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Financial aid contributes significantly to higher education participation in South Africa. However, while research focused on how financial aid improved access to University, little is known about its effect on ‘on-time' degree completion. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate to what extent financial aid affected the likelihood of on-time graduation as a function of selected student input and higher educational factors for students' success in studying towards a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). To better understand the above factors, the researcher conducted a quantitative study applying Event History Analysis (EHA) and the Input-Environment-Output (I-E-O) model (Astin, 1993). A logistic regression within a discrete-time model with a personperiod dataset was performed. Data from the 2013 to 2018 UCT student records formed the basis of this research with a sample size of N=842. Based on the literature review, the input variables were gender, race, age, school type, final grade 12 marks and students' performance in the National Benchmark Tests (NBT). The environmental variables were enrollment in the academic development and support programme ‘Step-Up' and financial aid. Contrary to expectation, the results for the environmental variables surprisingly revealed that receiving financial aid decreased the likelihood of on-time graduation. Receiving GAP Aid indicated no statistically significant association with on-time graduation. Furthermore, enrolment in Step Up significantly increased the likelihood of on-time graduation, all else being equal. The findings for the input variables indicated that females and younger students were more likely to graduate on time than males and older students. White students were more likely to graduate on time than Black, Coloured and Indian/Asian students, which shows that this issue remains a transformation issue for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Another unexpected result was that the type of school attended and participation in NSC English indicated no association with on-time graduation. Most notably, students with NSC Accounting had a more significantly positive likelihood of on-time graduation than students with NSC Mathematics only. The research findings contribute value to the discussions on accounting education research and how to improve on-time degree completion. Secondly, the results could benefit policy decisions for student admission to the BCom programme. While the research results will reflect the nature of this specific university, the findings may also be valuable to other public HEIs with similar admission standards and student bodies.

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The rise of crowdsourcing practices has revolutionized the way in which organizational tasks can be performed. One application of crowdsourcing that has been receiving growing attention over the past decade is using the crowd to collect environmental data that is needed to monitor, manage and predict environmental events. Most projects are still in their initial stages and since these projects often require high levels of citizen participation, there is a need to better understand the motivations for individuals to(dis)engage in these crowdsourcing projects, especially when long-term participation is required. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to explore the motivations of individuals that participated in a crowdsourcing project for environmental data collection. Building on Self-Determination Theory, Social Exchange Theory and Social Identity theory, a case was studied of an organization that successfully motivated citizens from all over the world to use their drones to collect geographic climate data. In total, ten interviews were conducted with the drone-operators. The findings suggest that participants felt intrinsically motivated to engage because they wanted to do good, cared about climate change and were passionate about flying drones. Additionally, they experienced extrinsic motivations such as the possibility of gaining future job offers, recognition, and experience. Moreover, since participation was deemed relatively easy and straightforward, costs of participation were low and outweighed by the benefits. Finally, feeling part of a wider community made the participants more motivated to engage. Using crowdsourcing to collect environmental data on a wider spatiotemporal scale can help guide policy-making that mitigates or manages the impacts of climate change. Future projects would benefit from more and diversified research that support the design of long-term participation schemes, as the success of the projects depends on the level of citizen engagement.

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