The shortage of nurses is a global crisis, particularly in remote and rural communities. Contributory factors are retirements, resignations, recent increased deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reduced production of nurses because of high attrition rates. This article's purpose was to investigate the provision of student support in the…

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020 gave rise to a number of challenges for first-year experience activities at universities globally. One of the key challenges was the process of onboarding first-year students through an orientation programme that could not take place face-to-face as per the norm. In 2021, the first-year orientation at…

During their first year of study at university, many students encounter challenges in developing learning strategies that align with success in the courses in which they are enrolled. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic heightened the challenges as universities were compelled to transition to online learning. Therefore, this study investigated…

This article explores STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) student associations of assessment with individual achievement, becoming part of a discipline or profession, or developing an orientation towards society. This perspective is based in Frankfurt School critical theory, which argues for the inter-relation between…

The role of student support in enabling successful student outcomes is widely acknowledged. However, student support functions and the structures within which they reside often emerge independently at universities, and are seldom designed with integration in mind, leading to systemic inefficiencies. This paper draws on systems thinking to develop…

Gendered norms construct teaching young children in Early Childhood Education (ECE) as a 'feminine profession' and as 'women's work'. Subsequently, men who teach young children are often scrutinised. One troubling factor confronting men entering the profession is the construction of men as potential paedophiles. Scholars in the Global North have…

A critical area of debate in an era of evolving university support systems is how best to offer support to students 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…

The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges are the cornerstone in addressing unemployment, poverty and building the economy of the Republic of South Africa by producing well-equipped artisans. TVET Colleges are expected to enrol 2.5 million students by 2030 (Branson et al. in S Afr Child Gauge 1:1-8, 2015). To achieve…

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 article leverages the principles of positive…

Change is an inevitable part of life, more so for gender non-conforming students who have to confront prejudice and hostile environments as they transition from school to university. An understanding of the issues faced by first year students with diverse sexual and gender identities is important to ameliorate many of the challenges presented…

Objective: The effects of off-task media use in academic settings on academic performance have been widely reported. In response, a range of interventions have been proposed. Among these have been calls for the cultivation of more effective self-regulation of media use. Against this backdrop, the present study investigates students'…

Purpose: To analyse and compare the extension objectives of individual extension agents across nine countries. Design/methodology/approach: Extension agents from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Paraguay, and South Africa were surveyed using convenience sampling (n = 2707). A typology of extension agents with…

This article examines the views of male and female learners regarding how Life Orientation (LO) sexuality education is taught at their schools. Learners in the study were selected from five former 'Black' schools in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa. Focus groups were used to identify what learners could recall about their LO…

The objective of this qualitative study was to assess the information literacy and metacognitive abilities of teachers in a rural school in South Africa. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Due to COVID-19 safety considerations, primary data was acquired from 10 teachers via semi-structured telephonic interviews. All…

Research on student support in the global North indicates possible benefits of life coaching interventions in improving students' persistence and well-being. There is emerging research on life coaching interventions and their potential benefits in the South African higher education context, but empirical evidence is scarce. We report results from…