Profiling disadvantaged undergraduate students in higher education
- Authors: Mpofu, Bhekimpilo
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Academic achievement , Disadvantaged students , Quintile system , Sustainable livelihoods
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5612 , ISSN 09766634 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14406
- Description: The focus of this paper is the academic progress of university students who come from disadvantaged schools. While research has been conducted on students' academic progress at higher education institutions, previous studies were generic in that they treated students as a homogenous group. This study differentiates different groups of students using the quintile system and links this to their academic progress. This study was conducted within the sustainable livelihoods approach and sought to explore three aspects of the population under study: namely, livelihood assets, context, and outcomes both before attending university and during their studies. It measured pre-university assets (such as school quintile) against pre-university outcomes (such as matric scores) and then applied these to university outcomes such as grade point average (GPA) and time to graduation. The results show that low quintile students have much lower average matric scores, achieve a much lower GPA of just 50% and lower, have a much higher dropout rate (of more than 51%) and take longer to achieve a degree (four to seven years for three-year degrees and five to seven years for four-year degrees) than high quintile students.
- Full Text:
Economic experiences and sustainable livelihoods of single mothers employed in the formal work sector in Germany and South Africa
- Authors: Raniga, Tanusha , Boecker, Michael , Mthembu, Maud
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Single mothers , Sustainable livelihoods , Human capital
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/405869 , uj:34100 , Citation: Raniga, T., Boecker, M. & Mthembu, M. 2019. Economic experiences and sustainable livelihoods of single mothers employed in the formal work sector in Germany and South Africa.
- Description: Abstract: This article seeks to disrupt the dominant discourses of victimhood related to single-mother family status. Drawing on a sustainable livelihood framework, we present data from in-depth interviews held with 25 single mothers sampled in Hagen, Germany, and in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in South Africa. We discuss how participants engaged in positive human capital development, building social capital and tapped into multiple income streams for economic security. Given the intersectional injustices that single mothers face, the strengths the women drew on in their lives is worth noting. We conclude that single mothers have created a new narrative for themselves beyond a pathological one.
- Full Text:
An integration of the livelihoods and asset-based community development approaches : a South African case study
- Authors: Nel, Hanna
- Date: 2015-05-18
- Subjects: Sustainable livelihoods , Asset-based community development
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:5578 , ISSN 0376835x , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14231
- Description: This study provides an integrated framework and practice model of the sustainable livelihoods (SL) and the asset-based community development (ABCD) approaches. A household survey of a rural village in South Africa is used as a basis of analysis to demonstrate the application of the integrated approach. The results elucidate the vulnerability of the people and a range of inter-locking and multi-dimensional factors contributing to poverty in the community. The results also show people’s assets, capabilities and activities which enable them to cope and survive despite constraints and shortcomings. It was found that the integrated SL/ABCD framework is a useful framework to understand the strengths of a vulnerable community in order to plan and implement sustainable community development strategies.
- Full Text: