Facilitating equitable access and quality education for development: South African International Distance Education

Presently, the gross enrolment rate for higher education (HE) across Africa runs at only 8 per cent - the lowest in the world. Yet for policy makers throughout the continent, HE is regarded as a vital tool to bring about sustainable economic development. This is echoed by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in September 2015, which call for equitable access to high quality tertiary education in their toolkit for ending poverty by 2030. This push for an educated population abuts a reality where, in many African countries, HE demand far outstrips supply and is only addressed by the wealthy through migration. Distance education across national borders is filling that gap. Indeed, one third of student registrations in South Africa, a country where higher education is well established, are made up from this international distance education (IDE) cohort. Despite its importance to the African HE landscape, and its potential contribution to continent-wide development challenges, the workings of IDE remain under-researched. Thus, this project fills a significant and timely gap in knowledge which will generate learning of substantial relevance to social and economic development throughout Africa in the decade to come.

This project focuses on two areas vital to the future success of IDE in Africa: equality of access to education, and the quality of that education. Research on IDE in other settings demonstrates that this learning style can improve access for students facing demographic and social disadvantages (including gender, race, and disability, as well as learners studying later in life or learners with caring responsibilities). This project will investigate these issues in the African setting, asking "can IDE can generate equitable access to students from across the continent?" Educational quality is important too. Of the South African student cohort in the year 2000, only 30 per cent graduated within five years with attainment levels. Other research also shows that student retention is markedly lower in students from non-traditional backgrounds. The project will investigate the role of education quality plays here, asking "how can the quality of IDE be assessed, and what improvements can be made to create better student outcomes?"

The project will examine IDE delivered by the University of South Africa (the sole provider of DE in South Africa until 2014) to students elsewhere in the continent. Research will collect demographic and socio-economic data, reasons for study, labour market intentions, migration plans and educational experience of student cohorts in three countries, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Nigeria using both qualitative and quantitative methods. This will be compared with South African students and with students studying face-to-face where this data exists. The project will also build on the OU's Learning Design Initiative (OULDI). Using techniques from this innovative programme, existing student performance and reasons for it will be analysed, changes will be made to learning design, and the effects of the design changes will be tested on the following year's cohort. This knowledge exchange will enable the existing and successful OULDI strategy to be employed in another context, and enhance the future development of the OULDI.

Central to the success of this project is a team of researchers from top DE institutions in the UK and South Africa. The two universities are continental leaders in learning pedagogies and have established links with key players in the field of IDE and the project's findings will inform teaching approaches at both institutions. The project will be led by Dr Gunter and Prof Raghuram who have a successful track record of collaborative research on South African international HE, with a strong team of co-investigators from each country. The project is informed by postcolonial theory and politics and aims to experiment with two way learning on IDE globally.

This project has been designed to address an immediate and pressing problem in the African higher education (HE) landscape. It comes at a time where the gap in African HE provision is gaining recognition, and the need to fill this gap is reflected in the strategies of a key international organisation (UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 calls for " inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" in their strategy to eliminate poverty by 2030).

As a consequence, impact is located at the heart of this project. The project investigates the role of international distance education (IDE) as a tool for providing HE to students across Africa. In the short term, the project's beneficiaries will be the learners and teachers themselves, with findings facilitating immediate practical changes which will improve both access to HE and the quality of the education provided. In the long term, anticipated to be the decade following project completion, the project's beneficiaries will be in policy and administration whose activities will filter through to learner and academic practice. The actions of this group will also contribute to sustainable economic development strategies, where managing skills shortages and reducing brain drain are significant challenges. The new body of knowledge generated by the research will be instrumental in reshaping HE provision through IDE of particular pertinence to the African experience and with relevance globally. Finally, in both the short and long term, the project will generate knowledge exchange between the two partner institutions, with findings used to improve practice at the Open University (OU) and the University of South Africa (UNISA). A workshop with IDE providers in the emerging DE landscape in South Africa will ensure that the findings from this study are disseminated amongst South African academic beneficiaries.

The short term benefits will emerge from the Academic and Professional Advisory Group (APAG) networks The project's APAG will draw together central actors in the African IDE community, including representatives from UNISA, and South African, African continental and global organisations that represent IDE. Through the APAG, the project will have a direct link to these project beneficiaries, enabling immediate access to research findings and enabling them to contribute to the direction of the research. The project will also run a series of best practice and knowledge exchange events with key figures from the African and UK IDE and HE community. These will be simultaneously webcast and available for subsequent viewing to enable wide participation.

The long term benefits will emerge from the best practice and policy reports which will be prepared towards the end of the project. One comprehensive end of project report will be prepared aimed at the international policy and NGO community working on HE in Africa and one on pedagogy. In addition, four country reports will be prepared covering the four case study countries, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Nigeria and South Africa. These reports will outline solutions to country-specific issues around take up and success of IDE. Throughout the project, through the APAG and through contributions to relevant conferences and meetings, the project team will generate awareness of the research programme and the findings it will generate, to ensure wide take up of the publications.

The project team is led by two researchers with proven capability to deliver impact on this scale. PI Raghuram's recent ESRC funded research on skilled migration (rated Outstanding) delivered its findings through a successful seminar series and practitioner publications archive, as well as running a research findings dissemination event at the UK House of Lords. PI Gunter is an invited member of the advisory board of the School of Social Science at Monash South Africa and is thus well connected with the country's HE administration.