M.Comm. (Accounting) / In January 2010, the Department of Accountancy at the University of Johannesburg changed their teaching and learning strategy. This new strategy moved away from a teacher-centered classroom experience to a student-centered approach. Several interventions were employed to accomplish this. Examples include: pre-reading in preparation of the next lecture, self-assessment tests of the main objectives of the topic under discussion, tutorials, assignments and consultation with peers and/or lecturers. Accounting education at the Department is based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). IFRS is seen as principle-based standards. Many educators of accounting will have to adapt their teaching strategies and approaches when they deal with principle-based standards. They need to move away from teaching the rules to facilitating the understanding of principles, so that it can be applied to various scenarios. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of academic trainees on a new teaching and learning strategy in the Department. This is done through a review of pedagogical approaches and strategies as suggested in the literature and then by gaining insight from academic trainees, through in-depth interviews, of the detailed working of the new teaching and learning strategy and the impact that the new teaching and learning strategy had on their learning of IFRS. The study found that the academic trainees perceived the new teaching and learning strategy to be successful and a good model to follow. It provides students with opportunities to learn in different ways, it encourages deep learning patterns and it places the responsibility for learning with the students so that they will become life-long learners. The teaching and learning strategy is not infallible and can be improved by providing more areas where students can debate multiple solutions, by incorporating more group work to enhance interpersonal skills and by explaining the workings and the purpose of the teaching and learning strategy more effectively.

M.Phil. (Energy Studies) / In recent years, the costs of electricity in South Africa have increased enormously, thus, most institutions of higher education are seeking ways to manage their utility costs by reducing consumption rates. Hampering their initiatives, however, is the fact that South Africa in general, and buildings in particular, lag the world in knowledge and implementation of demand side management strategies. This case study outlines the efforts of a large metropolitan university in Gauteng to examine the implementation of energy efficiency within the context of the green or sustainable campus movement. The study comprises three core parts: analysis of electricity consumption data; identification of institutional barriers inhibiting implementation of energy efficiency projects, and, lastly establishing key role players responsible for effective implementation. The study found that seasonality and the campus academic calendar both have profound effects on energy consumption. High demand coincides with winter and a distinct correlation was found between peak consumption and core working hours. Consumption peaked at an average of 2 500 kWh during active ‘in-session’ periods. Less active, ‘out-of-session periods’ recorded an average peak of 2 250 kWh. The lowest average peak consumption of 2 100 kWh occurred during ‘recess’ periods. Similar patterns were evident for the maximum demand. It was evident that the university had a high base load (between 1 300 kWh and 1 650 kWh). This high base load could be attributed mainly to the heating and cooling system. To stimulate decision making towards improved options, an energy savings financial model was developed to provide a tool for calculating the return on investment period for energy efficiency projects. Interviews conducted with key role players (in the university’s operations, academic and management divisions) and a staff questionnaire were used to establish the main barriers to energy efficiency implementation: a) the absence of an energy policy; b) a general low level of awareness of institutional energy efficiency activities and (c) the shortage of dedicated, skilled staff to implement energy efficiency projects. The managerial, operational, and financial divisions are arguably the key role players in energy efficiency projects. Lastly, leadership commitment from the highest levels of the university is required. The novel contribution of this thesis is through combining technological and behavioural approaches to energy efficiency at a tertiary institution through a mixed method study design. Key recommendations are presented to stimulate energy efficiency implementation.

M.Sc. (Environmental Management) / The University of Johannesburg (UJ) generates vast quantities of solid waste daily. One of the four campuses, Doornfontein campus, was chosen as study area, to calculate the amounts of waste generated and investigate changes in volume from 2009 to 2013. Waste collected from the campus was separated into recyclables and non-recyclables. The recyclable waste was then further divided into different categories, with each weighed separately. The discourse provides an overview of solid waste and the management thereof, in conjunction with a review of changes and updates to past and current legislation pertaining to waste management in South Africa. Furthermore, the study provides an assessment of waste management and recycling practices at international and national academic institutions and examines the UJ waste policy and policy implementation. Finally, the study provides recommendations for improving the management of waste at UJ.

A university’s alumnus grouping is one of its most valuable assets in terms of its potential financial, strategic and social contribution towards the credibility and longevity of the institution. The goodwill and support of a primary stakeholder grouping such as the alumni is crucial to the aspirations of a Higher Education institution wanting to prosper in a fast-changing and highly competitive market. Alumni members have the capacity to assist in strategically positioning a tertiary institution as a market leader in the South African Higher Education Sector (SAHES) by means of representation on the institutional council and their involvement in networking, lifelong learning, career services, mentoring, fundraising and community development activities. In light of the restructuring and transformation that this sector has undergone since 1994, building and maintaining valuable relationships with alumni stakeholders of tertiary institutions in South Africa has become a new and more difficult challenge. The integrated network approach of relationship management could give an institution the opportunity to create a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved. Information technology has had a significant impact on the power structure and relationship between organisations and their publics, stakeholders and the media. It has become extremely difficult for organisations to define and segment these audiences as, for example, Internet audiences are widely spread across geographical, cultural, and economic boundaries. This makes the packaging and dissemination of information a much more challenging task, as information needs to be generic enough to be commonly understood, but should also be personalised in such a way that it still addresses the different audience segmentations effectively. However, the identification and profiling of target audiences is critical for successful information dissemination, as this knowledge will guide the information managers within organisations in compiling relevant (to the target audiences) content and packaging the information in a way that is most suitable to the needs and resources of the targeted group. At the core of developing an alumni network is a secure database with an interactive Web-based platform allowing the alumni management teams and members to disseminate and share relevant information freely. According to a research project (the first phase of a longitudinal study) about disseminating information to UJ alumni, 98,2% of the respondents indicated that they wanted to have contact with the UJ Alumni Relations Office (Barnard, Rensleigh & Niemann, 2005). The majority of respondents, 86,7%, indicated that they preferred to receive the information via electronic mail or from the website. The research findings indicated that the UJ alumni stakeholder group is part of a privileged section of the South African population in the global and national digital divide. Thus, the alumni management of UJ had the opportunity to explore and use the information-sharing options offered by online and digital technologies. This research project forms the second phase of the ongoing research project in an attempt to discard the “one-size-fits-all” notion with regard to information sharing with the alumni stakeholders of tertiary institutions in South Africa. The aim of this research project is to determine the extent to which an online community portal could manage the information needs of alumni stakeholders in the SAHES, using the alumni of the University of Johannesburg as a case study. Establishing an online (virtual) community Web portal for UJ alumni will support a customised approach in terms of information content, dissemination, context and commerce. An online community environment will offer alumni opportunities to re-establish contact with peers and nurture relationships with one another through frequent social interaction (chat). Such a facility would allow and encourage conversations that are of value to all stakeholders, as these communities can exist beyond the boundaries of location and time. They foster not only the potential to promote business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C), but also consumer-to-consumer (C2C) interaction and could even exploit the possibilities of human-resource placements. The research consisted of an extensive literature review followed by a quantitative empirical survey and a qualitative discussion forum. The purpose of the literature review was to establish a theoretical framework in order to lay a solid foundation from which the empirical research was conducted. The different components of the research problem were discussed as well as possible variables that could influence the research problem. The restructuring of the South African Higher Education Sector was investigated, with specific focus on the University of Johannesburg and its alumni stakeholder group, taking an in-depth look into the value that an alumni stakeholder group holds for an institution. The management of alumni information needs was discussed, using Web-technology as focal point. Online community portals were defined, emphasising the benefits that this information tool could have for Higher Education alumni. As part of the quantitative study, an empirical survey was conducted in April 2006 among the alumni of the University of Johannesburg to determine their information needs concerning an online community portal, and the content required of such an online community model. A total number of 10 380 questionnaires was distributed to graduates of the University of Johannesburg at the Autumn Graduation ceremonies. The questionnaire consisted of four sections, namely Section A: Biographical Information, Section B: Online Activities, Section C: Alumni Information Services and Section D: Alumni Community Needs. In total, 1 703 questionnaires were completed and returned by these graduates to the UJ Alumni Relations Office. In addition, a qualitative discussion forum was conducted among 35 alumni management representatives from fourteen SAHES institutions during August 2006. The representatives indicated how information was disseminated electronically to alumni target audiences and their opinions towards alumni online community portals were tested. The research results indicated that an online community portal, could manage, to a great extent, the information needs of alumni in the South African Higher Education Sector (UJ alumni case study). Consequently, a prototype was proposed for an online community portal for SAHES alumni that would have a significant impact on the information and communication methods used to build alumni networks, for the benefit of both the alumni stakeholders and the Higher Education institutions in South Africa. Although the alumni of the University of Johannesburg served as a case study for this research project, the proposed prototype could be tailored to the needs of other alumni organisations throughout the South African Higher Education Sector. In terms of inter-institutional collaboration, this research project offers an opportunity to liaise and share information with other alumni organisations of the SAHES. This could result in successfully identifying a best practice model for managing the information needs of alumni stakeholder groups of tertiary institutions in developing countries, which is significantly different from the philanthropic approach to these stakeholder groups in first world countries. As a result, the employment sector of Higher Education institutions in South Africa could gain from the research outcomes, as the proposed prototype will offer an ICT and Web-based solution which could be applied for the mutual benefit of the relevant stakeholder groups and the institutions. / Prof. Chris Rensleigh

Using Margaret Archer’s social realist methodology, this study critically examines the construction of the tutorial system in several departments and faculties at the Auckland Park campus of the University of Johannesburg. The purpose of the study is to investigate the extent to which tutorials support the acquisition of programme and disciplinary epistemologies. Social realism calls for analytical dualism of ‘the people’ (agents) from ‘the parts’ (structure and culture). This requires the separate consideration of structures (social systems, rules, roles, practices, policies, institutions, and organisational structures like committees, units, departments, faculties), culture (ideologies, theories, beliefs and values as evidenced in discourses), and agency (people and their ability to act within and upon their own world in terms of their social roles and positions dependent on their ability to activate their emergent properties and powers). Through this investigation, an understanding was gained into how the emergent properties and powers contained within the material, ideational and agential elements helped to generate certain events and practices in the tutorial system. These generative mechanisms were examined to explore whether they enabled or constrained the construction of the tutorial system to provide epistemological access. The study shows that while many official policy documents construct the tutorial system as being an intervention to support academic success, particularly for first-years, there are some tensions within the document discourses, where, on the one hand, student success is constructed in terms of throughput numbers, or, on the other hand, as being about becoming a particular kind of person who is able to access and add to powerful knowledge. Furthermore, the study found that policies are not being consistently implemented. While certain key agents and actors, in the form of management, academics and tutors, were found to be able to overcome constraints and introduce innovative ways of enhancing access to target epistemologies, there is a need for consideration of structural and cultural constraints. For example, structures in the form of funding, venues and timetabling were found to constrain the tutorial system as did some of the discourses in the cultural domain: for example, in the form of certain dominant discourses around teaching and learning, beliefs about the purpose of the tutorial and the relationship between academics and the tutorial system. The study also found that the ontological aspects of ‘learning to be’ were not fore-grounded to any great extent in the ways in which the tutorial system was constructed. There needs to be more consideration of the ontological as well as the epistemological aspects of first-year study so as to take cognisance of the different learning needs of an increasingly diverse student body and to encourage the development of the student agency necessary for a deep engagement with the disciplinary epistemologies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of academic libraries in providing services to culturally diverse student populations. In this study the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of the culturally diverse students of the Technikon Witwatersrand were analysed. The study also tried to establish whether there are differences in information needs and information-seeking behaviour of various cultural groups. The empirical investigation was conducted by means of focus group interviews and a questionnaire survey on a sample of undergraduate students of the Technikon Witwatersrand. There were assumptions that African students have limited experience in using the academic library, have no computer and information handling skills and might have language difficulties. Therefore, the expectation was that African students might have problems in the use of the academic library. However, the results of the empirical study show that English and Afrikaans speaking students are experiencing more problems than African students. / Information Science / M.Inf.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of academic libraries in providing services to culturally diverse student populations. In this study the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of the culturally diverse students of the Technikon Witwatersrand were analysed. The study also tried to establish whether there are differences in information needs and information-seeking behaviour of various cultural groups. The empirical investigation was conducted by means of focus group interviews and a questionnaire survey on a sample of undergraduate students of the Technikon Witwatersrand. There were assumptions that African students have limited experience in using the academic library, have no computer and information handling skills and might have language difficulties. Therefore, the expectation was that African students might have problems in the use of the academic library. However, the results of the empirical study show that English and Afrikaans speaking students are experiencing more problems than African students. / Information Science / M.Inf.