Rubby Dhunpath
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Teaching & Learning Office, Faculty Member
In 2013 the South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) proposed an extension to the three and four-year undergraduate academic curricula by an additional year with a concomitant increase in the number of credits. This, ostensibly,... more
In 2013 the South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) proposed an extension to the three and four-year undergraduate academic curricula by an additional year with a concomitant increase in the number of credits. This, ostensibly, was necessary to ameliorate the unsustainably low graduation rates in Higher Education. In this paper, the authors contend that the proposal does not make a sufficiently compelling case for curriculum extension for several reasons. We argue that the pronouncement that the curriculum has an ‘irreducible core’ is inherently conservative and will not result in radical structural curriculum change, perpetuating a pedagogy that fails to move beyond the remedial. Secondly, we argue that the Draft Proposal provides financial modelling scenarios to motivate the feasibility of funding the extension of course duration, but fails to provide analogous scenarios to model the student progression and graduation benefits to be derived from funding such an extension. ...
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In 2014, Alternation carried an article by Rawatlal and Dhunpath (Special Edition 12) titled ‘Stretching the Undergraduate Curriculum: A Compensatory Response to Curriculum Modelling?’ In that article, the authors contended that the South... more
In 2014, Alternation carried an article by Rawatlal and Dhunpath (Special Edition 12) titled ‘Stretching the Undergraduate Curriculum: A Compensatory Response to Curriculum Modelling?’ In that article, the authors contended that the South African Council on Higher Education’s (CHE) proposal to the South African government to extend the undergraduate curriculum by an additional year does not make a sufficiently compelling case, primarily because the proposal is inherently conservative in failing to move beyond the remedial. Furthermore, in challenging the veracity of the modelling scenarios presented in the proposal, we argued that the proposal inappropriately seeks to advance an econometric model to solve a pedagogic problem. In 2015, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) rejected the CHE proposal because the modelling on which the proposal was based failed to account for a key driver in curriculum reform: The Foundation/Access Programmes, which, the DHET argues, ha...
Burch, V. C., et al. 2016. Towards a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary teaching and learning dialogues in higher education. Alternation, 23(1):233-264
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Worldwide, the employment of people with disabilities has been challenged by the slow development of 'workplace specific' disability employment policies. The focus has been on formulating legislation to overcome barriers and the... more
Worldwide, the employment of people with disabilities has been challenged by the slow development of 'workplace specific' disability employment policies. The focus has been on formulating legislation to overcome barriers and the implementation of national disability policies without ensuring that workplaces formulate such policies. While laws regarding disability have been on the statute books for two decades in South Africa, little is known about how effective they have been and their impact in the workplace. This article examines whether South African government departments have developed or reviewed employment policies for the benefit of people with disabilities and determines whether policy makers were aware of the existence of the Disability Code (Republic of South Africa, 2002) and the Technical Assistance Manual (Republic of South Africa, 2005) when the policies were developed or reviewed. Human Resource Managers from 16 government departments in KwaZulu-Natal Province were interviewed. It was found that although HR policies were in place and some were being developed, very little has been done in terms of reviewing and/or developing disability employment policies. Furthermore, the existing prescripts were not extensively used as a resource during the development of disability-related employment policies. This has negatively affected the employment of people with disabilities in the public service. It is hoped that the results will assist management, HR practitioners as policy makers and line managers to develop disability employment policies in order to attract and retain people with disabilities. The research also contributes to the existing body of literature on disability.
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Student success is an elusive aspiration in South Africa, especially for its majority African population as the country continues to endure the imprints of a racially divided higher education system. This article will critically examine... more
Student success is an elusive aspiration in South Africa, especially for its majority African population as the country continues to endure the imprints of a racially divided higher education system. This article will critically examine various reform initiatives designed to enhance student success since 2004. The authors will demonstrate that despite successive efforts and increasing resources directed at enhancing student success, the outcomes have been minimal, largely because student failure has been pathologized as a function of student deficits rather than a consequence of systemic dysfunction, especially as it relates to the curriculum. We concede that while the impediments to student success are multifarious, using the affordances of technology to institute a less alienating curriculum structure, alongside a review of content, can catalyse the process of reform to reverse current student outcomes.
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Worldwide, the employment of people with disabilities has been challenged by the slow development of ‘workplace specific’ disability employment policies. The focus has been on formulating legislation to overcome barriers and the... more
Worldwide, the employment of people with disabilities has been challenged by the slow development of ‘workplace specific’ disability employment policies. The focus has been on formulating legislation to overcome barriers and the implementation of national disability policies without ensuring that workplaces formulate such policies. While laws regarding disability have been on the statute books for two decades in South Africa, little is known about how effective they have been and their impact in the workplace. This article examines whether South African government departments have developed or reviewed employment policies for the benefit of people with disabilities, and determines whether policy makers were aware of the existence of the Disability Code (Republic of South Africa, 2002) and the Technical Assistance Manual (Republic of South Africa, 2005) when the policies were developed or reviewed. Human Resource Managers from 16 government departments in KwaZulu-Natal Province were ...
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While there is little consensus amongst policy scholars about the relationship between research and policy, there is some agreement that the contribution of research to the policy process is at best, weak, at worst, symbolic. The reason... more
While there is little consensus amongst policy scholars about the relationship between research and policy, there is some agreement that the contribution of research to the policy process is at best, weak, at worst, symbolic. The reason for this tenuous link is manifold, but some policy scholars suggest that it is a consequence of the absence of sufficient dialogue between the various participants in the policy process. This paper proposes two outcomes. First, we survey selected literature on the policy dialogue process, exploring the research-policy link as it is played out in the interface between political structures and the actors involved. We explore the nature of informal and 'non-linear' policy decision-making processes and identify macro formations that exert influence over which policy ideas are noticed and which are ignored. Second, in a mode of critical self-reflexivity, we document our experiences as members of a research team engaged in a policy dialogue initiat...