INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.8 Significance of the study
Literature suggests that little improvement has been made in throughput rates among higher education institutions worldwide, despite extensive research addressing problems related to low levels of student success (Seidman, 2005). Tinto (1997 & 2005) argued that the unwavering institutional inability to establish successful programmes to increase student throughput and success is due to the fact that very little is known about the varying reasons for student departure and the fact that what is thought to be known might be a misconception.
Whereas resources have been invested in improving student access to higher education, and extensive studies have been carried out in the past to improve student success, they have always focused their attention on neophyte university students and minority students. However, the UNISA and the NRF (2007) conference identified the fact that postgraduate students also have issues that need to be addressed because the high drop out rate at the Honours degree level IS
depriving the public of a skilled workforce.
This study sought to explore and describe the mechanisms needed to increase throughput and success in postgraduate nursing students. The study generated findings that reveal the nature of what influences student success and an understanding of what education institutions expect from students from the students' own perspective. This is expected to inform the administrative process with regard to student recruitment, bearing in mind diverse students' entry characteristics. This
could also be used by various stakeholders in the nursing education system including students, parents, nursing education institutions, and funding agencies to focus their efforts towards practices that will lead to increased student throughput and success rates. The study also informs the teaching-learning process in a sense that it highlights teaching and learning practices that from the students' perspective foster student learning to increase throughput and success. Findings and recommendations from this study could also serve as baseline data for further studies relating to student success.
1.9 Operational definition of terms
Postgraduate Nursing Education: Within the scope of this study, postgraduate nursing education denotes a period of study from the Honours degree level to a PhD. Throughout this study, the term graduate and postgraduate will be used interchangeably.
Student Support: Tait (2000) defined student support as a series of services offered to individuals and groups of students with the aim of complementing learning materials. In this study, student support refers to all those services available at the university that are rendered to students from the time they first apply for postgraduate studies until they graduate in order to enhance students' individual and collective success.
Success: Ferrer de Valero (2001) defined success as the students' ability to complete their degree requirements in a timely manner.
Throughput: Home and Naude (2007) defined throughput as the number of students who registered for a module and passed the examination. In this particular study, throughput refers to the number of students who enrol in an education programme and who pass the examination at the end of the semester and at the end of the year.
1.10 Conclusion
Tn the course of this study, the literature consulted suggests that there is a variation between post graduate student registration, throughput, and success rates. This is likely to hamper the effort to feed the labour market with a larger skilled workforcc that is needed on to replace the ageing professionals (Champagne, 2006) and provide quality services to society. Tinto (2005) argued that the many factors influencing postgraduate student throughput and success are both inherent in students themselves, as well as institution dependent.
Guided by the student throughput model which was adopted from Tinto's (2005) institutional action model, this study used a mixed methods research paradigm, and quantitative and qualitative research methods, using exploratory and descriptive study designs to explore and describe the mechanisms used to increase throughput and success rates in postgraduate nursing programmes at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. More exploration, description, and argument about the student throughput and success phenomenon are presented in chapter two.
1.11 Outline of the Dissertation
This report is divided into five chapters.
Chapter 1: This chapter provided introduction and background to the study. It also presents the problem statement, purpose statement, objectives of the study, research questions, theoretical framework, significance of the study, and operational definition of terms.
Chapter 2: .This chapter present reviewed empirical literature and it organised according to themes. These themes are presented as subheadings. They include drivers of postgraduate studies,
a necessity for throughput and completion, barriers to student success, the need for a support system, success of student support programmes and challenges in student support programmes.
Chapter 3: This chapter present a research methodology that was followed in executing this research. A pragmatic mixed methods approach, using an exploratory descriptive approach was adopted in this study. The research setting was the school of nursing in one of the universities in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The stuy population included 83 postgraduate students. Convenience probability sampling was used to select data for the quantitative and quantitative aspects of this study. A self administered questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data and two focus group interviews were conducted to collect qualitative from the postgraduate students. There was a focus group fonned by local (South African) students and another focus grouped fonned by international students. Quantitative data was analysed using an SPSS software package version 16 and qualitative data was analysed using theoretical thematic analysis.
Chapter4: This chapter presents data analysis, presentation, and discussion offindings using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Chapter5: This chapter presents a summary of the dissertation, conclusion and recommendations.