Abstract
M.A. (Social Work)
Literature indicates that student-dropout is an international phenomenon and South Africa is
not an exception, especially with its socio-historical reality of colonialism and apartheid. The
country has a lot to learn from the global experience in terms of various interventions applied
to mitigate the challenge of low throughput ratios in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The
dropout rates are especially prevalent in the first year of undergraduate studies and are
associated with students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are largely black. This has an
impact on their throughput, which invariably affects also the transformation agenda of racial
representation at HEIs. There have been interventions at national level to assist academically
struggling students navigate their transition into the demands of HEIs. The aim of the study
was to investigate the perceptions of second-year social work students on the academic support
structures available at the University of Johannesburg. The study focused on the Writing Centre
as it was the most utilised academic service by academically struggling students. The Writing
Centre is a wing of the Academic Development Centre (ADC) in the University of
Johannesburg. The study adopted an exploratory qualitative design with some quasi-evaluative
elements to investigate the perceptions of second-year Social Work students on the UJADC
writing centre. The researcher used a narrative approach in conducting a focus group
discussion. The study participants were drawn from the second-year Social Work theory class
of 2017 at UJ. From this cohort the researcher only selected eight participants who had utilised
some of the services offered by the UJADC Writing Centre. The researcher divided the eight
participants into two groups and conducted two focus group discussions, to collect rich data on
participants’ qualitative experiences. Data was analysed by employing the thematic data
analysis technique which involves six steps of analysing. Findings indicate that the students
value the Writing Centre as a useful academic service by improving their writing skills and
assisting them in the transition from high school to university. The study also found out that
there is some stigma attached to visiting the centre for help, as those seeking services are often
viewed by their peers as academically weak students. Therefore, deliberate efforts to
destigmatise seeking help from the centre and are essential and secondly, struggling students
need to be tracked so that they can be given specific assistance they require.