Postgraduate students' experiences and attitudes towards isiZulu as a medium of instruction at the University of KwaZulu-Natal

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zinhle Primrose Nkosi
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kreeson Naicker ◽  
Krishna K. Govender ◽  
Karunagaran Naidoo

Background: The skill shortages, hyper-competitive economic environments and untapped economies have created a great deal of focus on knowledge. Thus, continuously creating and transferring knowledge is critical for every organisation.Objectives: This article reports on an exploratory study undertaken to ascertain how knowledge is created and transferred amongst post-graduate (PG) students, using the knowledge (socialisation, externalisation, combination, internalisation [SECI]) spiral model.Method: After reviewing relevant literature, a personally administered standardised questionnaire was used to collect data from a convenience sample of PG students in the School of Management, IT and Governance at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The data was analysed to determine if it fit the model based on the four modes of knowledge conversion.Results: Although the School of Management, IT and Governance has mechanisms in place to facilitate knowledge creation and transfer, it nevertheless tends to focus on the four modes of knowledge conversion to varying degrees.Conclusion: The study confirmed that PG students utilise the ‘socialisation’ and ‘externalisation’ modes of knowledge conversion comprehensively; ‘internalisation’ plays a significant role in their knowledge creation and transfer activities and whilst ‘combination’ is utilised to a lesser extent, it still plays a role in PG students’ knowledge creation and transfer activities. PG students also have ‘space’ that allows them to bring hunches, thoughts, notions, intuition or tacit knowledge into reality. Trust and dedication are common amongst PG students. With socialisation and externalisation so high, PG students are aware of each other’s capabilities and competencies, and trust each other enough to share knowledge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-74
Author(s):  
Md Faizus Sazzad ◽  
Mohammed Moniruzzaman ◽  
Dewan Iftakher Raza Choudhury ◽  
Arif Ahmed Mohiuddin ◽  
Raafi Rahman ◽  
...  

Background: The number of postgraduate students in Cardiac surgical discipline is increasing day by day with incremental proportion are measurably suffering from the unnecessary lingering of the present course curriculum. The primary objective of this study was to find out the last 5 years’ of results of Masters in Surgery course under the University of Dhaka from a student room survey. A secondary objective was to find out positive changes that could show us the way of a step toward up-gradation. Methods: It is a retrospective analysis of all examination results of Cardio-vascular & Thoracic Surgery published since January 2008 to January 2013 from the University of Dhaka with in depth interview of 11 participants. Results: 85.24% students failed to pass part-I of Masters in Surgery for Cardio-vascular & Thoracic Surgery course while, 82.18% in part-II and 71.28% failed to pass the final part. Average 2.51 attempts needed to complete each part of the designed course resulted into lingering of course duration for 42.18 months/student. In the thoracic surgery discipline the number of students alarmingly reduced up to 0% in the recent academic sessions. Conclusions: Masters in Surgery is resulting in unnecessary prolongation of the course. We should step forward to meet the next generation challenge. Journal of Surgical Sciences (2019) Vol. 23(2): 71-74


2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062199641
Author(s):  
Ilias Nitsos ◽  
Afrodite Malliari ◽  
Rodopi Chamouroudi

The use of reference management software in the context of academic work and research is the main subject of this study. The study focuses on the extent to which postgraduate students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, one of the largest Greek universities, make use of – or avoid using – reference management software tools to organize their bibliographic databases and to automate the process of creating references and citations. The study also tries to find out which are the key factors for their choices and whether certain background characteristics affect their behavior. It should be mentioned that no previous studies have been conducted in Greece regarding the use of reference management software in the academic environment. An online questionnaire was sent to the postgraduate students at the University and a result set of 545 responses was collected and analyzed. The majority (almost two-thirds) of the respondents identified themselves as non-users and one-third identified themselves as reference management software users. Among the latter, Mendeley was found to be the software used by more than two-thirds of the users and was followed by EndNote and Zotero. It is worth mentioning that Mendeley is the software officially recommended by the University’s central library to its users but most of the students (more than 60%) were not aware of this fact. In terms of background characteristics, the analysis revealed, among other things, statistically significant relationships between degree level, student discipline and preferences, reference management software features, and potential future use of reference management software.


Pythagoras ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Murray

Over half of all students enrolling at a particular university in KwaZulu-Natal fail to complete a degree. This article is wanting to determine to what extent the marks they obtain for English and Mathematics at school impact on their probability of graduation at this university. In addressing this problem, other student specific factors associated with their gender, race and the type of school they have attended need also to be properly accounted for. To provide answers for this study, the performance of 24 392 students enrolling at the university over the period 2004 to 2012 was followed until they graduated or dropped out from their studies. A structural equation model was fitted because it allows one to separate a direct effect from that of an indirect effect. Gender, race and school background were found to be very significant with males, Black Africans and students coming from a less privileged school background having a smaller probability associated with eventually graduating from this university. Males tend to perform better than females in Mathematics, with females performing better males in English. More importantly, however, a single percentage point increase in one’s mark for English increases the probability associated with graduating from this university far more than would be the case if their Mathematics mark were to increase by a single percentage point. In the light of these mediated results, perhaps this university should be directing their efforts more towards improving the English (rather than mathematical) literacy of students entering the university.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 91-107
Author(s):  
Teoh Sian Hoon ◽  
Geethanjali Narayanan ◽  
Raja Normi Raja Mohamad ◽  
Gurnam Kaur Sidhu

This study was conducted to investigate the postgraduate students’ perceptions towards their experiences of completion of their studies. The population of this study consisted of postgraduate students in a public university in Selangor. The sample comprised 104 randomly selected postgraduate students from the university. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to the samples. The questionnaire consisted of four domains, namely student factor, supervisor factor, institutional factor and challenges faced by the students. This study discovered that (1) the postgraduate students perceived supervisors as a determinant factor that contributes toward conducting research. (2) they perceived their academic competencies in research writing as moderate and (3) the supervisor factor has a significant and inverse relationship on challenges faced by the postgraduate students, i.e. the efforts and competencies of supervisors reduced challenges of the postgraduate students to complete their research. Based on the findings, it was suggested that higher learning institutions should highlight on the construction of knowledge through active interaction between lecturers and students. This type of assistance has become a platform for the students to cope up with the learning challenges they were facing in higher education.


Pythagoras ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 0 (70) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deonarain Brijlall ◽  
Aneshkumar Maharaj

The study investigated fourth–year students’ construction of the definitions of monotonicity and boundedness of sequences, at the Edgewood Campus of the University of KwaZulu –Natal in South Africa. Structured worksheets based on a guided problem solving teaching model were used to help students to construct the twodefinitions. A group of twenty three undergraduateteacher trainees participated in the project. These students specialised in the teaching of mathematics in the Further Education and Training (FET) (Grades 10 to 12) school curriculum. This paper, specifically, reports on the investigation of students’ definition constructions based on a learnig theory within the context of advanced mathematical thinking and makes a contribution to an understanding of how these students constructed the two definitions. It was found that despite the intervention of a structured design, these definitions were partially or inadequately conceptualised by some students.


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