Student factors affecting academic success among undergraduate students at two South African higher education institutions

Abstract

This study explored student factors affecting academic success among undergraduate students at a historically Black and a historically White South African public higher education institution. Qualitative methodology was used. Data were collected through five focus group discussions from 31 undergraduate students. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The following student factors affected participants’ academic success: academic self-efficacy, peer relationships, parental engagement and support, motivation, time management, adjustment, emotional wellbeing, lack of information, socio-economic status, and language proficiency. This study showed that structural, racialised inequalities in South Africa underpin many apparent student factors that influence academic success in higher education.

Keywords

Academic success higher education institutional factors interpersonal factors intrapersonal factors structural inequalities

Multiple factors contribute towards academic success. At an individual level, psychological and psychosocial factors intersect to facilitate academic success or buffer academic failure. Although studies have linked academic self-efficacy with academic achievement (e.g., Cătălina et al., 2012; Narasimha & Reddy, 2017; Van Herpen et al., 2017), factors such as proficiency in the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) may complicate this. English proficiency has been found to predict academic achievement in English-speaking countries (Barrett et al., 2012; Posel & Casale, 2011). In the South African public basic education system, with English and Afrikaans exclusively used as LOLTs from the intermediate phase, code-switching (i.e., switching between learners’ first-language and a non-first-language medium of instruction) is often used to facilitate understanding of learning material (Madonsela, 2016).

O’Shea (2016a) emphasises the importance of familial capital, comprising family members’ reassurance and support, in facilitating the educational success of first-in-family students (i.e., students who are first in their families to attend university). Parental assistance is especially important, considering that students may generally avoid seeking help (Lourens & Fourie-Malherbe, 2017). Fischer et al. (2017) posit that children from low socio-economic backgrounds may be disadvantaged by parents’ limited social and educational cultural capital even before they (the children) enrol in higher education. These forms of capital enable parents to access information about tertiary education and about financial and other types of resources that, in turn, can facilitate their children’s aspiration towards and participation in higher education. Despite family background, O’Shea (2016b) found that students who are first in their families to enrol for higher education studies have ‘experiential capital’ – a valuable resource that mature students gain from their previous life and professional experiences, which contributes towards their academic success. Before enrolment, parents may help students with their career decisions or provide reassurance (Sharif et al., 2019; Shumba & Naong, 2012). However, others report that lack of formal career guidance negatively affects students’ prospects of entry and retention in higher education (Matsolo et al., 2018; Mavunga, 2014). Furthermore, learners from previously disadvantaged schools – likely reflecting learners’ socio-economic background – are unlikely to receive career guidance (Abrahams et al., 2015).

The significance of parental support and engagement during one’s studies is demonstrated by Benz et al.’s (2017) finding that students not living with parents either off- or on-campus are prone to risky drinking behaviour. Thus, parental involvement or presence is seemingly a buffer against students’ risk behaviours.

While social support networks, including those with peers, are considered important in facilitating adjustment during students’ transition into higher education (Buchanan et al., 2015; Llamas et al., 2018), peer pressure in the university context can impede students’ time management and focus on their studies (Malinga-Musamba, 2014). In turn, time management affects academic success (Barlow-Jones & Van der Westhuizen, 2011; Naude et al., 2016). Moreover, some students may require structure in higher education, while others thrive in an autonomous study context (Naude et al., 2016).

Sommer and Dumont (2011) found that intrinsic motivation and perceived stress predicted adjustment and that academic adjustment partly mediated the relationships between academic success and motivation, self-esteem, stress, academic overloading, and help-seeking. Evidently, various psychosocial factors underlie adjustment, and possibly, academic success. Nel et al. (2016) attributed South African higher education institution (HEI) students’ academic and social adjustment to academic and financial support; workload; teaching methods that differed from those in high school; accommodation availability; support; and social isolation, homesickness, and difficulties adapting. Barlow-Jones and Van der Westhuizen (2011) have also shown that students struggle with adjustment, due to attending poorly resourced schools that did not equip them with the skills needed for higher education. A participant in Ndimande’s (2016, p. 40) study illustrated this as follows: ‘We [in township schools] don’t have resources–we don’t have computers. We need resources so that we don’t have to wish to send our children to formerly White-only schools’. The under-preparedness of learners from poorly resourced public schools – the majority of whom are Black, given racialised apartheid-era schooling and socio-economic disparities – for higher education is well-documented (e.g., Mavunga, 2014; McKay, 2016). Evidently, South Africa’s long-standing structural inequalities continue to disadvantage particularly Black students from low socio-economic backgrounds at various stages of their academic careers.

In their study, Van den Berg and Raubenheimer (2015) found a high prevalence of food insecurity – a correlate of a low and medium socio-economic status (Drysdale et al., 2020) – among African and Coloured students at a South African University. Food insecurity compromises psychosocial health, which adversely affects academic performance (Raskind et al., 2019).

Some researchers have drawn parallels between the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on success (Goodman et al., 2011). Achievement goal theorists distinguish between the effects of students holding performance and mastery goals, and the resultant academic effort and, therefore, academic success (Senko et al., 2011; Smiley et al., 2016). Thus, varying displays of motivation and achievement goals presumably have varying implications for academic success. Further illustrating intrapersonal resources or impediments to academic success, emotional wellbeing has been found to affect students’ academic outcomes (Beauvais et al., 2013), and associations between students’ emotional efficacy, adjustment, and management strategies were found (Nightingale et al., 2013).

The varying, above-mentioned factor sets led to our exploration of student factors affecting academic success among undergraduate students at two South African HEIs. Focus on a historically Black and a historically White HEI, using a qualitative study, enabled us to gather diverse accounts and draw links between academic success and factors across multiple contexts.

Methods

Participants

Purposive sampling was used to select one historically Black and one historically White HEI as study sites. We recruited undergraduate students from a historically Black HEI (HEI1), which is a Health Sciences institution, and a historically White HEI (HEI2). Thirty-one students participated in this study – 19 at HEI1 (female: 14; male: 5) and 12 at HEI2 (female: 7; male: 5). HEI1’s participants were enrolled for studies in the Health Sciences, while HEI2’s participants were enrolled for studies in the Humanities (n = 4), Economic and Management Sciences (n = 2), Natural Sciences (n = 2), and Health Sciences (n = 4). Twenty-three of the participants were Black (HEI1: 14; HEI2: 9), and eight were White (HEI1: 5; HEI2: 3).

Interview guide

Using an interview guide, participants were asked about factors that they considered to broadly affect students’ academic success. The following are example questions asked:

What challenges do students come across in their first couple of years studying at this institution?

How do you think your institution could enhance students’ academic experiences?

How confident are you that you will obtain your degree within the prescribed time frame?

Procedure

We recruited participants by placing posters on noticeboards at the two campuses, inviting undergraduate students to participate in the study. We also approached students on-campus, inviting them to participate, based on whether they met the inclusion criteria (i.e., undergraduate students at HEI1 and enrolled for Humanities modules at HEI2). Data were collected through three audio-recorded focus group discussions (FGDs) at HEI1 (comprising 6, 5, and 8 participants) and two at HEI2 (comprising 5 and 7 participants).

Ethical considerations

We obtained permission to collect data from HEI1 and from the Humanities Faculty of HEI2 and obtained research ethics approval from the University of Pretoria (Reference No. GW20150823HS). Participants provided written informed consent.

Data analysis

We analysed the transcribed data using thematic analysis. We carefully read the transcripts to ensure familiarisation with and immersion in the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). We assigned each statement in the data set to initial codes, then grouped related codes to form distinct themes.

Results and discussion

Ten student factors were identified as affecting participants’ academic success. Though presented separately, these factors are linked with each other and with others in broader contexts.

Time management

Participants identified time management as a factor contributing towards their academic success, citing the importance of balancing the time dedicated to academic and non-academic activities.

But then, you need to balance; maybe have some sort of timetable: OK, I’m gonna go out two times a week or maybe—OK, two times a month, and then on Friday, I’m gonna cross-night. On this day, I’m gonna do this . . .

First quarter I didn’t do that well because yah, I didn’t study; this quarter, I planned to . . . what I’ve been doing is, I set out different time slots; like, for an hour, I do this and I go study there.

Time management has consistently been found to affect academic success in previous studies (e.g., Barlow-Jones & Van der Westhuizen, 2011; Buchanan et al., 2015; Naude et al., 2016).

Peer relationships

Participants valued peer networks. Reabetswe (HEI2, FGD1) recalled initially dreading lectures as she had no one to interact with: ‘I don’t feel as horrible as I felt about going to class; now I have friends, someone that I know I’m gonna sit next to and ask questions [. . .]’.

She further noted that peer connections were a valuable academic resource:

[. . .] but you should try and as a student try and engage with other students and then like, form study groups and stuff like that. In that way, you know you will get motivated; and when other students are studying, you also know that you have to study.

These observations are consistent with those in previous studies (e.g., Buchanan et al., 2015; Llamas et al., 2018). Despite the above-mentioned benefits of peer relationships, peer pressure was also reported.

[. . .] one thing that can also count against . . . the company that we keep, it is also something that comes to . . . come to count against our performance [. . .]. You’ll find out that I get those bad friends, who are going to influence me. We start clubbing, going to clubs, going to taverns [. . .].

Ja, I think peer pressure has a lot to do with it, especially being in res. Most of the guys like going out, like almost every night and don’t worry too much about their studies. And obviously, they . . . ‘cause you’re friends with these guys . . . cause they’re practically your brothers; you’re living with them; you feel compelled to go out with them and participate and everything. So, I think that takes a lot of time away from studying and everything [. . .].

In Malinga-Musamba (2014) study, first-year students acknowledged peer pressure as an indirect impediment to focusing on their studies. Adolescents, including university students, are particularly susceptible to peer pressure (e.g., Tesfaye et al., 2014). Evidently, peer networks have negative and positive outcomes, serving as both an academic resource and a deterrent to academic success.

Parental engagement and support

In our study, parental involvement influenced students’ academic careers at multiple levels, including their choice of study programme, enrolment period, and retention or attrition.

[. . . My friend’s parents] could see that he wasn’t OK, so they told him, ‘Just discontinue your studies for the year, and just come back home and calm down a bit, do some introspection and stuff and you go back next year, if you like it’. He’s back right now; but then I found that very nice of his parents [. . .] I appreciate what his parents did.

Phuti (HEI1, FGD 3) wished for a similar parental intervention, given his apathetic outlook regarding his study programme:

This year, I’m not even attending classes anymore. I don’t even see the point of living [. . .] I’m just waiting for the day my mom will see in my eyes that, ay ay . . . ‘Shame . . . my child, I can see [. . .]. Leave it; let’s not waste money, leave it as it is’.

Before enrolment, parents influenced students’ choice of study programme.

I know somebody who wanted to change courses [. . .] because they were not able to pick or they didn’t know what to do, so they just chose something that their parents would’ve liked them to. (Joubertus, HEI2, FGD2)

Similar to our findings, studies show that parents influence students’ career choices even before enrolment (Sharif et al., 2019; Shumba & Naong, 2012). According to Sharif et al. (2019), parents’ importance in students’ career decisions lies in their ability to ease their children’s trepidations and reassure them of their choices, as our study demonstrates.

Also illustrating the significance of parents’ involvement in students’ daily lives, participants noted the risks that students in university residences were susceptible to when no longer under parental supervision, especially if they lacked self-discipline.

[. . .] when you’re at your parents’, a lot of parents will be like, you need to study especially, ja . . . Compared to school, a lot of friends I know, who had, who have strict parents and now have this freedom in residence life, student life, they don’t go to class or it’s OK if they skip, skip another class or another day; they don’t have that self-discipline yet. (Ilska, HEI1, FGD2)

Well in first year when I got here, in res, they had quite a few engineers who dropped out. But most of them were like alcoholics and drug addicts. [. . .] at res; [. . .] when they were in high school I think they were like, living with their parents and stuff [. . .] but then when it gets to res, it’s like there’s no one to look after them, and then they just become absolutely . . . and then it’s like, they have no self-control. (Brendan, HEI2, FGD2)

Evidently, active parental involvement minimises students’ susceptibility to negative external influences, especially when these coincide with poor self-discipline. Similar to our findings, Benz et al. (2017) found that students residing with parents were least susceptible to risky drinking behaviours.

Academic self-efficacy

Although individuals’ awareness of their low self-efficacy in relation to their academic performance may not unequivocally result in poor performance, low self-efficacy may indicate an inability to meet one’s own standards or reflect self-perceived unsatisfactory academic performance. One participant struggled to deal with peers performing better than herself, despite her self-perceived hard work, which resulted in despondency and uncertainty. Another participant (HEI1, FGD1) admitted to having grown less confident regarding completing her studies within the prescribed period because of other students’ remarks:

they are introducing that . . . ‘aah, you won’t pass in Organic Chemistry . . . you won’t’ [. . .] eish, I think I’m not confident.

Other than low academic self-efficacy being a wholly individual attribute, students’ educational backgrounds prior to higher education might contribute. Wealthier schools (e.g., private schools) can better prepare their learner constituencies for higher education (Mavunga, 2014). In contrast, public schools experience shortages of teachers and textbooks and poor infrastructure and equipment. Awareness of one’s academic shortcomings relative to higher education requirements may undermine academic self-efficacy in this context.

Notably, few participants across all focus groups reported not feeling confident about completing their degrees timeously, presumably reflecting their academic self-efficacy. They had already failed some modules and had extended study periods; several hoped to complete within the remaining prescribed period.

So, record time for me, it’s practically like, over for me, but in the amount of time I have now, I think I can finish. Tumi (HEI2, FGD2)

Mavunga (2014) has attributed failure to complete within the minimum prescribed period to students’ academic under-preparedness. If we consider anticipated academic outcomes or academic self-efficacy to reflect actual academic achievement (Cătălina et al., 2012; Narasimha & Reddy, 2017), then evidently, the type of school attended (i.e., public vs. private), as discussed above, has major implications for university students’ academic success.

All first-year participants at HEI1’s FGD2 felt confident about completing within the prescribed time frame. Their conviction of favourable academic outcomes possibly reflected their academic achievements that led to their admission into Medical school, coupled with the self-perceived effort exerted into their studies (Van Herpen et al., 2007).

Adjustment

Participants cited problems with adjusting to a new environment after high school, as contributors towards academic failure.

Presti (HEI2, FGD1) described her discernibly poor academic performance in the first year as follows:

[. . .] in high school, I used to be like, the best Maths student; came here, my first test, I got like 27%. I’m like, this is not my script.

Esmari (HEI1, FGD2) elucidated as follows:

[. . .] at school, you were used to your teachers’ tests or how they . . . they’ll just ask it like this, you know the setup of the test, and now you don’t know what to expect [. . .].

Nel et al. (2016) have attributed poor academic adjustment to teaching methods that differ from those in high school. Barlow-Jones and Van der Westhuizen (2011) have shown that computer-based tests academically disadvantage students who are not computer literate, who attended poorly resourced schools that did not impart computer skills. Once again, this illustrates the negative effect of basic education inequalities on higher education students’ success.

Reabetswe (HEI2, FGD2) described her experiences shortly after enrolment as follows:

All your teachers know you and in class, it’s like, you just . . . everybody knows you’re good and you know you’re good; you’re doing so well, and then, you have to come to varsity, where there’s like, a 1000 other good students and nobody knows your name; nobody even cares about you, whether you’re doing great, you’re getting 100s or 90s or whatever, nobody gives a damn about that. And it was really, really, really hard [. . .].

Buchanan et al. (2015) refer to the latter phenomenon as ‘performance shock’ (p. 296), wherein top high-school achievers become aware of even better performing peers in university.

Two participants opted to self-study, as they did not benefit from attending lectures:

If attending classes and tutorials works for her, for me it doesn’t. I don’t attend class and I still pass, but if I attend class, I get confused and fail.

I can skip all my classes and just do what I want to do and study in my own time. [. . .] It’s been working for me, so far. I don’t even waste my time going to class.

In their study on South African students, Naude et al. (2016) also found that few first-year participants preferred an autonomous study context, where they could take ownership of their behaviour.

A participant found that maturity played a role in his ability to adjust.

[. . .] I think I came here when I was a bit older, so, I was like a bit more mature and mentally psyched into this whole thing. So like, I didn’t have that very rough experience. (Nhlanhla, HEI2, FGD1)

This might be attributable to experiential capital, which refers to mature students’ existing knowledge and skill sets serving as a useful resource for navigating higher education (O’Shea, 2016b).

Motivation

Employment prospects motivated some participants to complete their studies timeously. Another participant drew motivation to maintain good academic performance from her institution’s funding for consistently good performance. Sommer and Dumont (2011) have also found extrinsic motivation to predict academic performance. The result supports the notion of HEIs incentivising good performance. Similar to our result, Goodman et al. (2011) found that like intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation both correlates with academic performance, and triggers students’ effort exertion.

Three of five BSc students at HEI1 displayed amotivation. Some considered dropping out, citing lack of motivation to continue with a course programme offering uncertain career prospects.

[. . .] I’m looking at myself in class, I mean like what am I doing here, am I really here to just get a [any] degree?

How’re you gonna get straight As when you’re doing something you don’t love, in the first place? And then you just pass and once you’re in the second level, it gets more harder and then how’re you gonna get straight As?

These students had mainly enrolled for the BSc programme, hoping to ultimately enrol into Medicine, to which only few, high-performing BSc students could be admitted. The uncertain academic and occupational career prospects seemingly contributed towards amotivation, as students who had enrolled in the BSc programme out of preference, did not report amotivation. As per various achievement goal theorists (see Senko et al., 2011), aspiration towards enrolling into Medicine arguably encouraged focus on performance goals, instead of mastery goals, with students seeking to outperform peers, rather than mastering subject material. In their study on post-failure planning and withdrawal, Smiley et al. (2016) found that individuals holding performance goals respond maladaptively to setbacks, by assuming a stance of helplessness, illustrated by negative emotions, avoidance of challenges, and ineffective problem-solving strategies. In our study, maladaptive responses were evidenced by the three BSc students’ apparent apathy, withdrawal of effort upon performing poorly, and low task enjoyment.

Emotional wellbeing

Emotional problems broadly influenced participants’ ability to deal with academic demands or functioning in this environment.

[. . .] sometimes the emotional problems might be too deep that you can’t ignore them; you know like, I also have situations like, back at home, parents’ conflict and all that. [. . .] listening to them sometimes discourages you, and you’ll be like, why are you here in the first place if they’re gonna fight because of you. (Hlohi, HEI1, FGD2)

There’s a lot more of complication to this relationship thing than other problems. I can have any problems, I can handle them, but now when it comes to emotionally, I’m telling you the truth, you wouldn’t even be interested in doing anything. [. . .] Now when they dump you now, you understand, [. . .] you can’t study. (Katlego, HEI1, FGD1)

Emotional wellbeing has previously been associated with academic outcomes (e.g., Beauvais et al., 2013), while emotional efficacy has been positively associated with students’ adjustment (Nightingale et al., 2013).

Lack of information

Lack of information contributed towards students dropping out or academic failure. Referring to an acquaintance who changed courses after failing another, Nhlanhla (HEI2, FGD1) explained: ‘. . . he didn’t know what it was all about . . . there was no career guidance’. To resolve such, Joubertus (HEI2, FGD2) emphasised the importance of career guidance in basic education: ‘I think if there was more information and more open days considering different types of jobs or different types of directions to study, it would give children in high school an idea of what they want to do’.

Giving credence to these findings, some participants in Matsolo et al.’s (2018) study similarly attributed attrition to lacking early career guidance. While Lourens and Fourie-Malherbe (2017) posit that learners from rural areas tend to lack knowledge about available career choices, Mavunga (2014) has attributed academic failure to students from low socio-economic backgrounds choosing degree programmes based on bursary opportunities, as opposed to compatibility with their aptitude or passion. These observations foreground socio-economic background and pre-university exposure to career opportunities as key determinants of career choices, to students’ detriment in higher education. In line with this, Abrahams et al. (2015) posit that career guidance is especially ‘under-resourced and under-emphasised’ (p. 214) in previously disadvantaged public schools.

HEI2’s participants reported availability of skills workshops aimed at equipping students with useful academic skill sets, although information regarding these workshops was not widely disseminated.

They run them behind closed doors, so it’s either you know about it or you don’t know about it. (Makaziwe. HEI2, FGD1)

Others insisted that students should proactively look out for such opportunities, for their own benefit. However, students’ reluctance to seek information or help when needed has been reported (e.g., Lourens & Fourie-Malherbe, 2017). In our study, a student reportedly dropped out due to lacking information about obtaining funding for tuition: ‘I think he was not informed. He didn’t know [. . .] relevant people. . .’.

Lack of information may especially be disadvantageous to first-in-family students, who may have limited cultural capital to navigate the higher education environment and may not be able to draw on family resources enabling this or effective help-seeking behaviour (Fischer et al., 2017; O’Shea, 2016a).

Socio-economic status

Access to good-quality food was determined by financial means:

They are forced to buy at student caf, with their rubbish food. At least we can pay, that’s why we prefer going to staff caf. There are people who don’t have the money. (Kholo, HEI1, FGD 3)

[. . .] most of the Blacks, we come from disadvantaged backgrounds [. . .] So when you get here, you find out that you don’t have . . . like financially, your family does not support you financially. And then you have to . . . to be [thinking] about food while you have to read. You have to be thinking of, ‘what am I going to eat tomorrow?’ (Thabo, HEI1, FGD1)

Patterns of food insecurity, coupled with its adverse effects on academic success as shown above, reflect South Africa’s racialised socio-economic inequalities (e.g., Drysdale et al., 2020; Raskind et al., 2019; Van den Berg & Raubenheimer, 2015). Raskind and colleagues (2019) explain that food insecurity negatively affects academic performance via poor psychosocial health; this model is compatible with our study participants’ attribution of academic success to deviation of focus from their studies due to food insecurity. Thabo (HEI1, FGD1) further illustrated this as follows:

So really, when you are here you are supposed to think about education, and you’re thinking about . . . I’m consuming, like . . . I’m using money meant for use at home [. . .] I’m using the money meant for my siblings; they don’t get that freedom. Like now it is bad with them [. . .].

It is worth nothing that reference to household finances or socio-economic status as an indirect contributor towards academic failure was reported by Black students only. These observations point to broader structural inequalities in South Africa and how these filter down to affect Black students’ experiences of higher education.

Language proficiency

Participants were aware of the disadvantages of not being a first-language speaker of the LOLT.

So that thing comes to affect my performance because when I go to read, I see the slides but I didn’t hear anything [in English lectures]. [. . .] Yah, it affected me a lot to a point whereby I saw that yah, now I’m struggling. (Thabo, HEI1, FGD1)

[. . .] Some of us don’t even understand, we have to live with dictionaries because we have to get meaning . . . (Reabetswe, HEI2, FGD1)

A bilingual (English/Afrikaans) participant’s positive experience at the English-medium HEI1, who had English as a LOLT throughout his education career, sharply contrasted with those of other Afrikaans participants. These findings demonstrate the benefits of proficiency in the LOLT (Barrett et al., 2012; Posel & Casale, 2011). Non-proficiency has enduring implications for the academic success of students whose home languages remain unrepresented in South Africa’s education system. This is compounded by HEIs’ lack of effective measures similar to code-switching in basic education, which support students in the absence of mother-tongue instruction.

This study had several limitations. Sampling participants from a Health Sciences University and from different faculties at HEI2 means that participants likely had different experiences due to their different study programmes and their respective demands. This could have been mitigated by including only students enrolled for Health Sciences degree programmes at HEI2. Furthermore, due to their limited reach, the participant recruitment methods used rendered the study susceptible to non-response bias. Moreover, for comprehensive exploration of student factors affecting academic success, we could have gathered additional data relating to socio-economic status, first-in-family university status, type of high school attended (i.e., private or public), and participants’ LOLT in high school, to assess the influence of these factors on academic success.

Conclusion

In this study, intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and broader structural factors were found to impede or facilitate students’ academic success. The importance of interpersonal relationships in academic success was demonstrated by the reported direct and indirect effects of relationships with peers and parental engagement on student adjustment and success. Though seemingly an intrapersonal factor, emotional wellbeing stemmed from students’ concern over parental conflict and problems in intimate relationships. While funding and employment prospects influenced extrinsic motivation, some students experienced amotivation due to uncertain academic and professional career prospects. Moreover, lack of information, which intersected with institutional and structural factors, impeded academic success, with the potential to lead to attrition. This study highlighted the role of structural factors in what might appear to be intrapersonal factors. Adjustment, academic self-efficacy, and lack of information especially pertaining to career guidance were shown to be underpinned by high school factors, with participants perceiving some schools as not adequately preparing learners for higher education or equipping them with the necessary skills and information to thrive in higher education. Other impediments were proficiency in the medium of instruction and socio-economic status. Structural, racialised inequalities in this regard are evident, in a national historical context in which systematic, structural discrimination against Black South Africans filtered down to subordinate structures, including institutional and intrapersonal contexts; the former’s effects evidently persist to date.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The Department of Higher Education and Training provided funding for this study, administered by the Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity at the University of Kwazulu-Natal.

ORCID iD

Tsholofelo Angela Thomas

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