Adequate student service creates the foundation for students' academic success. Naledi Pandor pointed out that transformation of higher education institutions requires not only academic change, but an environment outside the classroom that is not alienating to students. Both historically advantaged and historically disadvantaged institutions (HAIs and HDIs) face serious challenges in creating a culture that promotes learning and appreciation of diversity and, in some cases, in providing the basic infrastructure for healthy and productive student life.
Several South African participants working in student services explained that the field has not been professionalized in South Africa as it has been in the U.S. and many countries of the North. This is reflected in the absence of a theoretical framework for student services in South Africa, commented Martin Mandew, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Services at ML Sultan Technikon.
HDIs face myriad difficulties in providing adequate student services, and they are experimenting with a variety of ways to address them. At the session on student services, Nobesutu Machethe, Assistant Director for Student Development at the University of the North (UNIN), described the wide-ranging problems at her institution that typify conditions at other HDIs. The vast majority of UNIN's students come from poor families who cannot afford university tuition. Located in an isolated rural area, UNIN must provide virtually all the student housing, which is wholly inadequate in both size and quality. UNIN Student housing was patterned on single-sex hostels constructed for African migrant laborers; they were not designed as places for learning nor for the student body which no longer is predominantly male but now includes many more women. The staff of residence halls had no training in student development or interpersonal relations. Academic support services are also a vital need, because many students come from secondary school with inadequate preparation.
UNIN has implemented a number of innovative programs to address these problems. A group of students has been trained to work as assistants to staff in the residence halls, and residential committees have been established. A Student Development Programme provides academic special support for first-year students. Work-study programs address the need for financial aid for some students. Some work-study students are working in nearby schools in an effort to improve matric results, and talented secondary school students are being recruited and provided with bursaries. Other institutions are developing new student services programs also, such as the Supplemental Instruction Program at University of Port Elizabeth (see Appendix A).
Despite the massive political change that has been achieved in the country, the culture of protest learned in the liberation struggle continues on many HDI campuses, and often the campus administration is regarded as the enemy. Bennie Khoapa, Vice Chancel lor of Technikon Natal, commented that the purpose of many student services personnel has been to control students, which contributed to a confrontational atmosphere. This relationship needs to be transformed into one that gives students assistance and support.
Mache the pointed out that there has been a rapid increase in the number of black students attending historically white universities, which now are facing some of the same challenges that have confronted the HDIs. Residence halls at many HAIs now house African students almost exclusively, because white students can afford to let private flats, while African students cannot. In addition to the challenges of serving low-income students and some students with inadequate academic preparation, the HAIs must create a learning and living environment in which students with diverse needs can succeed. Black students have taken on leadership positions in many student political organizations, and their tradition of protest politics is having a growing impact on these campuses. Therefore, as Moses Turner of MSU pointed out, administrators at HAIs are increasingly facing student service problems that have confronted HDIs, and the HAIs have little experience or preparation for addressing them.
Roselle Wilson, Vice President for Student Affairs at Rutgers University, and several other American participants commented on the many common issues confronting student services in the U.S. and South Africa. For example, U.S. institutions have had experi ence with student populations that have become increasingly diverse in race, class, and educational preparation. Experiences can be shared about such issues as multi-cultural education, breaking down stereotypes, and other social barriers between students. These social dynamics often are intractable, and Americans who have confronted them for a longer time also can learn from South Africans, as Brian Figaji pointed out. Several U.S. institutions that have made the transition from a student body that is predominantly white to one that is predominantly people of color could offer useful experience to HAIs whose student populations are changing rapidly.
Wilson identified other common issues: student financial aid, life in residence halls, support for graduate students, and the challenges of institutional governance. She urged potential U.S. partners to be ready to negotiate specific projects and terms of a partnership and to be patient, bearing in mind that South African institutions are not monolithic and that many student services personnel are overwhelmed with work.
Responding to the need expressed at the conference for professionalizing student services in South Africa, several U.S. participants voiced strong interest in partnerships for collaborative research and for developing post-graduate training programs in student services.
Both Nobesutu Machethe and Brian Figaji called for linkages with U.S. institutions concerning issues of diversity other than race, such as people with differing physical abilities and different sexual orientations. South African institutions need to develop capacity quickly to cater for the growing number of people with physical disabilities.
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