Understanding Black African Student Attrition in the Context of Transformation in South African Higher Education Institutions

The academic success of black students has been a major concern for the higher education sector since the end of apartheid in 1994. Driven by the need for transformation and redress, both the Department of Higher Education and Training and institutions of higher learning have embarked on a number of strategies to enhance access, participation and success among black students. Apart from increasing the number of African students accessing higher education institutions, the agenda of transformation is also extended to enforcing mechanisms that can enhance their success. For the past two decades, there has been an exponential growth in the number of black African students gaining admission into various institutions of higher learning. Accompanying this growth has been the rise of attrition rates amongst them and this has rendered the discourse of transformation complex. This article attempts to interrogate reasons behind this phenomenon, as well as discuss the extent to which these have affected the goals of transformation in a rapidly changing South African society. The study employs the systematic literature review methodology to explain black student attrition and advances a conceptual framework that is relevant to the South African context. Underpinned by Astin’s theory of involvement and Tinto’s theory of student departure/attrition, the article accounts for reasons behind black student attrition. While there is a significant body of literature accounting for student attrition, we argue that many of these reasons are couched on the deficit model, which blames student attrition on background factors. This article critically proposes the need to develop a broader understanding to address the complexities surrounding student attrition, and the extent to which this affects the agenda of transformation in South African higher education.