The main purpose of this study was to explore the impacts of academic developments programmes on lecturers’ effectiveness and students’ performance in higher education institutions. Additionally, the study aimed at identifying measures to enhance the effectiveness of these programmes. South African universities bear the responsibility of developing academic support programmes aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of lecturers and improving students’ academic performance. Consequently, there is a growing number of academic development initiatives targeting both lecturers and students in higher learning institutions. However, the programmes’ impacts and potential avenues for improvement of these programmes have not been sufficiently explored. This inquiry raised two questions to be researched in this study, what are the impacts of academic development programmes for lecturers and students in higher education institutions and how can these programmes be improved? This research was foregrounded by Critical Emancipatory Research since it concentrates on critiquing, empowering, transforming, creating freedom and making voices of the voiceless heard. Further, we adopted Transformative Paradigm, Case Study Research Design and purposively sampled 12 participants to participate Participatory Action Research. Thereafter, thematic analysis strategy was used to analyse the data collected. Findings revealed that academic development programmes enhance lecturers’ pedagogical skills and practices, improve lecturers’ innovation in academic activities and develop lecturers’ culture of advanced research. While for students, the programmes create a sense of belonging, improve academic performance and increase students’ success. Interventions to improve these programmes included creating a strong culture of attendance, reinforcement of mentorship and peer support systems, and formation of Community of Practice (CoP).

Authors:
Nosihle Veronica Sithole, Central University of Technology, South Africa

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Sithole is currently a Senior Lecturer and Departmental Manager at Central University of Technology, Free State, South Africa

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