TRANSITING FROM RURAL HIGH SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY: THE CHALLENGES OF GETTING INTO AN APPROPRIATE DEGREE PROGRAMME

Transiting from rural high school to university is stressful enough, but enrolling into a suitable degree programme is even more demanding in this era of heightened competition for places at institutions of higher learning. Thus, the purpose of this study was to find out how rural high school leavers get admitted to tertiary institutions and how they go about choosing their degrees. A phenomenological qualitative design strategy was adopted for this research. This methodology facilitated the exploration of rural first year students’ adaptation experiences at university and it also facilitated the highlighting of some of the issues affecting them in getting a place for tertiary studies. Purposive sampling was used to select participants for the study which was coupled with focus-group interviews for data collection while thematic content analysis was used to determine the transitional experiences of the participating students. The results of this study indicate that there is hardship in getting into a suitable degree programme and this is more dominant among learners from rural areas than among those from urban areas. The study further revealed that challenges such as limited spaces in higher institutions, not meeting minimum selection requirements as well as economic challenges are more widespread among learners from rural areas. It is envisaged that the findings of the study will assist University Faculties and Heads of Departments to better understand the transitional experiences of rural school leavers.