers". There have been differing views expressed as to whether a student should be seen as a consumer. It is clear, however, that this Act applies to HEIs. This article, firstly,…

Various studies have shown that the school system in South Africa is continually producing learners who are inadequately prepared for higher education studies, particularly schools in disadvantaged environments. The University of Venda (UNIVEN) is situated in an educationally disadvantaged environment. Most of the students who enroll at this…

This article presents the findings of an exploratory investigation involving the direct assessment of the quality of abstract thinking of two cohorts of South African university entrants who had very good school leaving qualifications. The investigation was prompted by the observation of difficulties these students seemed to have had in a first…

In response to perceived academic unpreparedness on the part of first year students, in the second semester of 2010 a number of departments in the Faculties of Arts, Commerce, Administration and Law (CAL), and Science at the University of Zululand (Unizulu) opted to use the Department of Higher Education and Training's Teaching Development Grant…

Research papers take a long time to write and in an academic environment where the "publish or perish" clause applies, writing retreats are a way of creating time and space to write academic articles in a concentrated period of time. This article examines ways in which academics can write more articles for publication. In particular it…

This work investigates the promise of Facebook and blogs for enhancing students' levels of engagement in learning. This issue warrants investigation because there is little published empirical work on the subject. The researchers applied a learning ecology perspective to study the potential of Facebook and blogs in enhancing student levels of…

This articles aims to demystify curriculum and pedagogical discourses and related practices of sectoral occupational fields and qualifications of universities of technology (UoTs). The article takes issue with the academic tradition which emphasises distinctiveness of UoT as a sector that should focus exclusively on applied knowledge that is fixed…

This article makes a case, for Work Integrated Learning (WIL) firstly as an integral part of the curriculum in universities of technology and secondly, as a pedagogical issue. I argue that, WIL represents the re-contextualised aspects of specialised knowledge in curricula of the various professions and that WIL should equally draw knowledge from…

Transformation of higher education in South Africa has resulted in an ongoing need to reflect critically on the relevance and responsiveness of higher education curricula. This article describes two inter-related aspects of curriculum mapping, namely the mapping process and the mapping tool. Based on a case study of a career-oriented business…

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss how the idea of a Pedagogy of Hope is perceived, interpreted and realised at the Institute for Mathematics and Science Teaching of the University of Stellenbosch (IMSTUS). First some background information is given about the impact of the programmes which, it is argued, cannot be pinned to one Millennium…

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is an issue within the context of lifelong learning, given the (South African) issues of equity and redress, the international demands on adults to contribute to the knowledge economy, qualification inflation and increased competitiveness for knowledge workers. In the process of conscientisation and in an…