Articulation between different university types at postgraduate level: the South African perspective

Abstract

Technological advancements, expansion of educational access and credentials inflation increasingly shift attention to students' vertical and cross-institutional mobility within stratified and differentiated higher education systems. While previous research has extensively examined the structural factors influencing undergraduate transfers, the role of agency in admitting institutions and articulation to postgraduate studies has largely remained unclear. This study explores postgraduate admission practices in four disciplines in a traditional research-led university in South Africa. Utilising Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, and capital, this study demonstrates how structure and agency relationships contribute to the apparent lack of success in articulation between technology and traditional university subfields at the postgraduate level. More specifically, the findings highlighted that the field's development trajectory, structure, insufficient steering mechanisms, and habitus inertia negatively influence the likelihood of UOT graduates' admission to master's level studies. The study's simultaneous use of institutional and disciplinary agency notions further enabled the delineation of institutional and disciplinary habitus and respective agencies' relative positions in the field. It facilitated empirical exploration of currently underdeveloped cross-field effects on postgraduate admission practices.

Date of Award	26 Jun 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Jurgen Enders (Supervisor) & John Brennan (Supervisor)