First Year Experience Research Burgeons

Fatima Rahiman

May is National First Year Experience month and we’d like to celebrate this by highlighting the work of the South African National Resource Centre (SANRC). We would particularly like to draw attention to their newly revamped website.

SANRC, based at the University of Johannesburg, was established in 2015 with funding from the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). SANRC aims improve student success in South Africa through the development and dissemination of research on the First-Year Experience (FYE).      

The web site showcases a rich archive of materials categorised by the following keywords: Student Success, Orientation, Diversity/Race/Transformation, The Role of Parents in FYE, Teaching and Learning and Student Finances and FYE. Of particular interest are the  South African articles tagged appropriately with our national flag.

The Resources section of the SANRCS website highlights a new publication series entitled  "SANRC FYE Thought Series". Two reports in this series are:

• Nyar, A. (2019) The First-Year Experience (FYE) in South Africa: a National Perspective. SANRC FYE Thought Series #2.
• Scott, I. (2019) Designing South Africa’s Higher Education System for Student Success. SANRC FYE Thought Series #3. 

SANRC fifth annual conference runs from 22  - 24 May at the Garden Court Marine Parade, Durban. SANRC’s  promotional video, from its previous conference, portrays substantive learnings on the issue of student success, which we hope to see shared on the SANRC site soon.