Economic factor as an influence of turn – over of the students in the University of Zululand main campus between 2008 and 2010

Economic factor as an influence of turn over of the students in the University of Zululand main campus between 2008 and 2010

Introduction

This research is about turn- over of students in higher in the University of Zululand due to economic factor. Some students turn- over in the middle of their first year, some turn- over when they have to continue with second and third years. There are many issues concerning the economic factor at this level of education; lack of sponsors, inadequate NSFAS budget, enrolment of many students and many more. The issue of dropping out of the University has been one of the major obstacles to young people of South Africa because it brings ones life to a standstill. Most South African students turn- over of institutions in their first year. This paper will include literature review, that's where the findings of other researchers regarding this topic are going to be discussed. The paper aims at finding what really causes students to dropout and find possible solutions to the problem.

Literature review

The turn- over is a challenge to students who want to continue with their studies, so if they lack financial support they cannot further their studies and their parents can not afford to pay for them, then they do not have a choice but to turn-over of the higher institution. There's no doubt that tertiary education is a costly business students can expect to pay between R15 000 and R25 000 per year for most undergraduate degrees and even more for specialised or professional degrees such as law and medicine.

A recent study by The Human Sciences Research Council revealed that many students enrolled at South African tertiary institutions are from extremely poor homes - with a paltry combined household income of between R400 and R1 600 per month - and so land up taking on part-time jobs to try and meet both their educational and daily survival obligations, with their studies invariably being affected and them ultimately dropping out altogether. It stands to reason that, without proper education, these people will then not be able to contribute positively to the future growth of the economy and - in all likelihood; they will become a liability, rather than an asset, to South Africa.

One of the run-off effects of potential students not obtaining comprehensive enough information regarding their study options is that many of them are also misinformed, or uninformed, of the financial side of their study commitments. Some students apply for partial bursaries and then find themselves stuck with additional costs they can't afford, such as textbook, accommodation and food costs - that's when they dropout.

In fact, even those students who are aware of bursary providers are unaware of the processes and requirements involved in order to satisfy the criteria for a bursary, and many eligible students slip through the administrative cracks and miss out on starting or completing their studies." Another factor is that some students, who are unable to finance their studies and are unaware of the bursary and subsidy schemes available, then try to work fulltime and study concurrently, which places huge stress on students.

IDENTIFYING A PROBLEM

The University of Zululand is a rural based University, believed to accommodate students from poor family backgrounds and need financial assistance. The University Management submits wrong figures of enrolment to the NSFAS board resulting to scarcity of funds. The allocation of the scarce resources funds has become an issue as the University is enrolling many students. This has resulted to an increasing turn- over rate of students from the years 2008-2010

CONSIDERING SUITABILITY

Our research will focus on the University of Zululand main campus. The research is open to all faculties within the University. The turn- over due to economic factors influence the students as well as the parents of the students. For example students who don't perform well academically are excluded from NSFAS. Students are then obliged to return to their homes as their parents are not able to afford.

DESCRIBING GOALS

To discover which economic factor influence a high turn- over.

To discover why management enroll more students which exceed the enrollment figure that they submit to NSFAS.

To expose this problem to students representative council and to other people who are concerned about the increase of the turn- over on campus.

The division of main problems into sub problems

Unemployment, low wages of parents or guardians

Considering that fact the University of Zululand is rural based, the majority of people residing close to the university fall under the low income group.

Inadequate housing on school premises

The rooms which are allocated to the student by the university do not need an upfront payment. Due to the fact that there is not enough residences are therefore obliged to find alternative accommodation which most of the time need an upfront payment which the students do not have NSFAS does not cater for such needs.

Ineptitude supply of funds

A student might have received NSFAS in previous year but not received it the following year as NSFAS has limited resources and sometimes works on a first come, first serve basis.

HYPOTHESIS

Majority of students come from low income families.

A number of students come from poor backgrounds

The ever increasing university fees

Lack of sponsors within the institution

Expensive transport and accommodation

METHODOLOGY

Interviews were conducted and it included a sample of 30 respondents.

Researchers used qualitative approach because they have to look at ideas or thought by the respondents.

Researchers used this approach qualitative to verify results by respondent's thoughts.

LIMITATIONS

The interviewees were not keen on answering the questions which were asked by the interviewers, the interviewers then begged the interviewees to participate.

Two members were present at the formulation of the group but did not pitch up for the group meetings. These members were then excluded from the group.

We were not able to get first hand information due to the fact that most of the available students are presently not available.

OUTCOMES/RESULTS

In general: in our findings as we conducted a research based on the turn-over of University of Zululand students as the root of economic effects from year 2008-2010. We found that there is an increasingly turn-over of students between those three years. A number of students are reported yearly, quitting from the University and they end up not turning back to complete their diplomas/degrees.

In our research we interviewed thirty students from different levels and faculties: 23 of them agreed that there is a turn-over of students and they also added that the scarcity of bursaries within the institution that contributed in this dilemma problem of students' turn-over, while the remaining seven did not observe the turn-over of students because they are new in this institution.

Conclusion

In conclusion, common problems that were identified were the upfront registration fee for students who qualify for National Students Financial Aid (NSFAS) as well those who do not qualify for financial aid, admission of walk-ins, financial exclusions and in some cases academic exclusion. In relation to common problems an advance of 30% of the NSFAS allocation was paid to each institution to cater for the upfront registration fees. The Minister agreed with Higher Education South Africa (HESA) to establish a process of giving attention to this category of students of which most universities did except a few. The Department has written to all institutions asking for a report on the registration process at the beginning of the year with a view to putting in place measures to ensure that problems are resolved prior to the commencement of the next academic year.

Recommendations

The possible way to resolve turn over of student in the University of Zululand is that, the institution should reduce the cost or university fees so that it could be affordable to all students and some of the services like sports levy and more should be made optional, this means that students should pay for them only when they use them. The pay as you go strategy should be like the University bookshop, where you need only your student card to swipe anything you need the your debt will eventually appear in a students statement of account after a certain period of time.

The university management has to give NSFAS correct figures of students to be enrolled the following year so that, NSFAS can ensure that their budget is inline with the number of students in the university and those to be enrolled so that it will not run out of funds when students need it the most and eventually paying students insufficient amount of money trying to accommodate everyone. The turn- over board should be monitored and evaluated so that it will ensure that turn- overs are at low level as possible.

This board will have to work in correlation with NSFAS in order to give NSFAS accurate, relevant and up to date information about turn overs which will help NSFAS to plan and budget accurately in order to prevent turn- over. Government can also play a vital role by increasing the number of easily accessible bursaries in like social worker and education bursaries in its entire departments which will be available to students in all faculties of the university. The University management should have a turn around strategy, should it happen they exceed the enrollment of students for example, they can exceed by enrolling those who are bursary holders so that they will be able to pay for themselves instead of relying on NSFAS and when it run out of funds you then have to turn- over.

POST COMMENT

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