Collaboration between academic and support staff is key to student success

South Africa’s higher education institutions are unique; they exist within varied financial, socio-economic and historic contexts. However, within this diverse landscape, there needs to be cohesion, shared standards and benchmarks as well as stakeholder alignment when it comes to the provision of student affairs, student development and support services across the sector.

These were some of the key take-aways the participants of the Student Affairs and Student Success (SASS) programme participants shared during the SASS Colloquium that was held on the East Rand in Gauteng, on 6 December 2004.

This was the second cohort of the SASS programme, launched in 2023 in response to findings of a national Training Needs Assessment (TNA) survey carried out among student support professional services across the 26 public institutions in November 2021. The survey, conducted under the auspices of the Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM) programme of Universities South Africa, identified an urgent need for capacitation among student affairs, student development and student support practitioners within the higher education sector.

Through Peer Learning Groups (PLGs) created at the start of the course in August, the participants, representing Student Affairs, Student Development and Student Support Services sectors from across South Africa’s university landscape, shared the outcomes of the 10-module programme. The PLGs were constituted from a diverse group of members from the 17 participating universities to ensure that members benefit from different perspectives.

The first PLG to present their findings and learnings was The House Lords, whose tagline was ‘Riding Together for Good: Champions of Student Success.’ Their presentation was titled: Defining Student Success Across Institutions: A Reflective Portfolio.

Group member, Ms Veronica Israel, the Head of Student Access and Success at the University of Pretoria said: “What this programme highlighted for us is the importance of our identity… Students Affairs is the heart of the institution; however, we’re not being seen as such.”

Ms Israel said it is important for practitioners to understand the importance of student affairs work within the wider institution even though this can mean challenging the dominant paradigm that tends to only prioritise the research-intensive identity of the institution. “The idea is to balance institutional rankings that we are so proud of achieving with transformative and inclusive practices,” she said. 

“We need a mind shift. Yes, rankings are important, but they should not be prioritised at the expense of having transformative and inclusive practices.”

Another PLG, the A-Team, examined how institutions define student success through various local and international theories, and explored the drivers of best practices across the various institutions, among other topics. 

The group found that in the post-CoViD era, for instance, student support services were still being rendered online. Their view was that universities now need to be more intentional about promoting in-person student interaction. 

The Brilliant Minds Network PLG presentation was titled: ‘Enhancing Student Success Through Integrated Support’. Dr Nkosini Ngwenya, Senior Researcher for Academic Literacies at the University of Johannesburg, touched on the importance of financial sustainability. 

“As universities, we’re in the business of teaching, learning and research. However, it’s important that we do that in an environment where there’s financial sustainability.” 

“Funding is very important… We thought it was important to look at how funding contributed to student success. The incorporation of financial support, for instance, in resident life, introduces students to various financial support programmes that are available to them in residences, contributing to their success.”

Dr Ngwenya also highlighted the importance and necessity for student support services practitioners to be innovative when it comes to raising funds for their units. “There’s a need for budgeting at all levels… It’s important for us as SASS practitioners to come up with sustainable methods of funding our own work” 

“I often say that it feels like we’re mosquitoes whenever we approach management about funding to attend a conference or something… Unlike academic staff members who have research cost centres, we often have to rely on our own budgets to attend conferences and other things,” he said, adding that one strategy that SASS practitioners can use to raise funds is to also produce published research.

Two of the PLGs, the Eager Eagles and F3 Cubed, explored how the cultural difference that often exists within institutions among academic and support staff members, impacts student success. 

The Eager Eagles presentation was titled: ‘The Impact of Collaboration between Academic and Support Staff Towards Student Success’. They reported that academic and support staff members are both crucial contributors to student success, however, there was a significant gap in research exploring the tangible effects of their collaboration on key student outcomes, such as retention and graduation rates. The group found that existing studies mainly focus on the roles and impact of each group in isolation and that empirical research examining how their partnerships function and directly contribute to student success is limited. 

Dr Lindiwe Mokotjo, Head III: Academic Literacies at the Academic Development Centre and Community Engagement Coordinator of Academic Development and Support at the University of Johannesburg, said: “A student is a holistic human being who just happens to be in our institution. There’s a saying that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. So, in the context of this study, let’s think of the university as that little village and ask the academic and support staff, who are the key elements in this village, to make the student successful. 

“For this holistic student experience, it is important for us – the supporting staff and the academics – to at least work together, hence collaboration is key… It’s important for all of us to understand each other’s roles because we all play an important part in making sure that the student is successful. The success of the student is not only academic; it also rests on that student being developed as a holistic human being who’s ready for work, and for society at the next level,” she said.

“We’re all aware of some of the key challenges that exist between these two key factors, the academic staff and the support staff… We’re also aware that within the culture itself, when we’re talking about academic and support staff, there tends to be tension in the way we perceive each other and that has an impact on the success of our students.”   

For their part, the F3 Cubed group highlighted that the siloed approach often characterising the relations between academic and support staff leads to duplicated efforts, missed opportunities and a feeling of disconnect, even though both groups of staff have the same goal.   

The group found that: “This communication breakdown often stems from another key finding; the tension between shared goals and divergent priorities where both the academic and support staff want students to succeed, but they might have very different ideas about what success looks like and how to get there.”

Team Cosmos assessed the issue of food security within universities to identify strengths and weaknesses in existing food security initiatives and to recommend areas for development. They reported that students tended to experience food insecurity at rates that were higher than in the communities the universities were located in. 

The group found that “higher education institutions were ill-prepared for the infrastructural support needed to support and sustain the wellbeing and academic success of students from disadvantaged communities, thus exacerbating food insecurity, inadequate funding, and insufficient student support services.”  

They found that the most common barriers to students accessing food security programmes were a lack of awareness, limited hours for food collection, limited food packs as well as the stigma and shame associated with seeking help with food.

The team’s recommendations include; timing student allowances from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) better, to prevent having students on campuses for close to an entire academic year before their funds are made available to them; providing food vouchers; introducing institutionally funded food strategies and student-managed food gardens, among others. 

The Dynamic Dolphins PLG examined students’ perception of the support services, how they accessed these services and the gaps within this system. 

“For background and context, we all know that universities have many support services. Some of the key ones are academic advice, mental health services, financial aid, career guidance etc. But the challenge is that with socio-economic disparities, language diversity and historical inequalities, there’s still a difference in awareness and utilisation linked to these demographics.” 

“When services are utilised and students are engaged, support services promote academic success, reduce drop-outs and enhance the student experience.” 

The Great Giraffe, the last group to present, had explored the role of technology usage when it comes to student services and found that technology had enhanced the uptake of support services by students.

When reflecting on the PLGs’ contributions, Professor Denise Zinn, the SASS Programme Co-facilitator, said: “What struck me was how strong the conviction was that collaboration is of utmost value in the work that you all do in the entire higher education sector.”

“I also like the idea of a community of practice that expands across all of you in the sector and then beyond that. It’s expanded into this year’s cohort as well as last year’s cohort. Next year will be another cohort and soon, we’ll reach a tipping point where those dreams that I saw embodied in so many of your presentations will be a reality.”   

Nontobeko Mtshali is a contract writer for Universities South Africa.