The Journal of Student Affairs in Africa (JSAA) is an independent, peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary, open-access academic journal that publishes scholarly research and reflective discussions about the theory and practice of student affairs in Africa. JSAA aims to contribute to the professionalization of student affairs in African higher education. It strives to be the foremost academic journal dealing with the theory and practice of the student affairs domain in universities on the African continent, and an indispensable resource for the executive leadership of universities and colleges dealing with student affairs, deans of students and other senior student affairs professionals, as well as institutional researchers and academics and students focused on the field of higher education studies and student affairs. JSAA is published twice a year by the JSAA Editors in collaboration with the University of Pretoria and the ESI Press. The editorial and peer review policy adheres to the Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing and Peer Review (Academy of Sciences of SA Council/ASSAf, 2018). JSAA is published online. Authors publish free of charge; there are no processing or page fees. Since 2017, JSAA is DHET-accredited in South Africa by the national Department of Higher Education and Training (SA-journals list and DOAJ list). Since 2023, JSAA is proudly included in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), which is South Africa’s premier open-access, full-text journal database managed by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). JSAA is indexed and co-hosted by AJOL, DOAJ, ERIC, and SciELO, and indexed in ASCI Database, BASE, InfoBase Index, WorldCat Libraries, Sherpa/Romeo, and Google Scholar. Scopus and other indexing service subscriptions are currently being pursued. IBI Factor 2019 for the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa is 2.2. Please register on the website for alerts about new issues and opportunities.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See: The Effect of Open Access).
Copyright (c) 2025 Editorial Team https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Rethinking higher education: Public and private synergies for student success in Africa
Copyright (c) 2025 Birgit Schreiber, Thierry Luescher, Teboho Moja https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Gateway to Success: An integrated academic and student life orientation programme for new first-year students
The transition from high school to university is widely recognized as challenging for many students, but was especially challenging for students who experienced almost two years of disrupted schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) ran a one-week first year orientation programme. In mid-2021, as the severity of the pandemic was easing, it was clear that new students would need more than one week to adjust not just to university life but also to in-person interactions. As Academic Affairs and Student Affairs leaders we therefore undertook to design and implement an extended, integrated academic and student life orientation programme that would be compulsory for all 6500 new first year students in 2022 called Gateway to Success (GTS). Rapidly changing circumstances meant we had only four months to do this. In this paper we discuss the design of GTS and explain how we could plan it so quickly by utilizing a networking approach combined with a modified agile project management approach we had been developing since 2019. We then provide student evaluation results from 2022, and discuss how GTS was modified in 2023 when pandemic-related restrictions were lifted. We conclude with a discussion of how GTS has been embedded in university structures and processes and contributes to our institutional commitment to student success.
Copyright (c) 2025 Diane Grayson; Elisabeth Brenner, Jerome September (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Widening university access and participation in the Global South: Using the Zambian context to inform other developing countries by E. Mboyonga (2025). London/New York: Routledge Publishers.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sibeso Lisulo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Becoming more private: Broadening the base of South African higher education
In an era marked by declining government funding for tertiary education, the South African PSET sector faces an existential crisis. The silo-fication of the system means that the growing demographic of youth entering post secondary education is limited in the options available to them. The paper explores how reduced government funding has strained public universities, leading to widespread student protests, increased dropout rates, and compromised educational quality. Our focus in this paper is on the role of private higher education and, in its own right, collaborating with other parts of the PSET sector. What is needed is a HE system that facilitates much more coordination and collaboration and for the components of the PSET sector to find ways of working together to create a coherent, integrated network to produce maximal learning opportunities for students and to support the objectives of the NQF Act. This paper serves as a call for policymakers, educational leaders, government, and stakeholders to recognise and leverage the growth capacity of private higher education in shaping a resilient, integrated, and future-proof PSET sector in South Africa.
post-school education and training (PSET) sector
Copyright (c) 2025 Ahmed Bawa, Linda Meyer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Exploring character strengths among South African university students: Insights from a WhatsApp-based intervention
Character strengths, such as resilience, justice, and appreciation of beauty, play a key role in student well-being and academic engagement. This study explores the strengths profiles of 302 students at a South African university and evaluates the effectiveness of a six-week WhatsApp-based intervention designed to enhance self-awareness and strengths application. Using the VIA Character Strengths Survey, we found Kindness, Love of Learning and Fairness were the most highly endorsed strengths, while Zest, Bravery and Self-regulation were lowest. Daily reflective prompts encouraged students to apply their strengths in different contexts. Post-intervention survey results from 55 participants indicated that most found the course beneficial for increasing self-awareness (90%) and understanding how to apply their character strengths in daily life (87%). Additionally, 93% of respondents reported that the daily messages helped them understand how to use their strengths to achieve their goals. Findings are discussed in relation to South Africa’s social and cultural landscape, highlighting the potential of low-cost, digital interventions to support student development. While limited to a single institution, this study suggests promise for culturally responsive, strengths-based courses in higher education.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anita L. Campbell; Sean Paul Abrahams (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2024 Editorial Team https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Advancing student success in higher education through scholarship
Copyright (c) 2024 Birgit Schreiber, Thierry Luescher, Teboho Moja https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Advancing the scholarship of integration for impactful, sustainable and holistic student success
Copyright (c) 2024 Neo Pule, Matete Madiba, Irene Mohasoa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Exploring Student Representative Council’s Experiences at Historically White Universities: A Meta-Narrative Review
Student representation has been conceptualised and studied in different ways and by different researchers for more than 10 years. Despite the vast studying of student representation, the number of meta-narrative reviews are scattered in literature and are insufficient to show the summarised or over-arching developments that have taken place in student representative councils (SRC). This article focuses on providing a summary of the occurrences that affected student representatives in historically white universities (HWU) from 2011 to 2022. To provide a map, a focused literature search that describes and compares the different conceptualisations and studies of student representation experiences at HWU and to make sense of the research area, a meta-narrative review was conducted. The resources for the review were found through scoping and systematic searches of electronic searches, journal articles and book chapters. The major themes found through synthesis and analysis included experiences of diversity, experiences of disruption, the use of protests and the development of policy promoting transformation in HWU. The review concludes by highlighting the significance of understanding the experience of student representatives by pursuing a scholarship of integration that consolidates university governance efforts that strongly impact holistic student success.
Copyright (c) 2024 Kitso Morgan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Using action and grounded theory techniques as evidence-based design for an academic advising programme
Academic advising, if done effectively, can play a significant role in supporting student retention. However, as a relatively new field in South Africa, there is limited, locally contextualised, research into advising interventions and their effectiveness. We therefore need evidence-based approaches that will lead to more intentionally structured, and shareable practices that meet the needs of our context. With this paper we detail a methodology through which we were able design an evidence-based, academic advising programme which, we argue, is both effective and academically rigorous. We show how we used the principles of action research, supported by grounded theory analytical techniques, to develop a programme for students facing exclusion at SAU. We collected feedback in cycles, where the student ‘voice’ from one cycle (n=352), informed the design of the next cycle. Programme evaluation data (n=122) from a third cycle was used to assess the effectiveness of this approach. The results indicate a positive association of the new capability developed in students, with the designed learning activity. This suggests that the approach was effective. The method we describe has application across a wide variety of student development initiatives and can support effective, intentional design and sharing of such practices.
Copyright (c) 2024 Riashna Sithaldeen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Bridging Gaps: Enhancing Holistic Mathematics Support in the Transition from Secondary School to University
The provision of multidimensional holistic mathematics support for students transitioning from secondary school to university level is identified as a challenge currently facing global education systems including in South Africa. Ongoing attempts to select effective mathematics learning support reflect the enduring nature of a problem with multifaceted contributing factors. Despite a wealth of literature there has been little effort to consolidate diverse sources into a comprehensive and useful understanding. This study aims to close this gap by synthesising and integrating these disparate elements into a unified framework. The research employs a comprehensive rapid literature review, meticulously following the PRISMA guidelines. The review concentrates on papers which investigate the impact of specific types of mathematical support, on those conducting analyses of the efficacy of distinct mathematical support approaches, and papers proposing solutions towards improving first-year South African university students’ mathematics performance. To mitigate bias, the Rayyan AI-assisted literature review platform is utilised, ensuring a rigorous and unbiased selection process. This rapid literature review reveals a general hindrance to holistic mathematics learning support, in the form of an absence of a unified framework. We see this deficiency as potentially detrimentally impacting students, and as underscoring the need for a comprehensive approach. The findings suggest that mathematics support can be enhanced by integrating the core elements of a holistic approach, together with acknowledging the interconnectedness and mutual influence of the various elements.
transition from secondary school to university
Copyright (c) 2024 Alfred Msomi, Ekaterina Rzyankina https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Counsellors’ experiences of integrating virtual interventions to provide mental health support for students
This study sought to explore the experiences of counsellors at Nelson Mandela University's Emthonjeni Student Wellness counselling unit regarding the implementation of a blended counselling model, integrating virtual interventions into the existing practice model. Grounded theory methodology was employed to generate an understand of the evolving counselling practices and the growing acceptance of this model in a student counselling centre at a South African public university. This requires integration of psychological knowledge and experience with other domains, such as information technology, professional ethics, and higher education student support. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with counsellors working within the university’s counselling unit. The emergent theoretical framework shed light on the evolution of counselling practices within the university context and how students’ mental health and wellness can be supported using virtual interventions. The main themes identified in the findings included: (i) the necessary transition to integration, (ii) challenges and obstacles, (iii) benefits and advantages (iv) diversity and uniqueness, and (v) training points for counsellors. Key concepts that can form the basis of a blended counselling model and the necessary training and development of counsellors in such a model, include (i) adaptation and flexibility, (ii) technological proficiency, (iii) cultural sensitivity and diversity, and (iv) boundary management. Each of these key concepts relate to areas for skill development in counsellors and would benefit from an integrative, evidence- and scholarship-based approach to benefit student counselling services within South African public universities.
Copyright (c) 2024 Gregory Mitchell, Dalray Gradidge, Nomalungelo Ntlokwana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
“They all offered different support”: Integrated support systems for academic resilience among engineering students
A critical area of debate in an era of evolving university support systems is student support in challenging disciplines. This study examines the effectiveness of current frameworks in addressing the needs of engineering students. This research employs a mixed-methods approach to identify the experiences of final-year Bachelor of Engineering Technology students, lecturers and support staff at Nelson Mandela University. The study finds a direct relationship between students’ stress levels and their resilience, highlighting the importance of well-structured support systems, including orientation programmes and subject-specific tutoring. This article introduces a novel perspective on fostering academic resilience in engineering education, advocating a comprehensive approach that integrates personal, academic, and socio-ecological aspects of support. Challenging conventional views of interventions for student success, it proposes a new, holistic framework for higher education institutions. This approach could contribute to enhancing student resilience and success and provides a fresh lens to address student dropout in South African higher education and beyond.
Copyright (c) 2024 Curwyn Mapaling https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Envisioning My Best Future Self: Integrating Positive Psychology and Prospection in Student Affairs Practice
Students’ psychological well-being constitutes a critical issue that necessitates support and dedicated intervention from student affairs professionals. Positive psychology, focusing on future-oriented prospective thinking, offers valuable insights and methods relevant to student affairs. This paper leverages the principles of Positive Psychology, particularly prospection, and reports a qualitative study that explored how 45 university students (26 females and 19 males; age range: 18-23) conceived of their best future selves. Phenomenological analysis revealed a dynamic interplay between students’ optimistic visions of personal and professional success, and the pressing need for practical strategies to realise these aspirations. By integrating and leveraging Positive Psychology, particularly prospection-focused methodologies, practitioners can support students in envisioning their futures more clearly and translating ambitious visions into tangible outcomes, thereby fostering individual and collective growth.
Copyright (c) 2024 Henry Mason https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Reimagining South African higher education: Towards a student-centred learning and teaching future by D. de Klerk, G. Krull, T. Maleswena & F. MacAlister (Eds.). (2024).
Copyright (c) 2024 Xena Cupido https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Navigating bounded agency in exercising climate action: Insights from Malawian and Zambian university students
The pressing issue of climate change has galvanized a global movement, with young people at the forefront as vocal advocates for environmental action. However, various structural and institutional factors often constrain the ability of university student environmentalists to translate their concerns into meaningful action. Using the concept of bounded agency within the capability approach, this qualitative study explored the perspectives of students from two universities, one in Malawi and one in Zambia, to better understand the challenges and opportunities they encounter in their efforts to translate their environmental concerns into tangible outcomes. The study reveals that while participants are deeply committed to environmental concerns, they encounter significant obstacles, including a lack of institutional support and resources, sociocultural norms, and university power structures that marginalize their voices. Despite these challenges, students employ strategies such as building cross-institutional collaborations with NGOs, leveraging social media, and engaging in grassroots advocacy to navigate their bounded agency. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics that shape the landscape for climate action efforts of student environmentalists in the Global South, highlighting the resilience and resourcefulness of student environmentalists in overcoming barriers to drive environmental sustainability.
Copyright (c) 2025 Chimwemwe Phiri, Daizy Shoma Nalwamba https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Can a sense of belonging influence institutional attachment among first-year university students? Assessing the moderated mediation effects of social and emotional adjustment
The study investigated the relationship between sense of belonging and institutional attachment and the moderated mediation effects of social and emotional adjustment. The study comprised 209 first-year students from a South African university (Mean = 25,42 years, SD = 6.19). Using a quantitative research approach to inquiry, the multiple linear regression and moderated mediation analyses showed that sense of belonging significantly predicted institutional attachment. Additionally, the results showed that social adjustment significantly mediated the relationship between sense of belonging and institutional attachment. Furthermore, the results revealed that the moderated mediation effects of social and emotional adjustment were statistically insignificant. The results accentuate that sense of belonging is crucial for enabling institutional attachment towards university, underscoring the importance of striving for university environments that are belonging-centred to help first-year students identify with their learning contexts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bongani Mtshweni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Knowledge creation by student leaders to promote their own leadership development: Amulti-university social dream-drawing project
Engaging student leaders in knowledge creation in support of their own leadership development is an important strategy in the scholarship of integration which seeks to promote research-based, student engaged professional practices. This article describes a strategy for engaging student leaders in support of such development, drawing on the insights they gained from their own leadership experiences. South African student leaders participated in a multi-university, social dream-drawing study which was designed using a socio-analytical framework. Through this project, leade rship experiences were made manifest at unconscious and conscious levels. Group sharing and reflection helped the participants recognise and process their leadership experiences, and to uncover and explore areas that needed development. Engaging in knowledge creation about their own development, the participating students co-produced an evidence-based understanding of the importance of integrated approaches about the development of student leadership. In addition, their participation in a process of compassionate engagement positioned them as co-developers of problem-solving insights in support of their own development and, more broadly, universities’ social and cultural capabilities. Pule and Gibney (2023) also demonstrated this. The social dream-drawing findings furthermore indicated how such interventions could go beyond an examination of the perspectives of individual leaders to consideration of the nature of student leadership as a group, organizational or even societal function – considering intra- and inter-group dynamics; different organizational levels and their leadership sub-systems; and the role of student leadership in society at large. In addition, the research conducted through social dream-drawing may be seen as strengthening the argument for the broader adoption of the scholarship of integration in pursuit of strategic goals.
Copyright (c) 2024 Neo Pule https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Student experiences of attending the first online Southern African Students Psychology Conference at an open distance e-learning university in South Africa
The devastation and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to pervade almost every sphere of human existence, albeit arguably increasingly nuanced. As we move into the post-pandemic world, it is essential to reflect on the lessons learned and forge transformed decolonialised ways of knowledge production in higher education. To ensure the continuation of academic socialisation, academic conference organisers have had to introduce virtual conferencing during the pandemic. In this paper, we discuss the experiences of students that attended the first online Southern African Students Psychology Conference (SASPC) during the pandemic in South Africa within an Open Distance e-Learning context. We use academic socialisation as a theoretical framework to understand student experiences attending the first online SASPC and to discuss the student conference as a site for decolonialisation. From the focus group discussion with student attendees, the historical and current format of the conference unexpectedly emerged as a colonised space of academic socialisation that the students challenged. Opportunities for using the student conference space as a site of decolonisation are explored to contribute to the dearth of scholarly literature aimed at actively incorporating student’s voices in the decolonialisation of academic spaces in the Global South.
Copyright (c) 2024 Janice K Moodley-Marie, Bianca Parry, Itumeleng Masisi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Call for Papers: Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, Vol. 13(2) Guest-edited issue
Copyright (c) 2024 Birgit Schreiber, Thierry Luescher, Teboho MOja https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Korea hosted the 7th IASAS Global Summit in Collaboration with KOSAF – Student Affairs and Government collaborate to advance student success
Copyright (c) 2024 David Newman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0