A SOCIAL REALIST PERSPECTIVE 

OF ACADEMIC ADVISING IN A 

SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER 

EDUCATION CONTEXT: A STUDY OF 

PRACTICES AND PRACTITIONERS 
 

Danie de Klerk 

747172 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This thesis is submitted in accordance with the requirements for the 

degree Doctor of Philosophy (Education) in the Faculty of the 

Humanities (School of Education) at the University of the Witwatersrand, 

Johannesburg. 

 

Under supervision of Prof. Laura Dison 

 

Date:  13 March 2023



i 

ABSTRACT 

The South African higher education sector has numerous challenges to contend with. Students' 

prospects of success are often vulnerable to uneven secondary schooling, structural and 

material constraints, massification of the sector, and a range of other factors. In this thesis, I 

argue that academic advising has the potential to help find responsive and sustainable 

solutions to address these challenges. Academic advising is well established in the global north. 

In contrast, it remains an emerging field of practice in South Africa, with a dearth of literature 

about how advising is developed and practiced within the country’s unique higher education 

context. This thesis aims to contribute to the limited knowledge base about advising as a 

practice and the work of academic advisors as practitioners in South Africa. The study provides 

a social realist perspective of the emergence of advising within a South African higher education 

context. It draws on Margaret Archer’s work on structure, culture, and agency, the 

morphogenetic approach, and the notion of stratified layers of social reality to analyse data, 

make inferences, and draw conclusions. This is a qualitative study that adopts a mixed-

methods approach. The research paradigm is phenomenological, while phenomenographic 

principles are used selectively to advance the objectives of the study. The data that informs the 

study consists of a quantitative baseline dataset and qualitative data collected through semi-

structured interviews with 15 academic advisors working at the University of the Witwatersrand. 

As this is a PhD by publication, the thesis consists of four interconnected papers (i.e., chapters), 

bookended by introduction and conclusion chapters. The first paper provides insights about 

advising as gleaned from the baseline data, while the second draws on the same data to 

highlight the impact of students’ structural and material constraints on the work of academic 

advisors. Papers three and four use interview data to glean academic advisor insights about 

advising prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. The thesis concludes by 

highlighting the transformative potential of academic advising for South African higher 

education yet cautions that a major shift in the way advising is perceived and practiced is 

required for its potential to be realised. 

 

Keywords 

academic advising; academic advisor; decontextualized learner; higher education; 

morphogenesis; social realism; South Africa; structure, culture, agency; student advising 



ii 

PLAGIARISM 

DECLARATION 

I declare that this is my own unaided work and is, to the best of my knowledge and 

belief, original. 

 

I have read and understood the Senate policy on plagiarism and am aware that 

plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional “failure to acknowledge the ideas or writing 

of another” or “presentation of the ideas or writing of another as one’s own”. In this 

context “other” means any other person including a student, academic, professional, 

published author or other resource such as the internet. Failing to acknowledge the 

use of ideas of others constitutes an important breach of the values and conventions 

of the academic enterprise. 

 

I am aware that plagiarism offences will be dealt with in terms of Senate policy and 

may be subject to disciplinary action. 

 

I (full names & surname): Danie de Klerk 

Student number: 747172 

 

Declare the following: 

1. I understand what plagiarism entails and I am aware of the University’s policy in 

this regard. 

2. I declare that this assignment is my own, original work. Where someone else’s 

work was used (whether from a printed source, the internet or any other source), 

due acknowledgement was given, and reference was made according to set 

requirements. 

3. I did not copy and paste any information directly from an electronic source (e.g., a 

web page, electronic journal article or CD ROM) into this document. 

4. I did not make use of another student’s previous work and submitted it as my own. 

5. I did not allow and will not allow anyone to copy my work with the intention of 

presenting it as their own work. 

 

 

  5 September 2023 

Signature  Date 

 



iii 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

I would like to acknowledge and extend my appreciation to the Wits Faculty of 

Commerce, Law, and Management Research Committee, which awarded me a small 

research grant in 2021 that helped finalise data collection and the transcription of 

recordings. 

 

Prof. Laura Dison, my supervisor, has been exceptional. Her insights, support, 

guidance, and care throughout this journey of ups and downs have been invaluable. I 

would like to thank her in particular for always being available to meet and for 

encouraging met to challenge assumptions and push through boundaries. This study 

would not have been possible without her. 

 

I am sincerely appreciative of the academic advisors who made themselves available 

to participate in interviews, especially considering their exceptionally busy schedules. 

 

To my colleague and friend, Tshepiso Maleswena, thank you for being there to listen, 

for allowing me to soundboard, and for understanding. Your companionship made the 

journey so much more enjoyable. 

 

A sincere word of thanks to my family, friends, and colleagues for their support and 

encouragement throughout this adventure. 

 

Last, but in no way least, to my fiancé Stefan whose sacrifice to make this PhD study 

possible, went far beyond what was expected of him. Thank you for your support, love, 

and care. Thank you for allowing me many early mornings, late afternoons, and 

weekends to read and write. And above all, thank you for always understanding. 

 

 

 



iv 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ i 

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION ............................................................................................... ii 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... iii 

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ iv 

LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. ix 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ..................................................................... x 

PREFACE ............................................................................................................................ xii 

 

CHAPTER 1 | OVERALL INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 

 

1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 

1.2. Background and Context ............................................................................................ 2 

1.3. Rationale .................................................................................................................... 5 

1.4. Academic Advising ..................................................................................................... 5 

1.5. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................... 7 

1.6. The Study ................................................................................................................... 8 

1.6.1. Research strategy ............................................................................................... 8 

1.6.2. Methodology ........................................................................................................ 8 

1.6.3. Method and data collection ................................................................................ 10 

1.6.4. Research questions ........................................................................................... 12 

1.6.5. Scope of the study ............................................................................................. 13 

1.6.6. Ethical considerations........................................................................................ 13 

1.6.7. Research funding .............................................................................................. 14 

1.7. Structure .................................................................................................................. 14 

1.7.1. Paper one: Insights about advising gleaned from the baseline data .................. 15 

1.7.2. Paper two: The impact of students’ structural and material constraints on advisin . 

 .......................................................................................................................... 15 

1.7.3. Paper three: Insights from academic advisors about advising prior to COVID-19 .. 

 .......................................................................................................................... 15 

1.7.4. Paper four: Insights from academic advisors about advising during COVID-19 . 16 

1.8. References ............................................................................................................... 16 

 



v 

CHAPTER 2 | MAKING KNOWN THE REAL: AN 

EXPLORATION OF ACADEMIC ADVISING PRACTICES IN A 

SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT 

 

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 24 

2.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 25 

2.2. Background and Literature ....................................................................................... 26 

2.2.1. Why academic advising? ................................................................................... 26 

2.2.2. International literature on academic advising ..................................................... 27 

2.2.3. South African literature on academic advising ................................................... 27 

2.3. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................. 29 

2.4. Methodology ............................................................................................................. 31 

2.4.1. Creating the baseline dataset ............................................................................ 31 

2.4.2. Clustering and categorising overarching and subsidiary categories in the baseline 

dataset .............................................................................................................. 32 

2.5. Findings ................................................................................................................... 35 

2.5.1. Overarching Category 1: Academic Matters ...................................................... 35 

2.5.2. Overarching Category 2: Follow-Up Sessions ................................................... 36 

2.5.3. Overarching Category 3: Other Matters ............................................................. 37 

2.5.4. Overarching Category 4: Psychosocial Matters ................................................. 37 

2.5.5. Overarching Category 5: Referrals .................................................................... 38 

2.5.6. Overarching Category 6: Skills .......................................................................... 39 

2.5.7. Overarching Category 7: Socio-Economic Matters ............................................ 39 

2.6. The Baseline Data .................................................................................................... 39 

2.7. Discussion ................................................................................................................ 40 

2.7.1. The Empirical, the Actual and the Real .............................................................. 40 

2.8. Making Known Some of the Real ............................................................................. 41 

2.8.1. Grants ............................................................................................................... 41 

2.8.2. Evidence-informed approaches to academic advising ....................................... 43 

2.9. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 44 

2.10. References ............................................................................................................... 45 

 

 



vi 

CHAPTER 3 | DEMYSTIFYING THE WORK OF SOUTH 

AFRICAN ACADEMIC ADVISORS: AN EXPLORATION OF 

STUDENTS’ STRUCTURAL AND MATERIAL CONSTRAINTS 

 

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 53 

3.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 54 

3.2. Background .............................................................................................................. 55 

3.3. Literature and Context .............................................................................................. 56 

3.3.1. Academic advising ............................................................................................................. 56 

3.3.2. Structural and material constraints .................................................................................. 57 

3.3.2.1. Funding limitations within the South African higher education sector .......... 57 

3.3.2.2. The “hidden” costs of university study ........................................................ 59 

3.3.2.3. Food (in)security on South African campuses ............................................ 59 

3.3.2.4. The South African student accommodation crisis ....................................... 60 

3.3.2.5. Black tax .................................................................................................... 62 

3.4. Theoretical Underpinnings ........................................................................................ 63 

3.5. Methodology and Data ............................................................................................. 64 

3.6. Findings ................................................................................................................... 64 

3.6.1. Overarching category “socio-economic matters” ............................................................. 65 

3.6.2. Student gender and race information .............................................................................. 66 

3.7. Discussion ................................................................................................................ 67 

3.8. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 69 

3.9. References ............................................................................................................... 70 

 

CHAPTER 4 | ESTABLISHING A BASELINE: A SOCIAL 

REALIST PERSPECTIVE OF ACADEMIC ADVISING AT A 

SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY PRIOR TO COVID-19 

 

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 82 

4.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 83 

4.2. The South African Higher Education Context ........................................................... 85 

4.3. Theoretical Underpinnings ........................................................................................ 86 

4.4. Literature .................................................................................................................. 87 

4.5. Methodology and Data ............................................................................................. 89 



vii 

4.6. Analysis and Discussion ........................................................................................... 90 

4.6.1. Focus Area 1: Urgency to help others (agency) ................................................. 90 

4.6.2. Focus Area 2: Representation (agency emergent from structure and culture) ... 91 

4.6.3. Focus Area 3: Counteracting entrenched inequities (agency stemming from 

structure and culture)......................................................................................... 92 

4.6.4. Focus Area 4: Enabling student agency by fostering a growth mindset (agency)

 .......................................................................................................................... 94 

4.6.5. Focus Area 5: Issues of help-seeking among students (culture and student 

agency) ............................................................................................................. 95 

4.6.6. Focus Area 6: Poor institutional integration of academic advising (structure and 

culture) .............................................................................................................. 97 

4.6.7. Focus Area 7: Dissonance between advising and the core academic project 

(structure and culture) ....................................................................................... 98 

4.6.8. Focus Area 8: Resource constraints (structure and, to an extent, culture) ....... 100 

4.6.9. Focus Area 9: Manifestation of power relations (culture and, by extension, 

structure) ......................................................................................................... 101 

4.7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 102 

4.8. References ............................................................................................................. 103 

 

CHAPTER 5 | ACADEMIC ADVISING DURING EMERGENCY 

REMOTE TEACHING AND LEARNING: A SOUTH AFRICAN 

HIGHER EDUCATION PERSPECTIVE 

 

Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 110 

5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 111 

5.2 Background and Context ........................................................................................ 112 

5.3 Literature Review ................................................................................................... 114 

5.4 Theoretical and Analytical Framework .................................................................... 115 

5.5 Methodology and Data Analysis ............................................................................. 117 

5.6 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 117 

5.6.1. Advisor wellbeing to the benefit of student wellbeing and success .................. 118 

5.6.2. Inequities foregrounded through advising ........................................................ 119 

5.6.3. Connecting dimensions of advising: Students, academics and the broader 

institutional community .................................................................................... 121 

5.7 Conclusion and Way Forward................................................................................. 123 

5.8 References ............................................................................................................. 124 

 



viii 

CHAPTER 6 | GENERAL DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 

 

6.1 Implications for Advising and Advisors ................................................................... 131 

6.1.1. Shifting the role of academic advisors ............................................................. 131 

6.1.2. Intentionally integrating advising into the student learning experience ............. 131 

6.1.3. Changing how advising is perceived and practiced ......................................... 132 

6.1.4. Student belonging and the role of advising ...................................................... 133 

6.2 Reflecting on my advising philosophy ..................................................................... 134 

6.2.1. Aspects of the philosophy that remains the same ............................................ 134 

6.2.2. Aspects of the philosophy that can be re-envisaged ........................................ 137 

6.3 Implications for my Growth as Researcher ............................................................. 139 

6.3.1. Decision to do the PhD by publication ............................................................. 140 

6.3.2. Slowing down scholarship ............................................................................... 147 

6.4 Final Thoughts ....................................................................................................... 148 

6.4.1. Limitations and further research ...................................................................... 149 

6.4.2. Closing comments ........................................................................................... 151 

6.5 References ............................................................................................................. 152 

 

COMPREHENSIVE REFERENCE LIST ........................................................................... 158 

APPENDIX A .................................................................................................................... 183 

APPENDIX B .................................................................................................................... 184 

APPENDIX C .................................................................................................................... 186 

APPENDIX D .................................................................................................................... 187 

Appendix E ....................................................................................................................... 188 

Appendix F........................................................................................................................ 189 

Appendix G ....................................................................................................................... 190 

Appendix H ....................................................................................................................... 191 

Appendix I ......................................................................................................................... 192 

Appendix J ........................................................................................................................ 199 

 

 



ix 

LIST OF TABLES 
Chapter 1 

Table 1: Research timeline………………………………………………………………………… 10 

 

Chapter 2 

Table 1: Overarching and Subsidiary Category Data gleaned from the Baseline Dataset ... 33 

 

Chapter 3 

Table 1: Overarching category Socioeconomic Matters and associated subsidiary categories

 ........................................................................................................................................... 65 

Table 2: Student race and gender information gleaned from the complete baseline dataset 66 

Table 3: Overarching category socioeconomic matters cross-referenced with gender and race 

information .......................................................................................................................... 67 

 

Chapter 6 

Table 1: List of articles and chapters published between December 2021 and December 2022.

 ......................................................................................................................................... 144 

 

Appendices 

Table 1: High-level summary of the sub-sections comprising Section 1 ............................ 199 

Table 2: Sub-section 1.1 – Challenges to the detriment of students .................................. 202 

Table 3: Sub-section 1.2 – Challenges for academic advising as a practice ...................... 205 

Table 4: Sub-section 1.3: Challenges for academic advisors as practitioners ................... 209 

Table 5: High-level summary of the sub-sections comprising Section 2 ............................ 215 

Table 6: Sub-section 2.1 – Affordances to the benefit of students ..................................... 217 

Table 7: Sub-section 2.2 – Affordances for academic advising as a practice .................... 220 

Table 8: Sub-section 2.3 – Affordances for academic advisors as a practitioners ............. 224 

Table 9: High-level summary of the sub-sections comprising Section 3 ............................ 228 

Table 10: Sub-section 3.1 – Lessons for students ............................................................. 231 

Table 11: Sub-section 3.2 – Lessons for academic advising as a practice ........................ 233 

Table 12: Sub-section 3.2 – Lessons for academic advisors as practitioners .................... 242 

 



x 

LIST OF 

ABBREVIATIONS AND 

ACRONYMS 

 

Abbreviation / Acronym Full Description 

CCDU Counselling and Careers Development Unit 

CHE Council on Higher Education 

CLTD Centre for Learning, Teaching, and Development 

CLM/FCLM Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management 

CoP Community of Practice 

COVID-19 
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 

(SARS-CoV-2) 

DHET Department of Higher Education and Training 

ERL Emergency Remote Learning 

ERT Emergency Remote Teaching 

ERTL Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning 

HE Higher Education 

HEI Higher Education Institution 

HELTASA 
Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association 

of Southern Africa 

LMS Learning Management System 

RSP Road to Success Programme 

SA South Africa 

SAIDE South African Institute for Distance Learning 

SoTL Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 

T&L Teaching and Learning 



xi 

TDG Teaching Development Grant 

UCDG University Capacity Development Grant 

UCDP University Capacity Development Programme 

Wits University of the Witwatersrand 



xii 

PREFACE 

He walks in unexpectedly on a busy Wednesday morning. His 
face and slender features are immediately familiar. His name is 
slow in its arrival. He has been abroad for almost two years. Can 
it be that long, I wonder. Yes, I remember him. We catch up on 
what it is like studying over there. We recall his apprehension to 
leave; rejoice in the success that it has been. He says good-bye 
and thanks me for my help; gifts a striped Scottish scarf I will 
never wear. How can it be that so little means so much to 
someone? By that evening, he is out of my mind. 

 

If there is one thing I learned during my time as an academic advisor in the Faculty of 

Commerce, Law, and Management (CLM) at the University of the Witwatersrand 

(Wits), it is that the work of advisors can have a profound and far-reaching influence 

on the lives of students. As the short narrative above shows (taken from one of my 

freewriting exercises), the advisor may not be aware of this and bar occasional visits 

from students they worked with in the past, they may never know how they have 

helped students. This is not to say advisors always have the answers or are always 

able to help. Nor does it imply that all interactions between students and advisors are 

necessarily positive. Yet, instances like the one reflected on above are what make 

academic advising1 intriguing to me. It kept me motivated when I still worked as an 

academic advisor, even through challenging times, and it still drives my interest in 

advising as a transformative practice in favour of student success within the South 

African higher education context, even though I have not been an academic advisor 

since 20192. Consequently, it seemed appropriate – even inevitable – that my long 

journey towards reading for a PhD would culminate in one about academic advising in 

South Africa. First though, a little more about me. 

 

 
1 While academic advising is defined and discussed in Chapter 1, Section 1.4, it is worth noting briefly that within 
higher education contexts, advising is considered a high-impact practice aimed at guiding students through the 
academic and more holistic higher learning experience. It is closely tied to student success, student integration and 
belonging at institutions of higher learning, and often aims to support students throughout the many and varied 
challenges university studies may pose. 
2 In August 2019 I became the Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning in CLM and head of the CLM Teaching 
and Learning Centre. CLM academic advisors now form part of the Centre, along with other functions like online 
and digital learning and teaching, and postgraduate writing. However, I still oversee and advance academic 
advising in CLM and since 2020, the number of academic advisors in the faculty has increased from two to four. 



xiii 

My Journey to Becoming an Academic Advisor 

Before I tell my story, I should acknowledge the many privileges I enjoyed growing up 

and undoubtedly still do today. As a white man living in South Africa, I accept that 

merely being present or expressing an opinion affords me privileges I may still not fully 

comprehend. My maleness and whiteness, against South Africa’s apartheid backdrop 

and its perpetuated systems of oppression, saw me raised in a dual-parent household, 

with two cars, brick-and-mortar houses in relatively safe suburbs, water, electricity, 

and food. I went to model-C schools with peers who mostly looked the same as I did 

and enjoyed the same privileges. It would be many years before I could begin to 

scratch the surface of my privilege and the countless opportunities it had afforded me 

growing up. However, I always aim to remain aware and to use this privilege to the 

advantage of students and to advance student success. With this in mind, I will reflect 

briefly on my journey to becoming an academic advisor. 

 

I was quite timid as a teenager - an ambivert who knew how to win the favour of others 

by maintaining a balance between introversion and extroversion. On the one hand, I 

was trying to blend in by being as unobtrusive as possible; always hoping to find my 

tribe (not a conscious need at the time though). My family moved quite often (on 

average a new town every three or four years), which saw me attending three different 

primary schools and three different high schools in 12 years. Navigating new social 

spheres during identity formation is extremely challenging. Struggling to come to terms 

with my sexuality, more so. Again, not a concrete, tangible struggle, but an ever-

present unease that became far more real in retrospect. Living in a society defined by 

heteronormative ideologies and beliefs that dictate what is acceptable and what is not, 

inevitably led to a deep-seated, internalised homophobia. The result was a socially 

awkward boy (skinny and scrawny in a culture dominated by hyper-masculine and 

patriarchal worldviews); different, marginalised, and alienated. However, humans are 

a beautiful juxtaposition of immense fragility and fierce resilience; at once entropic in 

nature and perseverant in being. I persevered and evolved to the point where the timid 

teenager is a distant memory, but I will never forget what he had to endure. Those 

experiences sit at the core of my beliefs about and passion for advising, and it is worth 

exploring a few critical incidents on my road to becoming an academic advisor in the 

current South African higher education climate. 



xiv 

 

On the day I turned 15, I cycled to the closest bookstore, a few hundred Rand in 

pocket, which I had received from my parents for my birthday. It was the dawn of the 

millennium (August 2000) and J.K. Rowling had released only four of the books in her 

seven-part Harry Potter oeuvre. The phenomenon that would take the world by storm 

had not yet become a global sensation. However, I had heard about the boy-wizard’s 

story from a friend and with the pennies in my pocket, managed to buy the first four 

instalments in a series that would come to shape my future. In Rowling’s narrative, I 

found companionship, adventure, heartache, and friendship, learned about life, love, 

and loss, and developed critical and reflective abilities that would stand me in good 

stead in future. More importantly, the love for reading and literature I had developed 

as a teenager would see me major in English at university, where I continued to read 

for an honours degree in the same field, and eventually completed a full research 

master’s degree on (none other than) Harry Potter. The adventure was well underway. 

 

I firmly believe that passion drives success. My passion for literature had led me to 

work at a university where I began tutoring first- and second-year students of English 

literature when I was in my third year of study. In time, the experience gained from 

tutoring, coupled with the requisite academic qualifications, saw me move on to 

lecturing first-year English literature, business English, English for the professions, and 

academic literacy. Although I had still to obtain a professional qualification in 

education, I began formulating thoughts and ideas about teaching and learning, 

informed in particular by the training received as part of the academic literacy (AL) 

programme in which I was involved. In due course, I began transferring and refining 

some of the techniques and principles learnt in the AL facilitator training sessions to 

other classes. These techniques included: scaffolding student learning by recapping 

work done in previous lessons to help them grasp how the various parts fit into the 

whole; activating background knowledge at the beginning of a class to help students 

fuse new knowledge with existing knowledge, thus making it easier to retain and recall 

what is learned, and allowing students the opportunity to make connections between 

and among bodies of knowledge I also started experimenting with peer-on-peer and 

group tasks that allowed learners the opportunity to collaborate and interact with their 

peers in a safe environment where mistakes are encouraged. This enabled shifting 

the focus from a right/wrong dichotomy to critical engagement and discussions that 



xv 

stimulate the construction and retention of new knowledge. Thus, the intention was to 

conduct classes where the instructor/facilitator creates a safe learning environment for 

students, thus allowing them the opportunity to move beyond what they know about 

traditional authoritarian classes, and encouraging them to participate actively in the 

learning process. 

 

Although I did not know it at the time, my approach to teaching and what I believe 

about learning can be described as (almost) classically Social Constructivist in nature. 

I believe learning should be a developmental, exciting, and socially engaging 

experience for the learner, and should ultimately result in personal and intellectual 

growth and success (whether academic or other). For this to be realised, an educator 

must interact with and guide learners through the curriculum or learning opportunity in 

a nurturing manner, thus facilitating learning in an interactive way. Tasks and activities 

are then interweaved with teaching in an attempt to make content as stimulating and 

relevant as possible, and in so doing, engage learners to the extent where new 

information is integrated with existing knowledge constructs. These beliefs remain 

constant and formed the basis of my advising engagements with students and the 

activities designed for the student success programme I co-coordinated. Although my 

love of English and literature remains, in time I grew to become passionate about 

teaching and learning, and student success and support. My time in higher education 

has taught me that there is a fine balance between what would traditionally be 

classified as teaching and learning, and students’ broader learning experience within 

higher education, which includes but also moves beyond what happens in the 

classroom or through a Learning Management System (LMS). Two sides of the same 

coin, these parts of the student learning experience cannot be separated, which 

continues to become evident in the literature and at conferences. As such, my journey 

in higher education continues and led to this PhD in the field of Higher Education 

Studies with a focus on academic advising. 

 

My Advising Philosophy 

During my time as an academic advisor, I developed an advising philosophy informed 

by what I had learnt, and from my engagements with students and peers. This 

philosophy was written in 2018, shortly after I began reading for the PhD and while I 



xvi 

was still working as an advisor in CLM – two years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic 

and the revolution in online and digital learning and teaching. Yet, I deem it necessary 

to share with my reader what I believed when I started this study and which I will revisit 

in the conclusion chapter to assess what remains constant and what may have 

changed. What follows is my advising philosophy as it was in 2018: 

 

I have learned that academic advising is never finite and there may always be new or 

recurring reasons why students seek advice. Advising must never be viewed as a 

once-off occurrence, although students may not necessarily come for follow-up 

sessions. It is a form of learning and teaching that runs both ways, where an advisor 

can learn as much from a student as the student can from the advisor. There is no 

limit to the reasons why students visit an advisor, especially if there is advisor-advisee 

rapport. An advisor must be able to assess a situation, assist where possible, and refer 

appropriately to other support services if necessary. Advising services across campus 

must have close relationships with other support services, faculties, and schools, for 

a student to be helped in the most effective and student-centred manner. Closing the 

advising loop is crucial: a follow-up meeting must always be initiated by the advisor to 

maintain the net of support. That being said, students may not always want to come 

back, and a follow-up meeting must never be forced. An advisor must be in touch with 

the social, cultural, psychosocial, economic, and other realities faced by students, as 

these affect the advisor-advisee relationship and engagement: mere awareness is not 

enough. The advisor must practice an acute awareness of self, which goes hand-in-

hand with reflective practice and being reflexive. Advisor attitudes, biases, emotions, 

prejudices, and personal matters must never affect their engagement with students. 

Similarly, advisor positionality cannot be discounted. Maleness, whiteness, sexual 

orientation, and religious beliefs may affect the interaction between an advisor and 

advisee (from both sides). The advisor-advisee interaction requires a careful balance 

of professionalism, frankness, and social engagement, where the advisor is not quite 

a friend, parent, or sibling, but may adopt elements of these roles from time to time. 

Advising is not limited to an office – it can happen anywhere that an advisor and 

advisee is present. It can take a few minutes or more than an hour. The advisor must 

be flexible in everything they do (at least during their time at the office), as advisees in 

urgent need of assistance do not wait for consultation times, nor do they care about 

an advisor’s meetings or other commitments. Advisors must treat students with care 



xvii 

and compassion, as they may not always know the full extent of what the student is 

going through. It is crucial to inspire resilience and tenacity in students through the 

enabling of agency and by empowering students to strive for success as defined by 

themselves. Advising is made difficult or becomes challenging, not because of the job 

itself, but because of institutional pressures and bureaucracies. 

 

These beliefs and values evolved from the time I became an academic advisor in 

October 2014 until I became Assistant Dean: Teaching and Learning in August 2019. 

I will reflect in more depth on this philosophy in the concluding chapter, by drawing on 

what has emerged from the study and from my own experiences in the role I currently 

hold. What follows is a general introduction to the PhD study, which was completed 

through publication.   

 

 

 

 



 

1 

CHAPTER 1 

Overall Introduction to the Study 

1.1. Introduction 

The South African higher education landscape is complex. The country's apartheid 

past continues to have a tangible influence on students and staff within the sector to 

this day. Many of the structural and material constraints affecting students’ prospects 

of success can be traced back to political and legislative measures imposed by the 

previous regime. Similarly, massification (Pym et al., 2011; Hornsby & Osman 2014; 

Albertyn et al., 2016) of the sector (although aligned to similar trends globally) arises 

(at least in part) from the same legacy and is further complicated by resource 

constraints within the sector. It is against this backdrop that this study explores the 

emerging practice and profession known as academic advising. 

 

Academic advising (sometimes referred to as student advising or simply advising) is 

still in its infancy in South Africa, although it has existed elsewhere across the globe 

for many years (decades in some instances). Its emergence in South Africa is closely 

tied to national measures and initiatives implemented to address many of the 

challenges affecting (and hampering) student success in the country. One such 

initiative is the Siyaphumelela Project, while another is the South African Department 

of Higher Education and Training's (DHET) University Capacity Development 

Programme and Grant (respectively UCDP and UCDG) (both are discussed in more 

detail in a subsequent section). In essence, the UCDG has been used to realise 

academic advising objectives filtering through from the Siyaphumelela Project; or at 

least that has been the case at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) where this 

study is located. 

 

Academic advising has existed in the global north for decades, with many years of 

scholarship and practice informing its evolution over time. In contrast, the nascent 



 

2 

nature of advising in the South African context means that there is a dearth of available 

literature about advising as a practice and the work of advisors as practitioners. The 

premise of my study is that academic advisors are uniquely positioned within the 

institution to act as a bridge among students, academics, and other key institutional 

stakeholders. I posit that they have the potential to help identify and overcome barriers 

to student success because of the nature of the work they do and their proximity to the 

lived realities of the students they work with. To delineate these intricacies, Margaret 

Archer’s work on social realism is used both as a theoretical basis and as a framework 

for analysing the quantitative and qualitative data that informs this study. 

Consequently, the study aims to make a substantive contribution to the knowledge 

base about academic advising in South Africa at a time when it is still being developed 

and defined for this context. 

 

1.2. Background and Context 

Students entering South African universities are often ill prepared for tertiary studies 

(Scott, Yeld, & Hendry, 2007; Pather & Dorasamy, 2018), with serious challenges 

related to literacy (McKenna, 2010; Boughey & McKenna, 2016), transition to tertiary 

education (Schreiber, Luescher, & Moja, 2018), and social integration (Bitzer, 2009; 

Pather, 2013; Schreiber, Luescher-Mamashela, & Moja, 2014). This stems both from 

the unevenness of primary and secondary school education in the country, and the 

fact that a large portion of those entering higher education are first-generation students 

(Vincent & Hlatshwayo, 2018; Motsabi et al., 2020) without the advantage of drawing 

on the knowledge of parents (or similar) to help prepare them for the complexities 

posed by higher learning1. For many, their higher learning experience is further 

complicated by the cost of university study (Boughey & McKenna, 2016; Cloete, 2016; 

Dominguez-Whitehead, 2017; Tjønneland, 2017; Essop, 2021), as well as the 

country’s unequal political, economic, and social circumstances2 (Boughey & 

McKenna, 2021), thus resulting in large groups of underprepared students trying to 

navigate these complexities through university. Consequently, South African 

universities continue to battle the twin challenges of high attrition and low throughput 

rates (Letseka & Maile, 2008; Lourens, 2020). In an effort to mitigate these challenges, 

 
1 Anecdotally, there appears to be a slow but steady shift in this regard as more siblings and parents progress 
through university studies and are able to provide guidance and support to incoming students. 
2 More detail about these circumstances is provided throughout the thesis. 



 

3 

a number of measures have been implemented across the sector and within 

institutions over the last two decades. 

 

One such national initiative is the South African Institute for Distance Education's 

(Saide) partnership with the Kresge Foundation - an American organization that has 

committed to bolster South African higher education. From this partnership has come 

the Siyaphumelela student success initiative. The objective of the Siyaphumelela 

initiative is to enhance student success and support in the South African higher 

education sector, through collaboration and evidence-based initiatives underpinned by 

data and data analytics. The initiative also has close ties to the South African 

Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which aims to enhance South 

African higher education through its University Capacity Development Programme 

(UCDP) and the grant that enables it (the UCDG). 

 

During the first iteration of Siyaphumelela, five partner-institutions (the University of 

the Free State, the University of kwaZulal Natal, the Nelson Mandela University, the 

University of Pretoria, and the University of the Witwatersrand) joined the network. 

Each institution was given funding to focus on objectives common to what 

Siyaphumelela strives for, such as the development and rollout of evidence-informed 

initiatives and interventions to enhance student success and support. Some of the key 

initiatives developed during the first phase (2015 to 2019) included early-warning 

systems, a biographical questionnaire aimed at collecting background data from first-

year students to enhance an institution’s understanding of their student body 

(Masango et al., 2020), data science and analytics capacity, and academic advising 

(Tiroyabone & Strydom, 2021a). The common thread though is the use of data and 

evidence to take to scale what is working and share findings nationally through the 

annual Siyaphumelela Conference and other platforms. This study is a product of work 

that was enabled by the DHET’s UCDG and has evolved because of Wits’s 

involvement in Siyaphumelela. 

 

In 2014, the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management (CLM) (along with four 

other faculties at the University of the Witwatersrand) applied for funding through a 

Teaching Development Grant (TDG) distributed and managed by the DHET (the TDG 

was a precursor to the UCDG). The funding was intended to create academic positions 

https://www.saide.org.za/
https://kresge.org/
https://kresge.org/news-views/the-kresge-foundation-makes-multi-year-commitment-to-bolster-higher-education-in-south-africa/
https://siyaphumelela.org.za/


 

4 

in each of Wits’s five faculties for individuals who would be called At-Risk 

Coordinators. The term “at-risk” has since fallen by the wayside owing to its degrading 

connotations and focus on deficits (de Klerk et al., 2017), while the roles themself have 

evolved significantly. Today, all At-Risk Coordinators are known as academic advisors 

or faculty student advisors. I was appointed as one of the advisors in CLM and 

assumed duties in October 2014. Our team was small: two grant holders, each of 

whom had full-time academic appointments at the time, myself, and one other 

coordinator (or rather, advisor). The objective of the TDG was to increase the 

throughput of first-year students by 10% in three years, by working specifically with 

students identified as at-risk of failure and/or dropout. However, CLM decided to shed 

the “at-risk” connotation (in line with national movements away from a student deficit 

focus) almost immediately and created what is now known as the Road to Success 

Programme (RSP) (see: de Klerk et al., 2017; Spark et al., 2017; de Klerk et al., 2022). 

 

The RSP focuses on holistic, non-discipline specific student success and support, and 

works with the approximately 5000 undergraduate students within CLM. The 

programme employs on average 12 senior undergraduate students from within the 

faculty as peer advisors (Spark et al., 2017; de Klerk et al., 2022), who work closely 

with the academic advisors to create a network of support for CLM undergraduates. 

Advisors provide support to students by assisting with curriculum planning and 

discussions about degree fit, providing psychosocial support with close ties to the 

university’s Counselling and Careers Development Unit (CCDU), focusing on 

excellence skills development (e.g., time management, study techniques and 

approaches, note-taking, planning, test and exam techniques, and reflective practice), 

enabling one-on-one advising sessions with academic and peer advisors, and 

maintaining close ties with support services, schools, and faculties across campus for 

collaboration and referral purposes. This is the approach adopted in CLM, but each 

faculty follows a slightly different model. Nevertheless, advisors from across Wits 

engage at least once a quarter through an established Community of Practice (COP) 

that is managed by the Head: Academic Support at the university’s Centre for 

Learning, Teaching, and Development (CLTD), to share best practice and enhance 

the advising work they do. 

 



 

5 

This doctoral study emanates from my own work as, first an At-Risk Coordinator, and 

later an academic advisor, in CLM between 2014 and 2019. The study also partially 

draws on a baseline dataset of my advising engagements with students between 2015 

and 2018, in addition to data gleaned from interviews with 15 practicing academic 

advisors working at Wits. 

 

1.3. Rationale 

There remains a paucity of evidence-informed literature about academic advising as 

a practice and the work of academic advisors as practitioners within the South African 

higher education context. The purpose of this study is to make such a contribution with 

the intention of lending greater gravitas to advising and its potential for enhancing 

student success and advancing the transformation objectives3 of the sector. 

Consequently, this study focuses on the work and experiences of academic advisors 

at the University if the Witwatersrand where academic advising has existed (across all 

five faculties) in one form or another since 2014. 

 

1.4. Academic Advising 

Academic advising is a well-established practice and profession within many higher 

education sectors across the globe. It has existed in the United States of America 

(USA) for approximately four decades, with an established professional body known 

as NACADA, an annual conference, and an academic journal dedicated to it. Similarly, 

although maybe not to the same extent as in the USA, advising has been part of 

European and Australian higher education for some time. In contrast, South Africa has 

only seen academic advising emerge within the last decade, with meaningful shifts in 

its acknowledgment and professionalisation beginning to occur as recently as 2017, 

largely owing to the work of the Siyaphumelela initiative. Strayhorn (2015, p. 62) 

explains why academic advisors are important within the higher education ecosystem 

when he says: 

 

“[t]hey help make the implicit explicit, the hidden known, and the 
unfamiliar commonplace. They help students navigate college 
by making clear what students need to know and do to be 

 
3 These are manifold and include, among others, eliminating entrenched inequalities and inequities in the sector 
that are tied to the country’s apartheid past, efforts to decolonise curricula and pedagogies, preparing students for 
tertiary studies, and increasing student retention and throughput. 



 

6 

successful. They help students find a sense of belonging on 
campus.” 

 

As a proven high-impact practice (Moodley & Singh, 2015, p. 95; Strydom & Loots, 

2020) that can enhance the overall student learning experience and students’ 

prospects of success (Surr, 2019, p. 9), there is doubtless merit in inculcating 

academic advising at universities in South Africa. Advisors play a major part in 

students’ social integration at an institution. Research shows that feelings of isolation 

and/or inadequate social support may cause students to drop out (Walsh, Larsen, & 

Parry, 2009), which Lotkowski, Robbins, and Noeth (2004) state are more likely to 

occur in instances where students are studying away from home and/or are first-

generation students – common characteristics of students studying at Wits and other 

South African universities. Accordingly, students have been found to persevere 

regardless of academic challenges once they have managed adequate social 

integration (Karp, 2011; Lotkowski, Robbins, & Noeth, 2004). This supports the idea 

that learning is social in nature (Maitland & Lemmer, 2011; Wilmer, 2008) and 

emphasises the impact of social integration on student success. Therefore, linking 

students (particularly those in their first year of study) with an individual(s) interested 

in them, their progress, and their personal wellbeing makes sense (Hill, 1995; 

Lotkowski, Robbins, & Noeth, 2004; Rendon, 1994). 

 

Congruently, it has been shown that non-academic interactions between students and 

educators beyond the proverbial classroom, has a positive influence on the student’s 

development, social integration, and performance (Lotkowski, Robbins, & Noeth, 

2004; Rendon, 1994; Karp, 2011). This aligns to Jacklin and Robinson’s (2007) 

findings that showed that personal support is crucial to the success of university 

students. Consequently, I posit that academic advisors in South Africa are uniquely 

positioned to enhance the student learning experience, aid students’ social integration 

at their institution of higher learning, and act as an important contact point between 

students, lecturers, and student affairs services within the institution. This is achieved 

by drawing on social realist theory. 

 



 

7 

1.5. Theoretical Framework 

While social realism is the theory that guides this study, elements of Margaret Archer’s 

social realist work also serve as the analytical framework used to explore and make 

meaning of the data. Archer’s oeuvre spans many decades and has its roots in critical 

realism and the work of Roy Bhaskar (1975). While the various intricacies of Archer’s 

social realist theory are discussed in more detail in the four papers (see particularly 

sections 2.3 and 4.3 for greater detail about different elements of Archer’s work as 

used in this thesis), it is worth mentioning two dimensions that are of particular value 

to this study. 

 

The first is what she calls analytical dualism (Archer, 1995, pp. 15, 165-194): the 

separation of people and parts, more commonly known within social realist theory and 

educational literature as structure, culture and agency. The reason why this distinction 

is so useful, is because it allows the researcher to separate out structural, cultural, and 

agential parts in a study to analyse them independently, as well as to explore their 

interplay. It also helps researchers gain greater insight into and make meaning of 

enabling and constraining factors within the context of a study. In this PhD, structure, 

culture, and agency is used to interrogate and untangle the complexities of academic 

advising within a specific South African higher education context. 

 

The second dimension of Archer’s work that is of value to the study, is what she calls 

the morphogenetic approach. As part of the approach, Archer offers the 

morphogenetic framework, which serves as a tool for tracking and analysing change 

or stasis over time. Whether change has or has not occurred is determined by the 

study and the objectives of the researcher. In this study, the morphogenetic framework 

is used to elucidate the state of academic advising in South Africa prior to the COVID-

19 pandemic thus establishing a baseline against which to investigate academic 

advising in future. It is also used to interrogate academic advising during the COVID-

19 pandemic and Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL), allowing for 

important insights and lessons for the future of advising in the country to emerge. What 

follows is a brief outline of the various elements of the study. 

 



 

8 

1.6. The Study 

In this section I want to make important distinctions among strategy, methodology, and 

method, to clarify the numerous considerations that helped shape the 

conceptualisation and execution of this study. I also show how the choices and 

elements explored in this section, tie to the theoretical and analytical dimensions of 

the study, as discussed in the preceding section. The aim is to provide the reader with 

some insight into the way this study was conducted. 

 

1.6.1. Research strategy 

This is a qualitative study. Although both qualitative and quantitative data collection 

methods are employed (see methods section below), the overarching strategy 

adopted is qualitative in nature. Bryman (2012) proffers the notion of a research 

strategy in relation to discussions about qualitative and quantitative research. The 

notion proves useful during discussions about these broad strategies, which are often 

(in my opinion ambiguously) referred to as research methodologies. Bryman (2012) 

explains that his implied meaning with the notion of a research strategy is simply a 

way of identifying the “general orientation to the conduct of social research” (p. 35). 

For the purposes of this study, the distinction helps separate the qualitative nature of 

the study, from the methodological approach that underpins it (see the next section). 

 

Bryman (2012, p. 36) highlights the following characteristics of a qualitative research 

strategy: i) there is a tendency to adopt an inductive approach to linking research and 

theory (although this is not a rule of thumb); ii) there is an inclination to place emphasis 

on individuals’ understanding of the social world; and iii) social reality is usually viewed 

as a constantly shifting emergent property. While the latter two are true for all four 

papers, both inductive and deductive approaches are used (sometimes in tandem) 

intermittently across the four papers. On the whole, the research strategy adopted for 

the study is a qualitative one. 

 

1.6.2. Methodology 

 

“…methodology constitutes a whole range of strategies and 
procedures that include: developing a picture of an empirical 
world; asking questions about that world and turning these into 



 

9 

researchable problems; finding the best means of doing so – that 
involve choices about methods and the data to be sought, the 
development and use of concepts, and the interpretation of 
findings…” (Alasuutari et al., 2008, p. 1). 

 

Congruently with the qualitative nature of the study, the overarching methodology that 

guides the inquiry is one often used in qualitative research: phenomenology. 

Phenomenology is a philosophical orientation that forms part of the interpretivist 

paradigm (Bryman, 2012). Bryman (2012) explains that interpretivism “requires the 

social scientist to grasp the subjective meaning of social action” (p. 30). Thus, there is 

a fortuitous harmony between phenomenology and interpretivism, and social realism, 

which is the theory that underpins the study. Babbie (2013), drawing on Schutz (1967, 

1970), explains that phenomenology is philosophically rooted in the principle that 

“reality [is] socially constructed rather than being ‘out there’ for us to observe. People 

describe their world not ‘as it is’ but ‘as they make sense of it’” (p. 334). As such, the 

phenomenological methodology implies that the researcher cannot simply accept 

research subjects’ experiences and accounts as accurate reflections of social reality 

(Babbie, 2013, p. 334). Rather, they have to make meaning of these experiences and 

accounts for themselves to distil from it a sense of what is (Bryman, 2012; Babbie, 

2013). Archer (1995, 2000, 2005) provides the tools with which to help the researcher 

achieve this, both through the use of analytical dualism (see papers one two, and four), 

and through the use of her morphogenetic framework (Archer, 1995) (see papers three 

and four). 

 

While this study is phenomenological in nature, it also draws on elements of 

phenomenography to help advance its aims and objectives. Cibangu and Hepworth 

(2016), in their critical review of phenomenology and phenomenography, explain that 

the latter is a subset of the former (p. 148). They explain that phenomenography 

focuses “on people's varying conceptions of a given phenomenon, not on the 

phenomenon itself” (Cibangu & Hepworth, 2016, p. 152).  This notion of varying 

conceptions is what is important in the context of this study. While papers one and two 

adopt a phenomenological approach to engaging with the baseline data, papers three 

and four draw on phenomenographic principles to gain more nuanced insights of the 

varying experiences and perceptions of the advisors who were interviewed. Ultimately 

though, the phenomenographic lens enables a broader phenomenological 



 

10 

assessment of academic advising itself, which allows one to make inferences, draw 

conclusions, and distil a sense of what is. 

 

1.6.3. Method and data collection 

Th study adopts a mixed-methods approach, although the overall research strategy 

remains qualitative in nature (as mentioned above). Here cognisance is taken of the 

“paradigm wars” (Gage, 1989) and the misconception that mixed-methods research 

merely implies usage of both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods 

(Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004). As such, Ercikan and Roth’s (2006) argument that 

the polarisation of these methods is not helpful or productive, resonates. In this study, 

the mixing of methods occurs by using the quantitative baseline data to inform 

interview schedules for qualitative data collection process. Table 1 below provides a 

brief overview of the research timeline. 

 

Table 1: Research timeline. 

Date Range Research Activity 

October 2014 Commence with duties as academic advisor in CLM. 

January 2015 to 

October 2018 

Build and expand baseline dataset based on advising 

engagements with CLM students. 

July 2018 Register for PhD. 

August 2019 Proposal defence. 

February 2020 Admitted to candidature.  

March 2020 
COVID-19 pandemic first detected in South Africa, followed by 

first hard lockdown. 

June 2020 
Research ethics clearance obtained, including permission to 

use baseline data. 

November 2020 
Interview data collected through interviews with 15 academic 

advisors. 

October 2021 Paper one accepted for publication. 

December 2021 Paper one published. 

April 2022 Paper four accepted for publication. 

April 2022 Paper four published. 

July 2022 Paper two accepted for publication. 



 

11 

September 2022 Paper three accepted for publication. 

December 2022 Paper two published. 

March 2023 Thesis submitted for examination. 

September 2023 Projected publication of paper three. 

 

The quantitative dataset (referred to as the baseline data) was created from one-on-

one advising engagements between CLM undergraduate students and me between 

January 2015 and October 2018 (see Appendix A). The data was also captured in the 

institutional intervention portal, which forms part of the Wits early-warning system. The 

system is designed to provide student support professionals (and especially academic 

advisors) with information about students’ risk status by integrating several data 

points. This can be useful to develop targeted interventions geared towards preventing 

students from dropping out or failing. However, this system captures data against a 

few high-level categories, while the baseline dataset I created and which forms part of 

this study adopts a more nuanced approach to making meaning of the kinds of reasons 

for which students consult with advisors. This is discussed in more detail in 

subsequent sections of the thesis. 

 

The annual datasets were integrated into a single master dataset, with numerous 

columns denoting advising categories that emerged inductively from the data. These 

categories cover a range of academic and non-academic matters, including curriculum 

planning and mapping, psychosocial challenges, socioeconomic challenges, 

academic literacies, and administrative matters (see paper one for a detailed 

breakdown and explanation). The baseline dataset consists of 2240 entries, which 

represents 1023 consultations with 614 individual students. The higher number of 

consultations when compared to the individual student count is accounted for by the 

fact that some students came for more than one consultation during the period the 

data was collected. In turn, the higher number of entries when compared to both the 

consultation count and individual student count, is ascribed to the fact that students 

often consulted about multiple factors during a single consultation. 

 

Once the master dataset had been created and after irrelevant, incomplete and/or 

incorrect data had been attended to, student demographic and academic data was 



 

12 

integrated into the baseline data. This was done to create a more comprehensive and 

nuanced dataset. The demographic data incorporated cover categories such as race, 

gender, secondary school quintile, home language, and funding status (although not 

all these were necessarily explored in the PhD4). The academic data include 

information about the degrees students who sought advice were enrolled for and their 

year of study at the time of the consultation. 

 

Finally, the baseline dataset was anonymised by removing all identifying information 

of the students whose consultation data had been captured to ensure their anonymity. 

Thereafter, the data was categorised into seven overarching categories consisting of 

34 subsidiary categories (see papers one and two). What was gleaned from the 

baseline data informed interview schedules for qualitative data collection (see 

appendix B). 

 

Interviews were conducted with 15 academic advisors at Wits over the course of one 

month towards the end of 2020. This was done virtually using Microsoft Teams, with 

interviews being recorded for transcription (see 1.6.6. below for more detail about 

informed consent and ethics). Semi-structured, open-ended questions were used 

during interviews, which allowed interviewees some freedom in their responses, while 

affording the interviewer the option to probe and explore unanticipated themes or 

topics (Mabry, 2008, p. 218). The qualitative data has been used to inform papers 

three and four5. 

 

1.6.4. Research questions 

The main research question guiding the study is: 

 

How does academic advising manifest at the University of the 
Witwatersrand? 

 

Four sub-questions serve to help answer the main research question, each of which 

is broadly aligned to one of the papers. The four sub-questions are: 

 

 
4 There are still various associated research interests to be pursued once the PhD is finalised (see chapter six). 
5 Anonymised copies of the raw interview transcripts are available upon request. 



 

13 

What insights can be gained from the baseline data about the 
work of academic advisors in a South African university context? 
 

What insights can be gained from the baseline data about 
students’ structural and material constraints, and how does this 
impact on the work of academic advisors in a South African 
university context? 
 

What can be learned from academic advisors working in a South 
African university context about academic advising prior to the 
COVID-19 pandemic? 
 

What can be learned from academic advisors working in a South 
African university context about academic advising during the 
COVID-19 pandemic? 

 

These questions are explored through a social realist lens. The findings are used to 

draw inferences about academic advising at Wits and in South Africa, outline enabling 

and constraining factors that influence the work of academic advisors, and outline 

implications for academic advising and advisors within the broader South African 

higher education context, beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

1.6.5. Scope of the study 

During the initial planning for the PhD, it had been envisioned that three different data 

sets would inform the study: i) the baseline data; ii) data collected from interviews with 

Wits academic advisors; and iii) data collected from focus group discussions with Wits 

students. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic came a shift in the 

scope and focus of the study and it was decided that the student focus group data 

would be omitted from the PhD, and that the student voice in relation to advising would 

be explored once the PhD had been completed. Consequently, this study is confined 

to what can be gleaned from the baseline data I collected between January 2015 and 

October 2018, and from the interviews with 15 academic advisors from across all five 

faculties at Wits. 

 

1.6.6. Ethical considerations 

The highest ethical standards were adhered to throughout this study. Ethical clearance 

for the study was obtained from the Wits Human Research Ethics Committee (Non-



 

14 

Medical) on 24 April 2020 (see Appendix C). The protocol number for the study is: 

H20/04/06. Permission to use the baseline dataset as well as to collect data from within 

the Wits community was obtained from the University Registrar on 25 June 2020 (see 

Appendix D). Research participants were invited to take part in interviews voluntarily 

through email and by sharing the participant information sheet with them (see 

Appendix E). All 15 participants agreed to be interviewed and were asked to sign the 

participant consent form (see Appendix F) prior to commencing with the interviews. All 

participants agreed to the conditions outlined in the participant information sheet and 

consent form, with no one withdrawing from the study or raising any concerns during 

or after the interviews. The potentially triggering nature of the interviews were 

considered prior to the interviews being conducted and advisors were verbally 

encouraged to debrief using existing structures to do so, if necessary, after the 

interviews. 

 

1.6.7. Research funding 

A small research grant was obtained through the Wits Faculty of Commerce, Law, and 

Management Research Committee. The grant totalled R 12 459.50 and was used to 

cover expenses such as having interview data transcribed. The full amount was spent 

in the required period of time with no major challenges affecting the grant process. 

 

1.7. Structure 

This PhD is done by publication. The Wits School of Education requires candidates 

pursuing a PhD by publication to produce four interrelated manuscripts that can stand 

alone as publishable texts. The study can be divided into two parts. Part one (papers 

one and two) draws on the quantitative baseline data to draw inferences and 

observations about academic advising, based on my own work as an advisor between 

January 2015 and October 2018. What was gleaned from the baseline data informed 

the interview schedule used to conduct interviews with 15 academic advisors from 

across all five faculties at the Wits. Part two (papers three and four) uses the qualitative 

interview data to gain a more in-depth understanding of academic advising at Wits 

before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also allowing me to make 

assumptions and draw conclusions about advising within the South African higher 



 

15 

education sector more broadly. The entire study is guided by Archer’s social realist 

theory, while also using different elements of her work to analyse data. 

 

1.7.1. Paper one: Insights about advising gleaned from the baseline 

data 

The first paper provides a descriptive analysis of the coded baseline data, which is 

divided into seven overarching categories made up collectively of 34 subsidiary 

categories. The paper draws on the work of both Bhaskar (1975) and Archer (1995, 

2000) to disentangle what happens across stratified layers of social reality. What 

emerges are insights about the structural and cultural mechanisms that hold bearing 

on the work of advisors and the social realities in which they and the students they 

work with find themselves in. 

 

1.7.2. Paper two: The impact of students’ structural and material 

constraints on advising 

Paper two has a strong grounding in contextually relevant literature. This is used to 

create a comprehensive picture of the multifaceted factors that contribute to the 

structural and material constraints that affect many South African students’ higher 

learning experience. The paper draws both on elements of Archer’s work on social 

realism, as well as on Boughey and McKenna’s (2016) work on the decontextualised 

learner, to guide the discussion and analysis. What emerges from the scholarly and 

grey literature is reconciled with the baseline data. The paper concludes by 

highlighting how students’ structural and material constraints impact on academic 

advising at Wits. 

 

1.7.3. Paper three: Insights from academic advisors about advising 

prior to COVID-19 

The nascent nature of academic advising in South Africa means that the limited 

literature about it is quite sporadic. Moreover, there is virtually no documentation of 

the experiences of South African advisors in the decade before the COVID-19 

pandemic. Paper three draws on the portion of the advisor interview data that focuses 

on academic advising at Wits before COVID-19. Using part of Archer’s morphogenetic 



 

16 

framework, the paper aims to establish an evidence-informed baseline for advising in 

South Africa against which future studies can be compared and contrasted. 

 

1.7.4. Paper four: Insights from academic advisors about advising 

during COVID-19 

The fourth and final paper builds on paper three. Here the focus is turned to advising 

at Wits during the pandemic, with the portion of the advisor interviews about advising 

during COVID-19 being used. Morphogenesis (Archer, 1995) and structure, culture, 

and agency are once more used to analyse data with a focus on the way in which the 

pandemic may have served as a catalyst for how advising is perceived and practiced 

beyond the pandemic. Whether such a change is realised though, can only be 

assessed in the years to come. Such an investigation is earmarked to form part of my 

postdoctoral work. 

 

The manuscript concludes with a sixth chapter, which explores implications for 

advising based on the findings of the study, while also sharing a reflective account of 

my own journey as a researcher during the PhD. Lastly, it should be mentioned that 

while the referencing style required by each of the journals in which the papers have 

been published is duplicated at the end of each chapter (e.g., Chicago, Harvard, and 

APA Seventh), a comprehensive reference list of all references used in the manuscript 

is available after chapter six (and before the appendices). This comprehensive list 

conforms to the APA Seventh Style of Referencing, which aligns to what the Wits 

School of Education requires for PhD manuscripts. 

 

1.8. References 

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mathematics students through peer-tutoring. Acta Academica, 43(4), 127-151. 

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implementation of a student biographical questionnaire (BQ) online platform for 

effective student success. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 8(1), 93-110. 

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24 

CHAPTER 2 

Making Known the Real: An Exploration 

of Academic Advising Practices in a 

South African Higher Education Context 

The first paper that forms part of this PhD study is a sole authored one and has been 

published in as special issue of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa. The journal 

seeks contributions that focus on and advance broad matters of student affairs in 

African higher education contexts. The special issue focuses on academic advising in 

Africa and South Africa, which denotes a major milestone for academic advising as a 

profession and practice in the South African context. The special issue also came at 

an opportune time for this study, as it aligns with the study objective of producing 

rigorous and evidence-informed literature on advising in the country. The paper has 

been reproduced here to form part of the PhD manuscript, but it can be accessed in 

its original form by following the link above. This journal uses the APA 7th Author-Date 

Referencing System. 

 

de Klerk, D. (2021). Making known the Real: An exploration of academic advising 

practices in a South African higher education context. Journal of Student Affairs in 

Africa, 9(2), 101-121. https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v9i2.3702. 

 

Abstract 

This is the first in a series of papers that emanate from the author’s doctoral research. 

This research explores academic advising as a profession and academic advisors as 

practitioners in the South African Higher Education sector; it focuses on advising within 

the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (FCLM) at a research-intensive 

public university in South Africa. During the period of investigation, academic advising 

https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v9i2.3702
https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/jsaa/issue/view/161
https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/jsaa/index
https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v9i2.3702


 

25 

engagements between students and the author were logged, thus forming a baseline 

dataset for the doctoral study. In phase one of the data analysis, baseline data were 

coded and clustered into overarching and subsidiary categories. The baseline dataset 

consists of 34 subsidiary categories, which form part of seven overarching categories; 

it contains 2240 entries based on 1023 consultations with 614 individual students 

during the three-year period under investigation. Using Archer’s (1995, 2000, 2005) 

notions about Social Realism as a theoretical framework, the author critically 

scrutinises the complex nature of the work that academic advisors do in a layered 

analysis of the baseline data. The author posits that it is through these layers of 

interpretation that one moves from the layer of the Empirical (experiences), through 

the layer of the Actual (events), to what Archer calls “the Real”, that is, the layer of 

mechanisms or underlying driving forces that brings about what happens in the layers 

of the Empirical and the Actual. This paper focuses specifically on the role of the 

academic advisor; it postulates inferential observations about academic advising by 

using the baseline dataset as a way in while keeping the academic advisor central to 

the discussion. 

 

Keywords 

academic advising; higher education; holistic supports; social realism; student 

advising; student success; student support; structure, culture, agency 

 

2.1. Introduction 

It is undisputed that the South African (SA) higher education (HE) sector is in crisis. 

Matriculants who enter the system are severely underprepared for tertiary studies 

(Scott et al., 2007) with literacy (McKenna, 2010), transition (Schreiber et al., 2018), 

and social integration (Karp, 2011; Lotkowski et al., 2004; Walsh et al., 2009) posing 

serious challenges. These are compounded by the country’s political, economic, and 

social complexities, and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic, which results in large 

groups of severely underprepared students who are trying to make their way through 

university. For this reason, academic advising is crucial to the success of 21st century 

university students who have to navigate the complexities of SA HE studies, and who 

will find themselves working in an ever- changing and uncertain world (Hodges, 2018). 

However, reliable, peer-reviewed literature about advising practices in SA remains 



 

26 

limited. There is often anecdotal evidence and a resounding push for additional 

support services by those working in the sector, but advising requires a rigorous, 

evidence-based foundation (Surr, 2019) that will lend gravitas to SA advising 

practices. Tinto (2014, p. 6) reiterates this when stating that student-success work 

“require[s] an intentional, structured and coherent set of policies and actions” that are 

sustained over time. Accordingly, the objective of this paper is to add to the growing 

body of literature about academic advising as a practice, and about academic advisors 

as practitioners in SA HE, by critically exploring and investigating advising practices 

within the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (FCLM) at a research-

intensive public university in South Africa. 

 

2.2. Background and Literature 

2.2.1. Why academic advising? 

Academic advisors can play a major part in students’ social integration at an institution. 

Feelings of isolation and/or inadequate social support may cause students to drop out 

(Walsh et al., 2009), which are more likely to occur in instances where students are 

studying away from home and/or are first-generation students (Lotkowski et al., 2004). 

These are common characteristics of students studying at SA universities. Lee (2018, 

p. 77) speaks about the unique challenges experienced by historically marginalised 

students studying at HE institutions, which characterises many SA HE students. The 

author emphasises that academic advisors should understand the daily experiences 

of the students with whom they work (Lee, 2018, p. 77). Accordingly, students have 

been found to persevere, regardless of academic challenges, once they have 

managed adequate social integration (Karp, 2011; Lotkowski et al., 2004), which 

highlights the social nature of learning (Maitland & Lemmer, 2011; Wilmer, 2008) and 

its impact on student success. Hence, there is merit in linking students with an 

individual (e.g., an academic advisor) who is interested in them, in their well-being, 

and in their progress (Hill, 1995; Lotkowski et al., 2004; Rendon, 1994). 

Correspondingly, it has been proven that non-academic interactions between students 

and educators (academic advisors are educators too) beyond the confines of a 

classroom have a positive impact on the students’ development, social integration, 

and performance (Karp, 2011; Lotkowski et al., 2004; Rendon, 1994). Thus, Jacklin 

and Robinson’s (2007) claim about personal support is crucial to the success of 



 

27 

university students is substantiated. As Surr (2019, p. 6) points out, the evidence in 

support of academic advising as a practice that helps increase students’ likelihood of 

succeeding in tertiary studies, especially students from disadvantaged backgrounds, 

continues to grow. However, advising in the SA context is still in its infancy; academic 

advising for SA HE is still being investigated and defined. 

 

2.2.2. International literature on academic advising 

Academic advising as a profession has existed for many years in the global north and 

in Australia (Clark, 1989