IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jfr/ijhe11/v11y2022i7p24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Postgraduate Students’ Perceptions of Support Services Rendered by a Distance Learning Institution

Author

Listed:
  • Mapheleba Lekhetho

Abstract

Postgraduate studies are generally draining for most students because of the high rigour and cognitive demands required. They are even more arduous for students in a distance-learning context as most of them are full-time employees and lack enough time for their studies. Consequently, they tend to have low success rates due to a lack of required academic and research skills, low English proficiency, and inadequate student support. Underpinned by Simpson's student support model, this research adopted a qualitative approach and a focus group technique to probe nine Ethiopian doctoral students about their perceptions of the support provided by the University of South Africa (Unisa). From a thematic analysis of the themes that recurred, the findings revealed that despite the challenges, most students appreciated the support provided, particularly by supervisors who guided them efficiently and gave them feedback promptly. To improve graduation rates, it is recommended that supervisors be trained in effective supervision and support of students from diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds.

Suggested Citation

  • Mapheleba Lekhetho, 2022. "Postgraduate Students’ Perceptions of Support Services Rendered by a Distance Learning Institution," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(7), pages 1-24, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:jfr:ijhe11:v:11:y:2022:i:7:p:24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/ijhe/article/download/21441/13239
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/ijhe/article/view/21441
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jfr:ijhe11:v:11:y:2022:i:7:p:24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sciedu Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.