For the fifth year running, the Siyaphumelela team is pleased to announce the call for proposals for our conference to be held at the Wanderers in Johannesburg from the 25-27 June 2019. As with previous years, the conference will  provide a platform for experts from the international community, as well as key South African role players, in the field of higher education data analytics to engage in conversations around evidence-based practices and national systemic interventions aimed at student success

We invite proposals from a range of disciplines (such as ethics, learning design, academic advising and STEM fields) that make use of data to support an integrative approach for student success. In particular we are keen to receive proposals of projects taken to scale over the past four years. Proposals should ideally demonstrate the application of learnings from the Siyaphumelela programme in their project and present empirical evidence of the intervention improving student success.

Important dates:

Call for proposals:
20 January 2019 - 29 March 2019 Deadline Extended 29 April 2019
Notification of Acceptance:
10 May 2019
Registration:
1 April - 24 May 2019

The submission will be reviewed by a panel of reviewers who will consider the following criteria when evaluating the proposal abstracts:

• An explicitly stated main objective or rationale (i.e. a description of the problem that was addressed in the study).
• An outline of the methodology.
• A description of the intervention or project.
• The study's results.
• A conclusion, if any.

The #FeesMustFall campaign which took place in the South African higher education arena in 2016 generated crucial discourses such as the decolonisation of the curriculum, decommodified education, as well as power relations among campaign leaders. In order to complete the academic year students also sought alternative avenues to pursue their learning such as online learning while continuing their campaigning for free education. In recognition of these hybrid models of teaching and learning that were emerging during the #FeesMustFall campaign, the Carnegie Corporation of New York funded the Universities of Cape Town, the Free State, Johannesburg and Pretoria to conduct research and write up case studies related to the uptake of blended learning.

The University of Pretoria was tasked with hosting a national convening, which took place at the Birchwood Conference Centre in June 2018.