Determinants of student satisfaction with campus residence life at a South African University
- Botha, Ferdi, Snowball, Jeanette D, De Klerk, Vivian A, Radloff, Sarah E
- Authors: Botha, Ferdi , Snowball, Jeanette D , De Klerk, Vivian A , Radloff, Sarah E
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68543 , vital:29281 , https://econrsa.org/publications/working-papers/determinants-student-satisfaction-campus-residence-life-south-african
- Description: Publisher version , Although there are a number of studies on the determinants of general quality of life among university students, these occur mainly in developed countries and do not focus specifically on campus-based residence life. It has long been accepted that factors outside the classroom (“the other curriculum”) can contribute to academic success, as well as the achievement of other important outcomes such as the appreciation of human diversity. Striving towards equality of residence life satisfaction across different racial and gender groups, for example, is thus important for academic outcomes and for the development of well-functioning citizens. This study is based on the 2011 Quality of Residence Life (QoRL) Survey, conducted at a South African university, comprising roughly 2 000 respondents. Based on descriptive analyses and ordered probit regressions, the study investigates the association between satisfaction with QoRL and (i) residence milieu and characteristics, (ii) direct and indirect discrimination, (iii) perceptions of drug and alcohol issues in residence, (iv) safety, and (v) individual student characteristics. One of the main findings is that there are no significant differences in satisfaction with QoRL across racial and gender groups; a finding that suggests significant progress in university transformation and equity goals. The general atmosphere and characteristics of residences are also important predictors of QoRL satisfaction. , Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) is a research programme funded by the National Treasury of South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Botha, Ferdi , Snowball, Jeanette D , De Klerk, Vivian A , Radloff, Sarah E
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68543 , vital:29281 , https://econrsa.org/publications/working-papers/determinants-student-satisfaction-campus-residence-life-south-african
- Description: Publisher version , Although there are a number of studies on the determinants of general quality of life among university students, these occur mainly in developed countries and do not focus specifically on campus-based residence life. It has long been accepted that factors outside the classroom (“the other curriculum”) can contribute to academic success, as well as the achievement of other important outcomes such as the appreciation of human diversity. Striving towards equality of residence life satisfaction across different racial and gender groups, for example, is thus important for academic outcomes and for the development of well-functioning citizens. This study is based on the 2011 Quality of Residence Life (QoRL) Survey, conducted at a South African university, comprising roughly 2 000 respondents. Based on descriptive analyses and ordered probit regressions, the study investigates the association between satisfaction with QoRL and (i) residence milieu and characteristics, (ii) direct and indirect discrimination, (iii) perceptions of drug and alcohol issues in residence, (iv) safety, and (v) individual student characteristics. One of the main findings is that there are no significant differences in satisfaction with QoRL across racial and gender groups; a finding that suggests significant progress in university transformation and equity goals. The general atmosphere and characteristics of residences are also important predictors of QoRL satisfaction. , Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA) is a research programme funded by the National Treasury of South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Discourse domination?: the role of gender in seminar interaction
- De Klerk, Vivian A, Hunt, Sally
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A , Hunt, Sally
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/139160 , vital:37710 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/salas/article/view/6501
- Description: This paper focuses on the effect of the gender of participants on the discourse patterns of university seminars, and compares the interaction patterns in two undergraduate seminars with those in two post-graduate seminars at Rhodes University. In the undergraduate seminars, two different groups of students at first year level in different disciplines were videotaped. The major difference was in terms of composition: in one seminar, there were equal numbers of male and female students, while in the other, female students dominated numerically (75%). In addition, five of the six formed a close-knit group of friends, which proved to be an important factor in the analysis. At the postgraduate level, the student participants were identical and met in the same venue and at the same time on two successive days to discuss the same topic (affirmative action in the workplace). The important difference between the two classes was the fact that the first seminar was led by a female tutor and the second seminar by a male tutor, both under 40 years of age and white, both members of staff in the department, and both known to the students. The discourse patterns in these two sets of seminars were analysed in order to investigate the ways in which the gender of tutors and students influenced the floor-winning and floor-holding conventions of participants.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A , Hunt, Sally
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/139160 , vital:37710 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/salas/article/view/6501
- Description: This paper focuses on the effect of the gender of participants on the discourse patterns of university seminars, and compares the interaction patterns in two undergraduate seminars with those in two post-graduate seminars at Rhodes University. In the undergraduate seminars, two different groups of students at first year level in different disciplines were videotaped. The major difference was in terms of composition: in one seminar, there were equal numbers of male and female students, while in the other, female students dominated numerically (75%). In addition, five of the six formed a close-knit group of friends, which proved to be an important factor in the analysis. At the postgraduate level, the student participants were identical and met in the same venue and at the same time on two successive days to discuss the same topic (affirmative action in the workplace). The important difference between the two classes was the fact that the first seminar was led by a female tutor and the second seminar by a male tutor, both under 40 years of age and white, both members of staff in the department, and both known to the students. The discourse patterns in these two sets of seminars were analysed in order to investigate the ways in which the gender of tutors and students influenced the floor-winning and floor-holding conventions of participants.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
Language shift in Grahamstown: A case study of selected Xhosa-speakers
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158106 , vital:40149 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1515/ijsl.2000.146.87
- Description: A number of scholars (Fasold 1984; Aitchison 1991; Denison 1977; Dorian 1980; Gal 1979) have examined the issue of language maintenance and shift, trying to discover why certain languages (or language variants) sometimes replace each other among some Speakers, particularly in certain domains of linguistic behaviour under some conditions or intergroup contact. This article provides an overview of the main factors that have been identified as playing an important role in influencing language shift and then reports on the relative importance of these factors in a survey that examined the experiences and attitudes of Xhosa-speaking parents who have recently chosen to send their children to English-medium schools in Grahamstown (Eastern Cape, South Africa). The research was carried out during 1998, and the project was a multifaceted quantitative and qualitative longitudinal study involving responses to a postal questionnaire sent to all non-English parents at English-medium schools in the town, and follow-up Interviews with 26 parents.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158106 , vital:40149 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1515/ijsl.2000.146.87
- Description: A number of scholars (Fasold 1984; Aitchison 1991; Denison 1977; Dorian 1980; Gal 1979) have examined the issue of language maintenance and shift, trying to discover why certain languages (or language variants) sometimes replace each other among some Speakers, particularly in certain domains of linguistic behaviour under some conditions or intergroup contact. This article provides an overview of the main factors that have been identified as playing an important role in influencing language shift and then reports on the relative importance of these factors in a survey that examined the experiences and attitudes of Xhosa-speaking parents who have recently chosen to send their children to English-medium schools in Grahamstown (Eastern Cape, South Africa). The research was carried out during 1998, and the project was a multifaceted quantitative and qualitative longitudinal study involving responses to a postal questionnaire sent to all non-English parents at English-medium schools in the town, and follow-up Interviews with 26 parents.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2009
To be Xhosa or not to be Xhosa… that is the question:
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158096 , vital:40148 , https://doi.org/10.1080/01434630008666401
- Description: It has long been recognised that indigenous languages are endangered because of powerful social, political and economic pressures. In South Africa, the legacy of apartheid has left its indigenous languages particularly vulnerable, and since 1994 huge efforts have been made to reverse the situation. Despite the new language policy and accompanying legislation, it would seem that many Xhosa speakers themselves want English, and not Xhosa,for their children. This paper reports on a multi-faceted quantitative and qualitative survey in and around Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province, which focused on the steady trickle of speakers of Xhosa into English-medium schools in thearea, and examined the reasons underlying decisions to send Xhosa children to these schools and the subsequent linguistic and psycho-social effects of the move on the children.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: De Klerk, Vivian A
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/158096 , vital:40148 , https://doi.org/10.1080/01434630008666401
- Description: It has long been recognised that indigenous languages are endangered because of powerful social, political and economic pressures. In South Africa, the legacy of apartheid has left its indigenous languages particularly vulnerable, and since 1994 huge efforts have been made to reverse the situation. Despite the new language policy and accompanying legislation, it would seem that many Xhosa speakers themselves want English, and not Xhosa,for their children. This paper reports on a multi-faceted quantitative and qualitative survey in and around Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province, which focused on the steady trickle of speakers of Xhosa into English-medium schools in thearea, and examined the reasons underlying decisions to send Xhosa children to these schools and the subsequent linguistic and psycho-social effects of the move on the children.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
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