Gateway to Success: An integrated academic and student life orientation programme for new first-year students

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v13i1.5380

Keywords:

first-year experience, holistic support, student success, integrated student support

Abstract

The transition from high school to university is widely recognized as challenging for many students, but was especially challenging for students who experienced almost two years of disrupted schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) ran a one-week first year orientation programme. In mid-2021, as the severity of the pandemic was easing, it was clear that new students would need more than one week to adjust not just to university life but also to in-person interactions. As Academic Affairs and Student Affairs leaders we therefore undertook to design and implement an extended, integrated academic and student life orientation programme that would be compulsory for all 6500 new first year students in 2022 called Gateway to Success (GTS). Rapidly changing circumstances meant we had only four months to do this. In this paper we discuss the design of GTS and explain how we could plan it so quickly by utilizing a networking approach combined with a modified agile project management approach we had been developing since 2019. We then provide student evaluation results from 2022, and discuss how GTS was modified in 2023 when pandemic-related restrictions were lifted. We conclude with a discussion of how GTS has been embedded in university structures and processes and contributes to our institutional commitment to student success.

Author Biographies

  • Diane Grayson, University of the Witwatersrand

    Diane Grayson was Senior Director: Academic Affairs at the University of the Witwatersrand from 2018 to 2023, where she was responsible for teaching and learning, student success and quality. She was also Personal Professor of Physics. Prior to this, she designed and implemented the Quality Enhancement Project, a national project to systemically improve student success, while Director of Institutional Audits at the Council on Higher Education. Before that she worked in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education at several South African institutions, and served on national and international STEM committees, including the International Commission on Physics Education and Women in Physics in South Africa. She is currently Honorary Professor in the School of Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand.

  • Elisabeth Brenner, University of the Witwatersrand

    Elisabeth Brenner was Associate Professor in the School of Molecular and Cell Biology and Assistant Dean: Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Science at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where she set up the Science Faculty Student Success Centre. She served on numerous University committees, including as chair of the board overseeing writing intensive courses.  She has won national and University teaching awards, and been curriculum coordinator for a University access programme for talented learners from historically disadvantaged communities. After retiring in 2017, she spent two years leading the Research Capacity Development Unit at the University of Johannesburg. She is now Professor Emerita at Wits, and undertakes various consulting roles for the University.

  • Jerome September, University of the Witwatersrand

    Jerome September was appointed as Dean of Student Affairs at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in May 2018 after joining the University as Deputy Dean of Student Affairs in February. Prior to that he was Head of Student Affairs at Sol Plaatjie University, where he was responsible for strategic and operational leadership of the Student Affairs Division. Before that he worked at the University of Cape Town from 2005 to 2012 and 2014 to 2015, first as Manager for Student Governance and Leadership and later as Special Projects Advisor to the Director of the International Academic Programmes Office.

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Published

2025-07-30

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2025): Rethinking higher education: Public and private synergies for student success in Africa

Section

Reflective Practice

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Diane Grayson; Elisabeth Brenner, Jerome September (Author)

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How to Cite

Gateway to Success: An integrated academic and student life orientation programme for new first-year students. (2025). Journal of Student Affairs in Africa , 13(1). https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v13i1.5380