Siyaphulelala network is inviting for proposals for its 2020 Siyaphumelela Conference to be held 23- 26 June 2020. The conference is particularly keen to receive proposals of projects that contribute to student success and throughput. The 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. In particular, the conference supports: Leadership and innovation for student success; Use of data for change; Learning design for today's students; and Evaluation of, or Impact on, student success.

Key dates
Call for proposals: 10 February - 15 May 2020
Notification of Acceptance: 25 May 2020
Registration: 1 April - 31 May 2020

Over the past five years Siyaphumelela has worked across five universities to improve student success. From 2020, Siyaphumelela will build on these experiences to expand across the higher education system in South Africa.

This call to become a Participant Institution in the future Siyaphumelela Network sets out to describe the goals of the Network, the role of the Participant Institutions, and subscription costs and services provided.

All South African higher education institutions are eligible to join the Siyaphumelela Network 2020-2023.

Goals of the Siyaphumelela Network

To catalyse student success across the South African higher education system, the key goals of the Siyaphumelela Network are to:

1. Establish a more student-centred culture in South Africa’s higher education system to improve student completion rates and reduce race and gender equity differences
2. Improve institutional capacity to collect and use student data to improve student success across the higher education system
3. Expand evidence-based student success efforts on a national scale, using a networked approach that builds on existing strengths, shares capacity throughout the system, and serves institutions based on their current needs and abilities

Components of the Siyaphumelela Network

The network, to support student success, rests on two main components: the development and support of services (resources and tools) offered across the network, and regional sub-networks supported by a co-ordinating backbone organisation (Saide) in order to benefit all South African higher education institutions (Figure 1).