South Africa is a country that has begun to build a collective participatory society (Mandela, 1994). Tertiary (higher) educational completion is sorely needed to provide South Africa with a skilled and educated population able to implement transformative change. However, many students are not completing university degrees. The problem is students are not completing higher education and why they do not complete is unknown. Before recommending solutions, the reasons students state they do not complete higher education degrees should be known.
The purpose of this study was to conduct a case study soliciting responses from low-income and first-generation "disadvantaged" black South African students on concerns and factors that they perceive to affect their completion of a higher education degree at Vista Soweto University. This study is needed to give voice to students and identify the factors students identify as negatively impacting their educational completion.
Specifically, the overarching question asks what factors do low-income, first-generation black South African students perceive to affect their persistence and completion of higher education degrees at Vista University's Soweto Campus. The orienting framework comes from readings by Ogbu, and Tinto. This study sought to understand South African students within the context of the historical social and political conditions in South Africa.
Data collection consisted of student focus groups, with faculty interviews, observations and historical documents employed as part of the triangulation strategy. Photographs were taken and all focus group interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim.
The study found the factors that affect students can be grouped into four categories: (1) "traditional" habits and environmental conditions; (2) students' sense of isolation and lack of non-academic supports; (3) students' perceived lack of academic support including "administrative inefficiency"; and (4) the reminders of "the old system" of apartheid. Although these factors impact completion, and concur with ideas articulated by Ogbu and Tinto, the most interesting finding is how students' commitment to education and student activism impact completion. In particular, student activism and political activity was identified to negatively impact student completion at Vista Soweto. This finding was contrary to the positive impact of student political and anti-apartheid activity prior to 1990.
