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WSU's dedication to nurturing and implementing innovative approaches to enhance student learning and development has led to its recognition as a partner of the Siyaphumelela Network at a symposium in Florida, United States.
Siyaphumelela Network is an initiative dedicated to enhancing student outcomes in South Africa's higher education sector through sharing best practices and benchmarking with other universities.
In 2019, WSU received a call to apply to be a participant in the Siyaphumelela Network project and was admitted to the network. After being a participant from 2019, WSU was invited to write a proposal to become a Siyaphumelela Network partner.
The Directorate of Learning and Teaching (DLT) Executive Director, Professor Clever Ndebele, said: “In February WSU was admitted as a Siyaphumelela Network partner. This means that the university will also receive a grant that will be used to supplement the Department of Higher Education Capacity Development Grant to support these students' success initiatives.”
Ndebele further added and said: "At the Komani campus, we formed a student success committee and introduced several interventions. During the 2023 symposium, Munienge Mbodila represented us and presented our initiatives aimed at supporting student success. His presentation was positively received, which contributed to our invitation to become partners."
DLT created an early warning system to monitor students' progress. With this system, they can identify students who did not do well with their first assignment. This allows them to reach out to the students promptly and offer the necessary support. Students who don’t improve are flagged by the system as high risk cases for the attention of academic advisors to further assist through a peer learning programme .
“This partnership holds significant importance for WSU as it resonates with the University’s Vision2030, which emphasizes producing future-ready graduates. The Siyaphumelela Network's focus on graduate employability aligns with our objectives. Through this initiative, we establish databases to monitor our students' progress post-graduation, assessing their integration into various industries,” said Ndebele.
Ndebele stated that one of the Network goals is to increase data transparency and accessibility within institutions and across South African Higher Education Institutions.
“As the university, we will have some data in different departments, however, is this data comprehensively integrated? Can we analyse it holistically, enabling our students to utilise the data for devising interventions that foster their academic success? Normally this is not the case and based on the Siyaphumelela Network, we have been able to engage with these various stakeholders and be able to create a system where all data can be fed into one place to assess the progress of your students,” said Ndebele.
Moving forward, WSU remains dedicated to building on its partnership with the Siyaphumelela Network and continuing its journey toward educational excellence and student success.
By Anita Roji
