Hopes, Challenges and Goals—Voices of First-Year At-Risk Higher Education Students in South Africa

ABSTRACT South African (SA) first-year university students are especially at risk due to poor performance, high dropout and student protest marches. They face challenges of academic performance, retention and decreased throughput rates. While some students overcome their challenges and risks to succeed into their second year of study, some fall prey to their challenges. These students become “at risk” of not succeeding into their second year of study. For student support strategies to work, listening to student voices may be necessary. The academic voices of students, especially those of first-year at-risk students should be heard by educators, society and policy makers. The study research question was: what do at-risk first-year students perceive to be their hopes, challenges and goals of their learning at a South African higher education institution? An open-ended survey questionnaire was administered to a purposive sample (n = 64) to capture student narrative perceptions. Thematic analysis explored three themes with subthemes. Subthemes of theme 1, student hopes, are to gain knowledge, understanding and motivation. Theme 2, student challenges, revealed subthemes of a lack of understanding, keeping pace with lecturers, rowdy classrooms and time management. Theme 3, student goals, produced one subtheme: to pass their modules. The study contributes theoretically by adding to the body of knowledge on first-year at-risk student perceptions. Practically, the findings offer educators, business, government and society insight into student academic, social and personal voices. Further research on first-year at-risk student voices in Africa is recommended.