University of the Western Cape’s Delegation makes valuable contributions at Siyaphumelela Conference

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) has made valuable contributions towards the effort of student success in the higher education landscape at a recent sectoral conference. UWC made a number of presentations and inputs at the Siyaphumelela Conference 2023, held from 28 to 30 June 2023, at The Wanderers Club in Johannesburg. Eight UWC delegates attended led by Prof Matete Madiba, DVC: Student Development and Support. Prof Sue Pather, Siyaphumelela Project Lead and Teaching & Learning Specialist, was instrumental in representing UWC’s commitment to student success.

The Siyaphumelela (“We Succeed”) initiative aims to expand evidence-based post-secondary student success strategies across South Africa. The conference was a platform for higher education institutions to share their progress and strategies in improving student completion rates, reducing race and gender equity differences, and enhancing institutional capacity to collect and use student data.

The conference started with a keynote address by Prof Murray Leibbrandt from the University of Cape Town, titled “Catalysing Social Mobility through Student Success”. It set the tone for the insightful presentations and discussions that followed.

Prof Leibbrandt’s presentation discussed the role of education in social mobility, focusing on students’ socio-economic status and their success in higher education and the labour market. He highlighted the issue of income inequality and low earnings mobility in society, suggesting that these factors can affect educational attainment and future earnings.


Dr Humphrey Brydon (Statistics Department), Ms Elizabeth Booi (Institutional Planning – Business Intelligence), Prof Matete Madiba (DVC: Student Development and Support), Ms Laetitia Permall (CSSS) and Mr Bradley Khumalo (Institutional Planning – Business Intelligence )
The data presented indicates that a significant percentage of 2015 NSFAS UWC graduates were employed in 2017. With a share percentage of 91.10%, UWC stood out as the second-highest institution in employment rates among these graduates. This finding highlights the University’s success in preparing and equipping its graduates with the necessary skills and qualifications employers seek.

The high employment rate demonstrates UWC’s commitment to fostering upward income mobility and providing opportunities for its students to enter the workforce successfully. These results showcase the University’s effectiveness in nurturing employability and underline the potential for positive socioeconomic impacts on graduates and the wider community.

Lastly, Prof Leibbrandt suggested a policy approach to increase social mobility, including improving early literacy/numeracy, social protection, and higher education.

UWC, as a Siyaphumelela partner university, presented the achievements of three Phumelela@UWC priority areas, which included strengthening the University’s business intelligence capacity and analytical capabilities, using data to enhance student support interventions, and providing holistic support for high-priority (at-risk) modules.

Through a video message, UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor Prof Tyrone Pretorius provided an overview of the progress and executive commitment towards students’ success. Prof Pather then elaborated on how student success at UWC was embedded in our strategic goals, which focus on enriching the student experience and strengthening learning and teaching.

Bradley Khumalo, a MCom student in Information Systems (Big Data) and working as a Business Intelligence Data Analyst, shared his experience of working with data and saw his input being used in the development of the First Year Experience (FYE) content programme to address student challenges such as feeling overwhelmed and managing time effectively.

The second presentation, “Leveraging Data Analytics for Student Success: A Case Study of an Institutional Collaboration through a Data Analytics Working Group”, was jointly presented by Elizabeth Booi (Business Intelligence Data Architect) and Khumalo. They shared their experiences and insights on how data analytics can effectively promote student success, drawing from a case study of institutional collaboration with the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences.

The final presentation, “Throughput Analysis: Profiling Student Completion Times”, was delivered by Dr Humphrey Brydon. This presentation focused on analysing student completion times in the Faculty of Science programmes, providing valuable insights into the factors that affect the time it takes for students to complete their studies.

In addition to these presentations, a conceptual workshop, titled “Addressing the Rising Tide: A Data-Driven Strategy for Co-Creating a National Mental Health Framework for Higher Education”, was conducted by Laetitia Permall, Director of the Centre for Student Support Services from the University of the Western Cape, and Anne Lunsky from the University of the Witwatersrand. The workshop focused on the urgent need to address mental health issues in higher education, proposing a data-driven strategy for creating a national mental health framework.

These presentations and the workshop underscore UWC’s commitment to using data-driven strategies to enhance student success and address critical issues in higher education.

Booi, also a Siyaphumelela Coach, participated in the Coaches panel and significantly contributed to the Siyaphumelela Conference 2023. She discussed the success of the Siyaphumelela coaching model, emphasising coaches’ pivotal role in fostering student success. Booi also introduced an emerging conceptual framework that is human-centric and generatively transformative. This innovative approach focuses on strengthening student success at universities through meticulous data analysis, with the student’s needs and experiences at the core of the process.

In a separate panel discussion on Future Student Success Endeavours, Prof Matete and other Vice-Chancellors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors from Siyaphumelela partner institutions shared their insights on the future of student success initiatives. Prof Matete underscored the importance of documenting and peer-reviewing student success in South Africa. She proposed organising this work under the Scholarship of Integration or Student Success, emphasising the need for rigorous academic scrutiny in these efforts.

The Siyaphumelela Conference 2023 ended positively with The Kresge Foundation’s commitment to expanding the Siyaphumelela Network to 20 funded institutions. This pledge underscored the significance of the initiative and its potential to drive substantial improvements in student success across South Africa. The foundation emphasised the need to concentrate on high-impact modules that hamper student success, enhance data and data analytics capacity, and ensure that the student’s voice is central to all initiatives.

The insights and experiences shared by the UWC team will undoubtedly contribute to the ongoing efforts to enhance student success – not only at UWC but across the higher education sector in South Africa.