FRANCIS PETERSEN | Successful varsity journey starts long before students set foot on campus

Over the past decade or two, most SA universities have invested heavily in various forms of student support. The reason is an important focus shift in higher education – from concentrating on securing access to institutions (which is still important), to ensuring the success of enrolled students. 

But ideally, a successful university journey should start long before students even set foot on campuses. In the months and years that precede their studies, they need to be systematically prepared for the important journey that lies ahead.

An important departure point is the identification of the right study programme. Choosing a career remains one of the most important decisions in a person’s life. It is essential that every young individual takes personal responsibility for this, and identify a field that suits their specific aptitudes, skills and interests.

But pupils’ eventual choice of a career should also occupy an important place on schools’ agendas. Pupils from schools that go the extra mile to expose them to different career opportunities, arranging job shadowing and career talks, eventually make the most successful tertiary study choices. Parents and family members play an equally important role in exposing children to different career possibilities.

Similarly, the foundation for the academic skills needed for successful higher education studies needs to be laid long before. Successful university students need strong core skills in writing, research and critical thinking – ideally honed over the 12 years at school. University studies are certainly more rigorous than high school, demanding a higher level of self-discipline, academic proficiency and time management.

But successful students are normally the ones who have already shown academic commitment at school.

An academic mindset needs to be cultivated in schools, but also in parental homes. In the SA context a significant portion of students are first-generation students – the first in their extended families to go to university. But what all parents can do, is to inculcate in their children a love for learning and an inquisitive outlook.

For many students, higher education also means venturing out on their own for the first time. Independent living skills in basic cooking, laundry and self-care will be needed to support students living away from home.

A certain degree of financial skills is also required – not only to understand student loans and financial aid – but to manage a simple budget to prevent expenditure from exceeding their income. These are skills that can be taught at school – but need to be reinforced and find practical application at home.

Once again, our SA reality needs to be factored in. We have one of the highest rates of broken homes in the world, with only about a third of children living with both their parents. One in five children have neither biological parent living with them.

Although this parental absence is disturbing, it is tempered by the prevailing trend of relatives and even neighbours often playing an active part in child rearing. We need to tap into these encouraging examples of ubuntu. Our youth ultimately determines the future for all of us – which should urge us to take collective responsibility for them

This includes preparing them for what is for many a new social reality. Students should embrace the diversity they will find on university campuses, and encouraged to make new friends and broaden their cultural horizons. University life is, after all, not only about academics but also about personal growth, cultural exposure and relationship building. The communication and collaboration skills developed during higher education studies are also vital assets in the future world of work.

The abundance of mental health challenges on campuses clearly illuminates the importance of also making sure that students are emotionally prepared for university life. Nowadays, most university campuses are adequately geared to cater for students’ mental health needs. But these specialised support services are of little use if students do not make use of them.

Once again, parents, guardians and community role models can play an invaluable role – this time fighting the stigma by talking more openly about mental health issues.

There is another African saying which I think sums up the essence of higher education:

‘If you want to travel fast, travel alone. If you want to travel far, travel together’.  

With knowledge systems continually expanding and the resultant emphasis on lifelong learning, it is on the one hand all about travelling far. But it is also about travelling together.

It requires different role players to take hands to ensure that the university years truly are the best years of young people’s lives.

And that they produce graduates who are focused on giving back to the communities that helped them get there.

• Prof Petersen is vice-chancellor and principal of the University of the Free State