Achieving the Dream (ATD) presented CPUT with a special 20th anniversary award at DREAM: the Siyaphumelela Network Award held at Orlando, Florida in the United States of America.
Dr Xena Cupido, Director: Fundani CHED, said the Siyaphumelela Network Award celebrated the work of South African participant institutions in advancing equity and driving student-centred transformation. Dr Nosisana Mkonto and Prof Muhammad Nakhooda accepted the award on CPUT's behalf. The Siyaphumelela Team at CPUT, consists of the chair, Cupido, Prof Hanlie Dippenaar, Dr Lizel Hudson, and data expert, Dr Thomas Farrar who is also the head of Mathematics and Physics Department. The team has been interrogating diverse data repositories and engaging in regular conversations as they drew insights and unpacked data to develop a far clearer picture of student needs at CPUT, said Cupido.
She said over the last four years, the Siyaphumelela Project at CPUT under her leadership–and co-chaired by Nakhooda, “has laid the foundations to understand the meaning and drivers of student success in the constantly changing context of CPUT and, together with partners at University of the Western Cape and University of Cape Town, its place in the larger landscape of the Western Cape”.
The Siyaphumelela Project is an objective of the larger Kresge Foundation’s Education Program, which works towards supporting colleges and universities around the world to better understand and support the most vulnerable students along their chosen academic journeys. The Annual Achieving the Dream Conference brings all benefactors of these projects together to share experiences and talk through best practices. “Important lessons and achievements are discussed, with shared stories from very diverse international higher education contexts,” Cupido said.
Nakhooda, sourced the data and presented it in new ways so that it becomes not only accessible, but also meaningful and actionable. He said the Siyaphumelela Student Success Initiative seeks to empower universities to better design their systems in an integrated way, around unique cohorts, unique needs, and for unique contexts. “In order to realise this aim, one must actively search for various data sources, that together, create a holistic picture of what constitutes student success, rather than the singular measures of throughput and retention.”
Cupido added that CPUT has committed itself through a memorandum of understanding signed in 2020, to be a participant university in the national Siyaphumelela Student Success Project. She said the institution has pledged to create a student-centred culture at CPUT, “to reduce prejudices based on gender and race, and to support student success by improving institutional capacity in this regard through the collection and interrogation of data that may be indicators of student application, retention, support and success”.
Mkonto, Head of Student Transition, Access, Retention, and Success (STARS) Unit and First Year Experience (FYE) Coordinator, said the project, along with Kresge's objective to aid vulnerable students, intersects with FYE initiative and the STARS Unit. She said these initiatives collectively aim to provide comprehensive support to students, enabling them to effectively adapt to university life, actively engage in their academic pursuits, and ultimately succeed in their studies. At the Achieving the Dream conference, academics shared challenges, opportunities, and best practices in achieving student success. Two things that stood out for her at the conference include:
- The use of data to understand the students’ journey through the university.
- Scholar awards where students shared their personal journeys towards achieving academic success.
“Through such engagements, CPUT can learn how to effectively use data to gain deeper insight into understanding the student journey and integrate student voice to cultivate student success.”
Cupido added that the students’ success is “everybody's business, from administration, support, academic, professional through to leadership”. She said CPUT has worked toward developing the necessary structures through programmes such as FYE mentors and retention officers, tutors and teaching assistants, working with data interns to understand and interpret data. “Vision 2030 has been fundamental in guiding the process.”
Reflecting on the award, Cupido said: “This is a recognition of the work being done at CPUT to prioritise students and their success, as future leaders, responsible and responsive citizens, willing to make a difference in the lives of others.”
She said the project culminated in the STARS Unit in Fundani CHED and the development of a STARS committee, a sub-committee of the Senate Learning and Teaching committee. “Here we will be able to track the student support interventions offered and the impact it has on student success.”
Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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