South Africa's first national democratic elections in 1994 marked a turning point in the history of the country. Since democracy much of the focus of African National Congress (ANC)-led government has been on redress and transformation across all spheres of society, including higher education. This paper examines one important aspect inherent in…

This article interrogates an Academic Monitoring and Support system (AMS), which was designed to enhance first-year student progression at a South African University. Institutional research evidence produced through engagement with AMS practitioners and university leadership, analysed through the lens of Systems Thinking, reveals a…

This article reports on the results of a statistical analysis of the weekly working hours of academics in a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at a South African university. The aim was to quantify, analyse and compare the workload of academic staff. Seventy-five academics self-reported on their workload by completing the workload measuring…

Increasing opportunities and access of historically underrepresented populations to higher education in both the United States and South Africa have proved challenging due to institutional climates that are perceived as unwelcoming and unsupportive. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors relating to institutional climates to uncover…

This study focuses on aspects of the Changing Academic Profession survey of 2007-08 that describe the place of faculty in their institutions. The authors examine the following aspects of institutional life: (1) the faculty role in institutional governance; (2) who evaluates their teaching and research; (3) the locus of their loyalties as between…

Universities of Technology (UTs) offer career-focused education in a wide variety of disciplines and fields. Traditionally, UTs recruited academic staff with relevant workplace experience, rather than academic qualifications. The result of this strategy was, while many lecturers possessed professional qualifications in their field, they did not…

Since there has not been much research focus on job satisfaction in Higher Education in South Africa, this article describes the job satisfaction of these academics in times of transformation. A survey design involved 94 respondents from similar departments at a residential and a distance education institution. A questionnaire focused on teaching,…

Examines the information-seeking behavior of academics in South Africa, presenting a survey conducted at the University of Zululand. Presents results in 9 tables in terms of: rank and position; information resources used; how knowledge of existence of information sources is gained; generation of professional ideas; why academics seek information;…