Student success and curriculum reform in post- apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Student success is an elusive aspiration in South Africa, especially for its majority African population as the country continues to endure the imprints of a racially divided higher education system. This article will critically examine various reform initiatives designed to enhance student success since 2004. The authors will demonstrate that despite successive efforts and increasing resources directed at enhancing student success, the outcomes have been minimal, largely because student failure has been pathologized as a function of student deficits rather than a consequence of systemic dysfunction, especially as it relates to the curriculum. We concede that while the impediments to student success are multifarious, using the affordances of technology to institute a less alienating curriculum structure, alongside a review of content, can catalyse the process of reform to reverse current student outcomes.