Inclusive higher education learning outcomes for rural and township youth: developing a multi-dimensional capabilities-based higher education index

Lead Research Organisation: University of the Free State
Department Name: Ctr for Res on Higher Education & Dev

Abstract

South African higher education (HE) is characterised by inequalities of access, participation and success, and hence youth disadvantage, yet it is also seen as central to economic development and social mobility. The aim of the research, captured in the production of an innovative HE Index, is to develop an integrated, policy-oriented theorisation of pathways to learning outcomes that foregrounds equality and quality for young people from rural areas and townships when they are preparing for university, their experiences at university, and their graduate outcomes, and to understand what enables the realization of the transformative potential of HE for them. The project conceptualises raising learning outcomes as a process of multi-dimensional 'capabilities' expansion and realization of plural valued 'functionings'. Using the capability approach allows an understanding of how various factors interact to inhibit or enable capabilities that are valuable to individuals and to building a decent society. The project will uncover interrelated personal, educational and social challenges that account for the inequities in outcomes experienced by young people from challenging backgrounds, and standing in the way of quality HE for all. In particular, the project will focus on HE students supported by Thusanani Foundation (http://www.thusananifoundation.org), a youth-led not-for-profit organisation. Working with the Foundation provides access to disadvantaged youth and their educational pathways into, in and beyond higher education, and is a site through which important user insights can be gained. The mixed-method study will explore contextual factors - families, schools, university educational and social arrangements, and work-readiness activities - that enable and inhibit higher education pathways for these students. In particular, it will investigate what learning outcomes are valued by students themselves and by other stakeholders, why they are valued, and whether and how they are achieved. Engagement with stakeholders and impact activities are built into the project from the outset; the evidence-informed and consultative process will generate practice recommendations and policy options.
The main research participants are Thusanani Foundation supported students, attending four historically diverse universities, over four years from 2nd HE year to post graduation. Against a backdrop analysis of documentation, literature and national statistical data of inequalities and learning outcomes (cohort analyses), we will use quantitative (survey of n=700 Thusanani supported students; final year students n=1600), longitudinal qualitative methods (life histories; interviews, n=48 x 4 years), as well as notes of stakeholder meetings and visual methods to explore, at macro and micro levels, student experiences and learning outcomes. The methodology includes a participatory element with young people (students plus mentors) as researchers (n=32) and the interviews they conduct (n=40), to allow co-construction of ideas and to explore how participation in research might enhance learning outcomes. Interviews with Foundation student mentors (24); Foundation Board members (5); and, ethnographic field notes of Foundation work with school pupils will provide insight into the motivations, strategies and possibilities of raising learning outcomes. The project thus provides an integrated analysis of access, higher education experiences and graduate outcomes, with attention to educational, social and economic impacts. The data will be analysed in terms of: (1) structural distributive patterns of opportunities and achievements, including an analysis of the differences made by Thusanani Foundation; (2) a framework of capabilities inhibition and expansion, profiled inductively and deductively; and, (3) multi-dimensional HE learning outcomes Index of practical use to policy makers and development agencies, going beyond narrow measures of completion rates.

Planned Impact

The beneficiaries have a common interest in social inclusion related to raising the achievement of higher education (HE) learning outcomes for young people from disadvantaged circumstances. All groups will gain understanding of what enables or inhibits pathways into and through higher education for these young people. Through engagement with research evidence and developing a capabilities-based HE outcomes Index, they will gain understanding of which capabilities allow for HE access, participation and success and of how to support this. Impact will include academic impact through contributions of the knowledge produced by the project. This knowledge base in turn will contribute to society, benefitting individual students and society through the contributions they will be in a position to make socially and economically, and through research to advance understanding and practical educational application towards quality of life and well-being. The key beneficiaries are students from challenging rural and township contexts, whose HE achievements have been constrained. The production of the HE Index, to be developed in collaboration with, and as a result of research with young people, will be of direct benefit to students from challenging contexts who seek to participate and achieve worthwhile learning outcomes through HE. They will benefit from the processes of participatory research which provide spaces for them to voice perceptions and experiences which will contribute to socially innovative conceptions of higher education learning outcomes and to policy making about how to raise them. Students as key beneficiaries are linked to benefits for specific stakeholder groups: the Thusanani Foundation; South African Union of Students (SAUS), National Student Bursary Fund (NSFAS), South African Graduate Employers Association (SAGEA), Rural Education Access Programme (REAP). Below we list further beneficiaries.
Policy-makers and policy brokers: Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Council for Higher Education (CHE), Higher Education South Africa (HESA), the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Gauteng and Limpopo provincial governments. This group of beneficiaries will benefit from knowledge about how learning outcomes for youth are mediated in challenging contexts, which can be used to inform policy decisions about enhancing well-being and development. These beneficiaries will deepen their understanding of the potential of the capabilities approach (CA) by participating in developing capabilities measurement dimensions and methods (resulting in a CA-based HE Index).
NGOs and donors: British Council, Carnegie Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Oppenheimer Foundation, Equal Education (for NGOs). This group of beneficiaries will benefit from participation in developing the Index, which will be of practical use in raising learning outcomes of disadvantaged young people from challenging contexts. The knowledge they gain through development and application of the Index will be of use in helping to convince policymakers of the benefit of this intervention designed to support such young people to enter into and succeed in higher education.
HE practitioners: Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC), Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association of South Africa (HELTASA), DHET, CHE, HESA. This group will benefit from increased understanding of how educational arrangements in HE enable and constrain development of capabilities and learning outcomes which predict success, in particular transformative individual experience and contributions to society after graduation.
Academic researchers based in universities & research organisations: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), National Research Foundation (NRF), South African Educational Research Association (SAERA). The capacity of this group will be built to research the relationship between contexts and educational outcomes from a human development perspective.
 
Description MOST SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS:
NEW KNOWLEDGE: Until now there has not been a South African systematic, integrated, longitudinal mixed-methods investigation of the multi-dimensional dynamics or factors shaping and/or inhibiting low-income students' capabilities to access, participate and succeed in a variety of higher education institutions, and move from higher education to work or further study. Nor do we have much research on rural students or rural universities. The Miratho project for the first time offers fine-grained detail from talking to students about how they understand and experience disadvantage, equity and educational quality and about how higher education can foster or frustrate agency and decision-making that empowers them to change their own lives and those of others. Overall we found: That students are agents, actors and carriers of personal biographies negotiating and interacting everyday with multiple, intersecting contextual conditions that present opportunities for being and doing in life; that individuals flourish when they are free to choose lives (beings and doings) that express their own values and goals -inequality is reduced when political, socio-economic or educational arrangements (policies and practices) expand people's opportunities and freedoms to choose; that to gain such freedoms people must aspire and struggle against and with others.
RICHLY RECONCEPTUALISED LEARNING OUTCOMES: Learning outcomes were more richly reconceptualised using Amartya Sen's Capability Approach; such a normative approach is essential in advancing quality higher education. In our approach 'inclusive learning outcomes' move towards a reduction of multidimensional disadvantages and inequalities. We critique the lure of (ubiquitous) learning outcomes: positive achievements (not just time spent in education); a 'performance-based' approach supporting human capital for economic growth; measurable, comparable information to evaluate the efficiency of systems. We articulate problems with learning outcomes: necessary but not sufficient; emphasis on skills, especially cognitive; ignored if not a measurable performance; association with managerialism. Instead, university learning outcomes should expand the freedoms that are of value to students from low-income households. The complex enablements and constraints in the lives of students demand a multi-dimensional evaluative framework for judging advantage and disadvantage, equality and inequality. The capability approach supplies this framework by offering multidimensional key functionings(as learning outcomes) and underlying capabilities
MATERIAL CONDITIONS HAVE SIGNIFICANT IMPACT: Material poverty represents a major obstacle in its effects on student chances and equality in opportunities and outcomes. At all stages of acquiring a university education adequate material resources need to underpin university access, participation and success. What is considered adequate or sufficient at any stage will need to be debated among stakeholders and policy-makers and then looked at in the light of competing demands on the fiscus. This is complicated by the welfare element of student grants where low-income students (and their families) consider these grants as a source of financial support not only for the student but also her family, as our data shows. While inequalities, poverty and unemployment prevail in the wider society this understanding is unlikely to shift.
'CONVERSION FACTORS' IMPACT ON INDIVIDUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONNECT AGENCY AND STRUCTURES: Intersecting contextual conversion factors (at the level of national, provincial, district, our data) and across factors of the material, educational, social, environmental and personal constitute the conditions shaping opportunities and obstacles for students in converting their material and non-material resources into capabilities and functionings. If the opportunity to develop capabilities and exercise valued functionings is uneven, we need to look to wider arrangements to understand what is unjust and needs to be changed to enable wellbeing in each life. South Africa is a country with high poverty, high inequality and low social mobility. There are significant gaps in income, wealth and intergenerational endowments. Family and community poverty have a spatial dimension and remain concentrated in previously disadvantaged areas, such as the former rural homelands.
We found that accessing university required a bundle of resources, including money and information, to be converted into admission and registering at university. At the point of access, students had uneven experiences of choosing a university and a programme of study and few effective capabilities, but those they had (such as navigation) together with personal conversion factors such as determination and hard work were crucial for getting to university and assets they brought with them. While at university, epistemic contribution (in its widest sense including both academic and non-academic materials) emerged as architectonic for higher education and we generated evidence for how it suffused and was suffused by other capabilities that emerged from theorising and data, and to what extent for the group. Through extraordinary personal efforts fuelled by experiences of disciplined success at school (for all the qualifications regarding quality), the support of key persons, and by exercising ubuntu with friends and family, most students gained or 'thickened' a capability set from being at university. We emphasise that students brought key attributes and strong family and community commitments, which universities could do more to recognize and value as an asset for any university. However, it is also important to note that some students explicitly took the view that they could have done better at university had they had access to more resources and not had to use considerable psychological time and energy on worrying about finance. In our view this is a valid judgement. even if there were limits on opportunities. Moreover, in our view pedagogical and university arrangements could have been more hospitable to these students and that this, too, would have improved their outcomes. Moreover, once they left, the capability for work and future study was severely hampered by structural conditions of possibility which, in turn, curtailed freedom in other capability dimensions.
While this is the overall story of the group, how resources are converted for a university education and extent to which capabilities are evident as key functionings plays out differently for different individuals. We conclude that for inclusive learning outcomes to be substantively meaningful, sufficient material resources are necessary to get into university and flourish while there; the benefits of a university education should be rich and multi-dimensional (and supported by university arrangements) so that they can result in functionings in all areas of life as well as work and future study; and, the inequalities and exclusion of the labour market and pathways to further study must be addressed by wider economic and social policies.
We found, too, that change is complex and unpredictable and understand the challenges of making changes: it is generally hard, incremental and slow work absent major social disruptors, of which #FeesMustFall is one such event delivering as it did free higher education to low-income youth. On the other hand, within the ambit of higher education there are injustices which are 'redressable' (Sen 2009: vii) without waiting for perfect social structures or perfectly just institutions. Universities can and should act towards change and the Capability Approach is a significant normative resource, we found, to this end.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF SPECIFIC CONTEXTUAL CONVERSION FACTORS:
1)ACCESS FACTORS:•Access trajectories vary based on the different unfreedoms students face and for low-income students, access is tenuous and negotiated; •Due to the negative intersection of the seven conversion factors highlighted, many deserving students are left behind, perpetuating existing inequalities, especially in rural and township areas; • Different unfreedoms determine who can access HE and on which terms. For those who manage to access university, there can be constrained choices where students settle for universities and degrees/ diplomas that they either only qualified for, or their resources allowed them to take up. The inequalities highlighted that access to university does not start when applying for admission but begins at school, at home and in communities; •HE should be more inclusive and accommodate diversity to dismantle historical structures of inequality; •Beyond funding, universities should consider the complexity of student lives and influence of broader contexts in determining access. They should partner with schools, community organisations and alumni in availing information to all, regardless of their background or geographic location; •At this point, students had few effective capabilities, but those they had were crucial for getting to university (Ubuntu and navigation capabilities).
2) PARTICIPATION FACTORS: While students' capabilities were underdeveloped in the first year of university, this changed gradually over time so that we see the emergence of a widened capability set as the years progressed, which we see as indicative of their transformation. Although it happened unevenly, university participation enabled student transformation. However it could be much more transformative if pedagogical arrangements and other provisions for learning and material security were possible and taken up. Factors shaping participation were: •Access to technology;•The effects of schooling: lack of confidence to speak up; The effects of schooling: 'cramming'; •Relationships (with lecturers and others); •University community and geography: the impact of living off campus; •University general conditions; •Information about university; •Students' personal attributes; •Teaching and learning conditions; •Access to knowledge that transforms.
3) MOVING ON FACTORS: After 6/7 years 38 of the 58 who persisted with interviews for four years had graduated and their academic transcript (ie no debt): 14 were employed, 8 were doing further study; 7 had internships of some kind and 14 were unemployed. Five had completed but owed money and had their academic transcripts withheld. Thirteen we still completing their degrees and two had dropped out. For students from disadvantaged backgrounds, access to university, challenging as it is, is perceived as an immediate panacea out of poverty and towards social mobility. However, students they struggle through universities and graduate at a point of disadvantage even before getting into the (uneven and unequal) labour market. Factors shaping moving on: • Educational: degree; field of study; which university; •Material: money; access to technology; •Social: information and support; •Environmental: location of university; •Personal: attitudes and values
THE MIRATHO MATRIX: We found a combined normative and empirical process was appropriate in producing the Matrix. From this we generated a set of eight multi-dimensional (all matter) capability domains (valued opportunities to be and to do) with corresponding functionings (achievements) as learning outcomes. The broad capability domains are: epistemic contribution; ubuntu; practical reason, navigation, narrative, emotional balance, inclusion and participation and further work and study. The corresponding functionings to inform practice and evaluation of student success are: being an epistemic contributor; connected to and concerned for the wellbeing of others; planning a (good) life; navigating university/society's culture and systems; telling one's own higher education story; able to deal with academic and life challenges; being a respected and participating member of the university/ society; and, employable/qualified for further study. We brought the capabilities and functionings together with material wellbeing and conversion factors to constitute a four dimensions Miratho Matrix for inclusive higher education learning outcomes. We acknowledge that measurement against the Matrix is complex and may be imprecise. But Sen explains that, 'it is undoubtedly more important to be vaguely right than precisely wrong'.
Our capability set and key functionings are an evaluation tool and metric (equality of what?) of justice based on the principle of equality in higher education encompassing: access to university; participating in teaching and learning; inclusion in the wider life of the university; qualifying with a diploma or degree; and, moving on to work or further study. This framework is intended to provoke discussion in universities about inequalities across different groups of students in connecting capability (opportunities) and functionings (outcomes) in the different capability domains, and what to do about this. The domains are multidimensional, all count and reinforce each other, and in tandem are the key functionings which intersect and support each other. 'Cherry picking' capabilities should be avoided because it is the whole set which supports students in benefitting from their university education.
MEETING OUR OBJECTIVES:
• How do disadvantaged youth from rural and townships schools access, participate in and succeed in higher education, and then move into work? And, What contextual dimensions of economic, policy, social and educational conditions enable or inhibit access, participation and success? We have produced detailed empirical findings on the trajectories life history students across three chapters in our book (2022).
• What multi-dimensional higher education learning outcomes which benefit individuals and society are valued by stakeholders, including students? How can the capabilities approach be applied conceptually and analytically to the multiple data sets to produce a multi-dimensional inclusive higher education capabilities-based higher education Index (Matrix)? We developed our Miratho Matrix and Miratho Higher Education Capability Set, with core Functionings as learning outcomes. The Matrix and Set are grounded in student and stakeholder voices collected over 4.5 years. The Capability Approach provided the conceptual and analytical framing of learning outcomes as capabilities and functionings and emphasised the importance of these articulating with conversion factors in our context.
• How can the Index (Matrix) be used to inform policy and practice interventions that confront the structural inequalities impacting on learning outcomes of students from challenging contexts. We have developed guidance for university actions based on our data and findings. We offer broad suggestions to guide discussion about how an institution might measure and make judgements about whether and/or how there are inequalities across different groups of students in capabilities and functionings in the different domains. We do three things: 1) propose eight key functionings as indicators to be measured qualitatively and quantitively; 2) sketch broad university conditions against each key functioning - these conditions would need to be evaluated; and 3) for the eight domains we have sketched ways to measure across three areas: university education, academic department and university. Across these three areas attention should be paid both to horizontal inequalities pertaining to culture and forms of belonging and to vertical inequalities associated with distribution of resources. We also provide up to five sub-functionings which support the core functioning for each domain. For example for student to develop as epistemic contributors, university conditions would need to provide: Quality of curriculum design (including attention to ecology of knowledges), teaching and learning and assessment practices that build confidence, inclusion and civic participation, which foster dialogic and inclusive epistemic culture and environment.
HOW MIGHT FINDINGS BE TAKEN FORWARD AND BY WHOM: Our key policy relevant and practice relevant findings are:•Sufficient material resources are necessary get into university and flourish while there; other conversion factors articulate with material conditions: Social; Personal, Educational; and Environmental; • The benefits of a university education should be rich and multi-dimensional so that they can result in functionings in all areas of life including paid work and future study; learning outcomes thus need to be reconceptualised as multi-dimensional capabilities and functionings;•The inequalities and exclusion of the labour market, and pathways to further study must be addressed by wider economic and social policies and economic transformation for higher education outcomes to be meaningful and more just.•Universities have a responsibility - if for no other reason - as recipients of public funding - but also as the space of student aspirations and effort - to transform in relation to the needs of the mostly black working class (rural and urban) students they have and to put in place the conditions of possibility at all levels for all students to flourish.
We see the normative approach and findings being taken forward by: Policy-makers especially the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and USAF (Universities South South); NGOs especially those like REAP working with rural students and those like the MOSAL Foundation working with disadvantaged students; HE practitioners and University Leadership who can apply the Capability Set and Functionings as a grid to evaluate their own practices and Teaching and Learning more generally across the University; higher education researchers and early career fellows (PhDS and Post-doctoral) based in universities & research organisations.
Exploitation Route • The Matrix, the capability approach and the set of capability domains and functionings can inform higher education policy and practices in the direction of a quality and more just higher education in South Africa and elsewhere. It can serve as lens to evaluate quality higher education and a tool to develop quality. The core functionings might be used as indicators in qualitative measurement by universities. They are resource for debates and dialogues about doing higher education differently. A richer approach to learning outcomes by universities is made possible.
• NGOs working with disadvantaged youth will find the project evidence helpful in planning their own higher education interventions.The detailed empirical account of conversion factors makes clear the opportunities and obstacles faced by students from challenging contexts; in particular material factors must be taken into account in evaluating learning outcomes and in the design of university marketing, outreach, access programmes and pedagogical approaches by practitioners. The hardship tables developed might usefully be applied by universities to their own students.
• The project provides rich information for thinking about the design of a student-centred university in South Africa.
• The life history methodology and the participatory photovoice methodology offer both method resources but also demonstrate the richness of student voice approaches.
• Globally we hope to contribute to reconceptualising learning outcomes critically and in a richer direction - by global agencies and funders.
Sectors Education
URL https://www.ufs.ac.za/miratho
 
Description We understand the ESRC concern with non-academic impact. However, we question the Northern focus and understanding of impact. From a global South and specifically sub-Saharan Africa perspective impact on academic fields is very important in a context where Africa still provides a tiny % of scholarly publications (see the recent work by Dvaid Mills and his colleagues in Ghana). We therefore think a contribution to and impact on southern scholarship and theorising in our context is as if not more important than the direct or indirect impact on policy. Moreover our audience is necessarily academics but in their roles as teachers in universities of low income students. We hope that our research contributes to an understanding of how to work more effectively with marginalised students - hence impact. We acknowledge that this is intuitive and based on conversations rather than 'hard' evidence. We therefore think our research is read and taken up by university teachers and is of interest to structures like USAF. In advancing rich conceptual framework for socially just higher education this is impactful work, in our view. Moreover, our policy environment is difficult to say the least and much turns on having the right political connections in the ANC. The better argument is of little import in our context of corruption and cadre deployment in public services. We note that we made 25 presentations between 2017 and 2019 (all slides on our website) and launched our book in 2022. We have 31 academic publications arising from the research and posted seven policy briefs on our project website as well as a common photobook from the photovoice project and on youtube, five digital stories. Information nade open access is another form of impact in our context. Other impacts: Our work with Thusanani Foundation - and the collection of data from students they support - has assisted them in reflecting on and reviewing their own processes and improving their own data bases. From 2019, we have now reached and interacted with more practitioners and researchers at universities nationally but do not yet know if or how they themselves have taken up the ideas. Other NGOs, especially REAP and the Moshal Foundation have expressed an interest in the work. There is some tentative interest from policy makers (Department of Higher Education and Training) in learning more about the project and our conceptual approach. In 2021 one of the leading policy makers in DHET, drew on our approach for an audience of some 200 policy-practitioners. The project has had an impact on undergraduate students who have been participants. Our conceptual framework is widely used, if not the specific findings from the project. Thus all the PhD students since 2013 up the present time who register with the Higher Education and Human Development research group at the University of the Free State work under Melanie Walker and Mikateko Mathebula with human development and capability approach frames. They come from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia so through the graduates these ideas are circulating across the Continent. Our research on higher education is very well regarded in the wider capablitarian scholarly community and in and through the Human Development and Capability Association.
First Year Of Impact 2017
Sector Education
Impact Types Cultural

Societal
 
Description 2019 joint PhD conference
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Around 30 PhD students from three universities - UWC, UFS and Wits - came together for a training event. The significance lies in the effect for the quality of doctoral training and outputs, of key importance in South African higher education. Two Miratho team members - Walker and Hoppener- were involved.
 
Description Colloquium 2018
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Research Colloquium in September 2018 provided four early- career researchers from sub-Saharan Africa to present papers, act as chairs and discussants.
 
Description HEHD Colloquium 2019
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Colloquium crucially contributed to capacity building among early career sub-Saharan African researchers.
 
Description PhD Conference
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact The PI of the Miratho project initiated and organised a PhD conference for her own UFS students, as well as students from the University of the Western cape and the Witwatersrand University. Fifteen PhD students presented papers on their own research for discussion and feedback. Post-doctoral fellows at the UFS had the opportunity to co-organise, act as chairs, discussants, and so on.
 
Description Postgraduate capacity building
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact In May 2018, workshops were held at the University of the Free State by the the two UK members of the Miratho team with 10 PhD students (9 from sub-Saharan Africa) from the Higher Education & Human Development research group, as well as early career researchers to respond to and discuss their own research projects and writing.
 
Description The Conversation popular article: "We asked university students to tell their own stories in photos: here's why' by Mikateko Mathebula
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://theconversation.com/profiles/mikateko-mathebula-1023563/articles
 
Description USAF Student Success
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Webinars
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description Researcher Rating Incentives Fund
Amount R130,000 (ZAR)
Organisation South African National Research Foundation (NRF) 
Sector Public
Country South Africa
Start 01/2017 
End 12/2023
 
Description South African Research Chairs Initiative
Amount R2,700,000 (ZAR)
Funding ID 86450 
Organisation South African National Research Foundation (NRF) 
Sector Public
Country South Africa
Start 01/2018 
End 12/2022
 
Description Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT)
Amount 150,000 kr (SEK)
Organisation Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country Sweden
Start 02/2019 
End 12/2019
 
Title AP Scores 
Description A detailed review and mapping of the admissions requirements of the five universities we are focusing on was conducted and used to develop a spreadsheet that can be used to map out for, a given student and comparatively, which universities they would qualify to access. This provides an indication of inequalities across the five universities from an admissions point of view. Using a set of 4 example high school learners with different school leaving results, a mapping was done to see which universities each learner would qualify to enter. The analysis shows that City and Metropolitan are more exclusive and have higher entrance criteria compared to Provincial, Rural and Country. We are in the process of accessing school leaving results from the students participating in the project and these results will be used to conduct the same analysis using actual data. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Analysis in process 
 
Title HEMIS Cohort Study No 1 
Description The study of the 2006 and 2007 cohorts of students provides quantitative details of how many rural and township youth enter higher education, for 3 or 4 degrees or diploma, for which programmes of study, and with what success rates compared to sub/urban youth. It disaggregates also by race and gender. It further drills down for four selected universities of different types. The database had to develop a way of identifying rural and township students as the raw data does not provide this information. There is no direct link between home postcode and urban rural classifications used by STATSSA in surveys. The postal codes of all new undergraduate entrants in 2006 and 2007 were included in the extraction from the DHET HEMIS data base. A list of postal codes indicating the suburb as well as area was downloaded from the Post Office's website. The list of postal codes extracted from the student records in HEMIS was linked with the postal code of the Post Office to get the suburb as well as area name. Various sources were used to classify the suburb and area names into urban, rural and township categories and to link the postal codes in the student records to the classifications needed for the analysis.This exercise had limitations as a result of some overlap of postal codes especially of townships with some urban areas. White enrolments "coming from townships" - which is unlikely - is an indication that these classifications could not be done with complete accuracy but overall it provided an acceptable level of classification into the three groups. The differences in completion rates between rural, township and sub/urban students are thus meaningful. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The impact is academic so far - on the development of a new and more refined cohort database for the 2010 cohort. 
URL http://www.miratho.com
 
Title Hemis single university study 
Description Cohort analysis focused on undergraduate students at Provincial University. This dataset draws on audited HEMIS Data provided by Provincial University to track the cohort of undergraduate students who first enrolled in 2010, up until 2016. The cohort data allows for disaggregation by school quintile, rural/urban/township area, as well as race and gender. The following qualification groupings have been analysed: 1 or 2 year Diplomas and Certificates; 3 year B-degrees; 4 year B-degrees; and the Access Programme (across two different campuses). 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2017 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact In process 
 
Title Life histories 
Description Four waves (2017 and 2018) of 66 (2017) and 63 (2018) and 60 (2019) and 58 (2020) in-depth student life histories across five universities, linked to this, coded data using Nvivo analysis and multiple relevant themes. It further includes shorter synopses based on each life history. A codebook has been produced. Whatsapp follow up (fieldnotes) 2021 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The life histories inform the development of an Inclusive Learning Outcomes Index and measurement debates and methods in the project as well as presentations and drafting of papers. The narrative elements of the life histories provide powerful material to discuss higher education with policy makers and practitioners. The life histories form the key empirical input for the Miratho book published in 2022. 
URL https://www.ufs.ac.za/hehd/home/our-work/completed/esrc-dfid-%27miratho%27-project
 
Title Master List 
Description A master list drawn from the 65 life histories which disaggregates each student by age, gender, school (and school quintile), home village or town, language spoken at home and at school, first in family to attend HE, degree programme being studied, and poverty category as developed by the project analysis. This updated annually. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Fundamental to analysis and presentations. 
 
Title Miratho Survey 
Description A higher education-biographic pilot survey was developed and administered to 39 of 65 Miratho life history students. It was then revised and administered to 742 students at one University (15% response) rate. The survey has been analysed and revised further as tool to be used more widely. The data set complements the life history data set and tests the projects capability set (derived empirically) with a wider range of students. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact too early to say 
URL https://www.ufs.ac.za/hehd/home/our-work/completed/esrc-dfid-%27miratho%27-project
 
Title National and provincial data set 
Description A data set mapping out 11 indicators comprised of 73 items or sub-indicators has been compiled drawing on national datasets, including: Census 2011, Community Survey 2016, EMIS data, and Youth Explorer data. The focus of the data set is the three main rural districts (Vhembe- Limpopo; Harry Gwala- Kwa-Zulu Natal; Joe Gqabi-Eastern Cape) from which the majority of the students participating in the Miratho project come, together with comparative provincial and national data. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2019 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact In process for research data analysis and for the Index. 
 
Title Photovoice 
Description A collection of 19 visual narratives comprising photographs and text produced by project participants in three regions: Free State, Gauteng and Limpopo 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2018 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Thus far the primary impact is on the student participants themselves in the skills and confidence they have acquired. 
 
Description Capability Approach 
Organisation University of Pretoria
Country South Africa 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Working with two lecturers at the University of Pretoria, Melanie Walker as honorary professor of the University of Pretoria is developing a research programme based in the capability approach and education.
Collaborator Contribution The UP lecturers sustain the collaboration at their University; they recruit graduate students and staff to the project.
Impact Collaborative project on sustainable universities
Start Year 2021
 
Description Charles Sheppard 
Organisation Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
Department Sustainability Research Unit
Country South Africa 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We developed a brief for Charles Sheppard to investigate HEMIS (Higher Education Management Informations Systems) data which all South African universities are required to report to government every year. The data allows longitudinal tracking of cohorts of students. The PI secured permission from the department of higher education to access the raw HEMIS data to undertake cohort studies.
Collaborator Contribution Charles Sheppard has completed the first cohort study of rural and township youth for the project.
Impact A working paper on the first cohort study.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Digital Story Telling 
Organisation Linnaeus University
Country Sweden 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Invitation to UFS to contribute to discussions on using digital participatory methods. Agreement to host five Linneaus masters students. PI delivered public lecture at Linneaus, September 2019.
Collaborator Contribution Training of senior researcher and two research assistants in digital story-telling methods
Impact Skills in making digital stories Successful research bid to STINT (Sweden)
Start Year 2019
 
Description Participatory Research Methods 
Organisation Polytechnic University of Valencia
Country Spain 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The PI is working on an edited book with Alejandra Boni on epistemic justice and narrative. The senior researcher is co-authoring a chapter. The collaboration has generated Erasmus 20+ mobility funding from 2020. This was renewed again for 2023. Webinars and face to face training. Co-edited book produced on reparative futures and transformative learning spaces (2023)
Collaborator Contribution Research methods training: In 2019 an extended workshop was held at the University of the Free State on participatory video methods.. Co-edited book. Erasmus 20+ Mobility funding bid
Impact Capacity building in research methods Edited books with Palgrave. Erasmus 20+ Mobility funding bid
Start Year 2019
 
Description Pavia 
Organisation University of Pavia
Department The Institute for Advanced Study of Pavia
Country Italy 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We worked as a team on a key aspect of the research, that of building a higher education index.
Collaborator Contribution Our partners have expertise in development economics and capabilities and are helping us at this stage with the design of a higher education index which we can then operationalize.
Impact The collaboration is inter-disciplinary. The output is a working paper authored by one of our Pavia collaborators.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Research and participatory methods 
Organisation Lancaster University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Ongoing collaboration on developing participatory methods including editing a special issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities for 2021. Development of project on Youth Voices on Social Justice and development of innovative 'hybrid' photovoice methodology
Collaborator Contribution Sharing of academic resources Editing Participatory research development
Impact Training workshops in research methods Project implementation in 2023
Start Year 2020
 
Description Thusanani Foundation 
Organisation Thusanani Foundation
Country South Africa 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The PI made contact with the Foundation pre-research proposal writing and maintained the contact and consultation through the writing of the proposal and its submission. Once the grant was award the Foundation was invited to join the first planning meeting, which took place over six days in Bloemfontein in October 2016. Two Foundation members joined for the duration. This process is building a strong and reciprocal partnership with a youth-led Foundation working on higher education access and success.
Collaborator Contribution The Foundation has generously been closely involved in project planning and are enabling our access to students at the five case study universities, as well as giving us access to their own tracking data of the students they support, and the school workshops they organise in rural areas. Their contributions to planning discussions and to choosing the project name have been invaluable for their understanding of issues around rural youth and access to higher education. They have worked with us on planning the first round of intensive data collection in March-April 2017, and three Foundation members will join us for the whole three weeks to work with the project team on data collection and early analysis.
Impact There are no outputs
Start Year 2016
 
Description Applying the capabilities approach to evaluate the impact of a photovoice study 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Webinar on Applying the capabilities approach to evaluate the impact of a photovoice study with low-income university students in South Africa, University of Minnesota, Postgraduate Student Seminar, 28 March 2022
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Aspirations 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Two day workshop held on 8-9 February 2023 in Berlin. Theme was Aspirations. Paper presented on aspirations drawing on Miratho data.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Bath 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper on epistemic contribution presented by Monica McLean in the School of Management at the University of Bath 27 June 2018.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://www.bath.ac.uk/ichem/pdf/the-capability-for-epistemic-contribution-a-case-of-university-stude...
 
Description Book launch 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Online launch of the Miratho book 31 October 2022
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Bristol 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This event was part of the School of Education's 'Bristol Conversations in Education' seminar series on 30 January 2018. Ann-Marie Bathmaker and Monica McLean presented in a panel on Rural Students' Transitions to and through Higher Education in South Africa. This seminar offered insights from two current ESRC funded projects (SARiHE and Miratho) on rural students' transitions to and through higher education in South Africa.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/events/2018/bcined30jan2.html
 
Description Capacity building for sub-Saharan early career researchers 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Research seminar for The Narrative Reading Group at the SARCHI Chair in Higher Education and Human Development Research Programme. University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, 'Miratho Students and Narrative Capability' April 1st, 2019. The discussion sparked interest in narrative capability. Led to plans for Colloquium.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description HDCA 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact In person conference panel on Towards an Epistemological Break: Redefining participatory research in capabilitarian scholarship
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description HEHD Colloquium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact A Colloquium was organised by the PI, Walker, over 1.5 days to highlight work on participatory research and to provide practical workshop training. Four international visitors joined the Colloquium as keynote speakers and workshop presenters. The Miratho senior researcher presented a paper on the Miratho photovoice project and co-convened a practical workshop. The colloquium provoked significant interest in narrative and participatory methods for youth empowerment, agency and futures.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Keynote presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote presentation for The Network for Evaluating and Researching University Participation Interventions (NERUPI) event for widening participation professionals. Paper titled 'The Capabilities Approach: Positively Supporting Student Success': 'The Capabilities Approach and Inclusive University Education' given at the University of Bath in London, 83, Pall Mall, March 11th, 2019. Idea was to both disseminate the capability approach and share Miratho data on Access.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Mikateko_UFS 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Media interview with Miketeko Hoppener for national Women's Day August 2018.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://vimeo.com/283470464
 
Description National education research conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Conference paper on Accessing University Education based on data from the Miratho project, with a view to disseminating these findings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Nottingham seminar 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Seminar in the School of Education, University of Nottingham 22 June 2018 on 'The capability for epistemic contribution as an inclusive learning outcome'. The seminar considered Martha Nussbaum's 'practical reason' capability - forming 'a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one's own life', and Miranda Fricker's (distinctly bi-directional conception of human well-being, as necessitating not only receiving but also giving, which formed the premise of the paper's argument for epistemic contribution as an inclusive learning outcome- understood here as the enhancement of university students' valued capabilities and functionings, but also as the development of students as givers of knowledge, and not just takers. The seminar made a case empirically for different forms of capital as sources of epistemic materials and demonstrated why epistemic contribution ought to be considered as an example of inclusive learning outcomes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/education/events/2017-18/research-seminars/epistemic-contribution.aspx
 
Description Nursing Department, UFS 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on photovoice as a method based on the experience of the Miratho project, with view to lecturers incorporating these ideas in their own teaching and research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description PRL South seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper presented by Mikateko Hoppener to the PRL organised Africa seminar for the Raising Learning Outcomes (RLO) programme, 14-16 September 2018. The papers presented in the Symposium represented the work of eleven research teams across nine countries - Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, South Africa and Uganda - highlighting common challenges such as resource scarcity and inequalities in access and learning associated with gender, disability and income. The Symposium concluded with an 'impact' session based on the South African context, with research presentations on the links between leadership and learning in rural and township schools Policy actors Professor Mary Metcalfe (former director-general of the South African Department of Higher Education and now with the Programme to Improve Learning Outcomes), Carol Nuga-Deliwe (Chief Director, Planning, Research and Coorindation at the Department of Basic Education, South Africa) and Godwin Khosa (CEO, National Education Collaboration Trust) offered insights on the influence of research on national-level decision-making, and Nompumelelo Mohohlwane (Deputy Director: Research, Monitoring & Evaluation, Department of Basic Education) shared advice to researchers on how to work with the government to provide evidence for policy impact.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.theimpactinitiative.net/event/event-%E2%80%98raising-learning-outcomes%E2%80%99-africa-s...
 
Description Participatory Photovoice as a Decolonizing Methodology, 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact An online webinar to disseminate the photovoice strand of the Miratho project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description PhD conference 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Pi Walker presented a keynote to the UWC-UFS-Wits second joint PhD conference. In her keynote she outlined the capability approach, its possibilities and the disagreements and extended the discussion to include ideas around student reflexivity and agency drawn from Margaret Archer. the idea was to stimulate conceptual engagement by postgraduate students.
Both Walker and Hoppener (senior researcher) acted as discussants for student papers over the 1.5 day conference.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Photovoice exhibition 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Photovoice project mounted a public exhibition at the University of the Free State at which at which the 19 the photostories were displayed. The student researchers were all brought to UFS for the 2 day meeting. They were on hand to explain why they had taken and chosen particular photographs and text. Working together, the photovoice participants produced a Common Book using their photographs but with new title and new captions. They also wrote an Inclusive University Charter and led a discussion colloquium.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Policy meetings 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The senior researcher in Miratho, Mikateko Hoppener met with senior people from Universities South Africa (USAF), the organization of vice-chancellors and the government Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Presidential keynote Human Development and Capability Association 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Presidential keynote presented at the annual conference of the HDCA. Streamed live and subsequently available on HDCA website.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Project Advisory Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact A workshop was held to discuss the project so far and to take advice from policy makers, academics and relevant NGOs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Project Colloquium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A one day online Colloquium was held in June 2021 to disseminate key findings from the Miratho project. The Colloquium addressed these questions: Through this Colloquium we hope that discussants and participants will consider and respond to one or more of these questions, or any questions of their own that they wish to discuss:
• What are the barriers and constraints to equality for low income students?
• What are the enablers for equality at the individual and institutional level for low-income students?
• How can opportunities and outcomes be monitored and evaluated with regard both to numbers of low-income students and processes that shape their opportunities and obstacle?
• How does this kind of project enable us to challenge unequal power relations and social structures towards transformation of higher education?
Prior to the conference a working paper and project research briefs were circulated.
PROGRAMME:

10.00-10.30 Introducing the research team & the project 5 mins (MW) and our normative approach 15 mins (MM/MW), Q and A 10 mins
10.30-11.20 Conversion factors and access (Patience) 15 mins
Participation at university (Mikateko) 20 mins
Moving on pathways (Monica) 15 mins
11.20-12.00 Discussants (2) (Mary Masehela, Ahmed Bhawa, 5 mins each - 3 key points),Q and A (40 mins)
12.00-12.15 SHORT BREAK 15 mins
12.15-12.35 A multi-dimensional higher education capability set (Melanie)
12.35-12.55 Discussant (Sioux McKenna, 5 mins), Q and A
12.55-1.00 Wrap up (Melanie)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Public Lecture 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Public lecture presented at Linnaeus University by Melanie Walker on the capability approach and epistemic justice.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Research Colloquium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact One day colloquium on 'Researching inequalities' using the capability approach. There were eight papers, four presented by early career researchers, three international presenters (UK, USA), one national presenter and one UFS presenter. Two discussants, one international and one national commented on the day. Colloquium included post graduate students and generated a great deal of debate and interest. Two of the international visitors also conducted capacity building workshops with postgraduate students on methodology and on intersectionality.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description SRHE Symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Papers presented: 1) Melanie Walker, The capability approach and higher education research: theoretical and empirical insights', and 2)
Monica McLean, Epistemological access and capability expansion at university, in the SRHE Symposium, Exploring Capability Theory in Higher Education Research : UK and International Perspectives, 7 June 2017
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Seoul keynote 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote talk introduced the significance of democratic capabilities to education and the well-being of societies
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Stakeholder meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Half day workshop on the Miratho project to update stakeholders on progress and findings so far.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Stakeholder workshop 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Half day workshop in Johannesburg, May 2018 to which stakeholders were invited from all public universities. The research team discussed their capability approach to the data and shared the first round of life history data. Participants were invited to discuss the data and the emergent capabilities in relation to their own professional practice. The audience comprised mainly lecturers with some policy people (university and national) and some student participants from the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Student Success project 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Melanie Walker appointed as member of advisory group for the Universities South Africa (USAF) research project on Student Success. First meeting in November 2020.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Taipei keynote 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A keynote talk introduced key ideas from the capability approach and their relevance to higher education globally.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Toronto Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Online workshop on using digital story telling methods in disability research
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description UCL Seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Melanie Walker presented a seminar on The public good of South African higher education and the lens of decoloniality at the UCL Institute of Education, 8 June 2017
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description University of Birmingham symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Symposium on Addressing inequalities in higher education: theoretical approaches and evidence from practice in South Africa, University of Birmingham, UK, 6 November 2017. Monica McLean and Ann-Marie Bathmaker presented a paper on Epistemic access for university students from disadvantaged backgrounds: South Africa's Miratho Project.
Melanie Walker presented a paper on Capability theorising and the Miratho project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description University of Oxford seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Melanie Walker did a presentation on Capabilities that Count - the Miratho Project on Inclusive Higher Education Learning Outcomes at St Anthony's College, University of Oxford
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description University presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on the Miratho project to new lecturers at the University of Venda.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description University public lecture 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact PI gave an invited public lecture on issues of curriculum transformation and the capability approach with view to disseminating ideas from the capability approach and the Miratho project as resources for university change.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description University seminar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Research seminar presented at Lancaster University by Mikateko Mathebula (senior researcher) to share and disseminate the work of the Miratho project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description University seminar, Lancaster 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Monica McLean, CI on Miratho, presented a paper on Knowledge and Graduates' to the Global Centre for Higher Education's Third Seminar in the Series: Key Debates in Higher Education Graduateness: What is a Graduate of Contemporary Higher Education?
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description University seminar, UFS 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The senior researcher together with a post doctoral fellow presented their paper on the capability for Ubuntu with a view to provoking and developing a global South account of the capability approach. The paper drew on Miratho data.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Panel on Equitable Education in a Time of Pandemic: A Capabilities Approach to Student Learning and Development hosted by University of Alberta Canada
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar on doing participatory research for the Participatory Methods Thematic Group of the Human Development and Capability Association
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://hd-ca.org/thematic_group/participatory-methods
 
Description Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Webinar on the Education in the time of COVID-19
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ceid/2020/09/25/covidwebinar/
 
Description Webinar HDCA conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper presented by Melissa Lucas, Faith Mkwananzi, Mikateko Mathebula and Carmen Martinez-Vargas on 'Students' agency and activism in creating sustainable institutions'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Webinar HDCA conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation in panel on Towards A Development Ethics That is Sustainable And Just: The Challenge of Decoloniality. Paper by Melanie Walker and Carmen Martinez Vargas titled 'Challenging the exclusionary 'epistemic line': A Global South Perspective on Sustainable Epistemic Governance'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Webinar HDCA conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper presented by Mikateko Mathebula and Carmen Martinez Vargas on 'Promoting indigenous cosmovisions for sustainable and decolonial higher education in South Africa'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact A project website has been set up with the aim of presenting information on the project in a way accessible to a wide range of stakeholders in and outside higher education. The website continues to be developed and now includes project information, video clips, working papers, resources and information on events. Four working papers have been added so far: Measurement Literature review by Alberta Spreafico 2016/1; Cohort Studies - 2016 by Charles Sheppard 20167/2; Accessing University by Melanie Walker and Mikateko Hoppener, 2017/3; Decolonization and knowledge inequalities by Carmen Martinez-Vargas 2017/4.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017
URL http://www.miratho.com
 
Description Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact A 'Critical Voices' workshop was organised to bring together primarily youth voices in higher education, with some participation of NGOs and academics, to discuss critically the capability approach and its relevance for higher education in South Africa and for re-imagining universities from a youth and non-academic perspective, as well as to elicit discussion of the project aims and methods. Advice was also sought on the range of stakeholders to engage with the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.miratho.com