Chapter 4: Science Access Education in South Africa and the UKZN Foundation Programme
4.5 Overview of the Foundation Programme at UKZN
The Science Foundation Programme (SFP) which is part of the Centre for Science Access (CSA) is a one year alternative access programme which provides an access route for underprepared students to enter the Faculty of Science and Agriculture. The programme is an example of the University of KwaZulu-Natal's strategic planning, initially to transform itself and to address the problems created by the educational inequities of secondary schooling in the apartheid era (University of KwaZulu- Natal, 2004b, paragraph 1).
The SFP was established in 1991 with 31 registered students. The programme has since grown in numbers having the highest number of students in 2001 when there were 280 students. It is offered on the Pietermaritzburg and Westville campuses of the University.
Grayson (1996, p.993) states that in South Africa it is common to speak of a ‘gap’ between high school and university. The gap refers to a discontinuity between the attitudes to learning, amount of work, intellectual environment, and so on that are encountered at school and at university (Grayson, 1996, p.993). According to Grayson (1996, p.993) this gap exists for all students, owing largely to the highly authoritarian, disciplinarian nature of schooling in South Africa but the gap is wider for students coming out of black schools, where the problem has been compounded by issues such as severe lack of resources, overcrowded classrooms, underqualified teachers, and unstable and sometimes dangerous social environments. According to Grayson (1996, p.993) the aim of the Science Foundation Programme (SFP) is to enable black students by preparing and bringing them to a place where they will be able to successfully complete a science degree.
The SFP differs from a bridging programme in that it does not assume that the students enter at a level close to what is needed for university work, and then attempt to provide an intermediate stepping stone between school and university. Rather the assumption in the SFP is that students need to build a foundation for meaningful learning, in most cases for the first time (Grayson, 1996, p.993). It is a phased transition, where the beginning and end of the programme are matched to where the students come from and where they wish to go next (Grayson, 1996, p.993). The transition is phased in terms of pace of work, quantity of work, background required and level of difficulty, with each of these facets increasing as the year goes on (Grayson, 1996, p.993).
Peacock (1995, p.4) identified seven factors being characteristic of the SFP:
• that the guarantee of full funding for SFP students has been crucial in making the programme not only acceptable to students but positively sought-after
• that it is a well-theorised and coherent programme
• that the coherent philosophy of the programme helps ensure that students get a clear and continually reinforced set of messages and experiences about working consistently throughout a course and developing useful study habits
• that the students all living in campus accommodation facilitates both social and study interaction
• most agree that the integral counselling part of the programme has proved its value beyond reasonable doubt in providing support for students who are undergoing a sometimes very stressful and concentrated period of private and public change
• that language and language-related work (the 3L component) is most valuable in reinforcing reflective skills in students (‘learning how to learn’) and that it should – as it does – liaise closely with the content needs of the subject tutors
Some of these characteristics are no longer applicable due to influencing factors such as limited funding etc. Currently the Foundation Programme is given a limited amount of funding for students.
Campus accommodation is also limited.
“The identification of students with potential to succeed in Mathematics and science-based studies despite previous educational disadvantage is a critical issue which many institutions in South Africa are grappling with” (Van der Flier, Thijs, and Zaaiman, 2003, cited in Mabila, Malatje, Addo- Bediako, Kazeni, and Mathabatha, 2006, p.295). To be considered for the Foundation Programme at UKZN, applicants must be from a disadvantaged school and have done Maths and Science in matric with a minimum of a standard F and have at least 20 matric points. They would also be students that do not meet the entry requirements to go directly into a science degree. “The greatest uncertainty about the validity of Matric as a predictor of further performance exists for low scoring, disadvantaged students from the previous DET black only educational systems” (Hofmeyr and Spence 1989, Rutherford and Watson, 1990, Martin, 1992, Braun and Nel, 1995, Herman, 1995 Yeld and Haeck, 1997, cited in Van der Flier, Thijs, and Zaaiman, 2003, p.399). Thus applicants are also required to write a selection test which aims to test students’ abilities in Mathematics and Science and look for students with learning potential in these subjects. “The selection test itself is used to assess whether students would respond to the level of work that they will encounter in an educational intervention” (Grussendorff, Liebenberg and Houston, 2004, p.267).
Students in the Foundation Programme take a package of foundation courses which includes Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Biology and one of two language courses: Communication in Science or Scientific Writing. In addition to these they also take the Lifeskills component which provides support in terms of study skills, career advice and many other life issues.
Students are assessed throughout the year in the form of tests, tutorials, assignments and the final assessment includes an examination. Successfully meeting all the requirements to proceed at the end of the year, which is to pass all modules, allows the student entry into a BSc degree in the Faculty of Science and Agriculture. Students may also go into degrees in the Faculties of
Engineering, Health Science and Medicine provided that they meet those entry requirements which are higher than just passing the Foundation Programme (Centre for Science Access, 2011a, p.1)
Since its inception the Foundation Programme has been successful in producing Maths and Science graduates at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. From 1991 to 2004, 1770 students were admitted to the Foundation Programme on the Pietermaritzburg campus and of these 530 students graduated so far (i.e. by the end of 2007) with a science or science-related degree whilst 138 students graduated with a degree in other fields (Centre for Science Access, 2011b). It should be noted that these students did not meet the university’s entry requirements on their matric results and would not have been admitted into a science degree without the Foundation Programme.
The Foundation Programme has many strengths according to the CSA Head (Kioko, 2008,) which include:
• the location of the programme
• the provision of the correct intervention for students
• the entry requirements
• it meets the needs of its students
• there is ongoing reflection which allows for a workable intervention
• it is very dynamic which allows it to respond to changes
• the recruitment strategies which emphasise going out to reach students in their schools
• it is well integrated into the Faculty and university structure and receives support from these systems
• it has a group of staff very committed to teaching
• very competent and efficient administrative staff
• its curriculum
The CSA Head also acknowledged the programme’s weakness which is mainly not enough financial resources to support students with their tuition and accommodation costs.