Abstract:
In 2016 alone, Google Scholar listed 301 results for
“student unrest”. These results listed countries such as South
Africa, Nigeria, India, Canada and the USA. The devastating
effects of student unrest on student well-being, academic
performance and career paths have been documented. Added to
this is the disastrous financial consequences that institutions of
higher education must endure. The purpose of this study is to draw
together the consequences of student unrest, highlighting those that
specifically impacted negatively on freshmen engineering students
in South Africa during 2016. The academic year in South Africa is
divided into two semesters, with approximately 260 students
registering for Electronics 1 in the first semester and 130
registering in the second semester. The same course is offered in
both semesters. During the first semester of 2016, no student unrest
was experienced. However, in the second semester, just after 8
weeks of instruction had passed, student unrest flared up. This
occurred at a critical time in the semester, as students were
preparing to complete their main test which contributes
significantly to their final grade at the end of the module. A
descriptive case study is used with descriptive statistics of the
quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data contrasts the
final academic grades of Electronic 1 students in 2016, where the
second semester students were affected by student unrest. Students
from this second semester were also asked to complete an online
questionnaire which sought to obtain their perspectives of the
unrest. Results indicate that students from Semester 1 (NO student
unrest) enjoyed a 10% higher median grade and 26% higher pass
rate for their exam as compared to students from Semester 2 (YES
student unrest). It must be emphasized that all these students were
exposed to the same course content, academic and assessments.
Furthermore, student perspectives primarily highlighted that their
study routine was negatively affected by the student unrest.
