Top Honours for UKZN First-Year Experience Programme

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UKZN’s First-Year Experience Programme (FYEP) received the Best Paper Award at the 2025 Siyaphumelela Network Student Success Conference in Johannesburg.

Professor Ruth Hoskins, Dr Sharmla Rama, Ms Rakheeba Bux and Ms Phindile Ngubane of the Office of the Dean of Teaching and Learning in the College of Humanities, presented the paper entitled: ‘The First-Year Experience at the University of KwaZulu-Natal: Scaling Equity-Centred High-Impact Practices’.

The paper highlighted UKZN's FYEP which enrols about 9 000 first-year students mostly from quintile 1-3 schools annually across the four Colleges and five campuses.

The FYEP is a non-credit-bearing, year-long, holistic, university-wide initiative designed to support students’ transition to university through a hyflex pedagogic model. Grounded in UKZN’s commitment to access, equity, diversity, and social justice, the FYEP comprises four units with structured assessments.

Key academic and support staff from the four Colleges and the University developed the FYEP.

Students earn completion certificates, and from 2024, participation was mandatory for graduation under the new BR10 rule (Bachelor Rule). The FYE is facilitated using peer mentorship which fosters belonging and engagement.

The senior peer mentor support enables an environment for social interaction, and support networks for first-year students. Student voice is integrated through regular evaluations of the units and mentoring sessions while quality assurance is achieved through the annual review of the curriculum content.

UKZN’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Nana Poku provided part of the initial funding for the FYEP.

The paper highlighted the importance of cross-institutional collaboration, committed leadership, and adapting high-impact practices to students’ contexts. A future aim of the FYEP is to integrate artificial intelligence and data analytics to identify at-risk students early and to strengthen academic tracking, monitoring and support.

The insights the paper presented would benefit institutions seeking to implement scalable, equity-centred first-year initiatives.

Words: NdabaOnline

Photograph: Supplied