Annual Regional Extended Degrees Workshop

The purpose, practice and promise of extended degree programmes

1 – 2 November 2011
Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

A multi-disciplinary workshop for staff who teach on Extended Degree Programmes in the Eastern Cape

Extended Degree Programmes have been a part of the Higher Education landscape in South Africa since the 1990s and the establishment of democracy in the country.  As such, they have been broadly linked to the need for social redress in the country and have featured in discourses around equity. Discourses on equity (notably Morrow, 1994) have argued that widening access to Higher Education ought to embrace a lively awareness of the kind of epistemological access that is linked to success.  This multi-disciplinary workshop will allow staff who teach on Extended Degree programmes to consider the purpose of these programmes against the wider backdrop of South African Higher Education, and more specifically in terms of their respective institutional mandates. Through a sharing of theoretical and experiential perspectives, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on how their practice aligns with the promise of providing a Foundational Year for the students in Extended Degree Programmes.  The aim of the workshop is not to drive consensus, but rather to provide participants with a reflective space that will better inform both their own practice, and help influence policy relating to the design and implementation of Extended Degree Programmes in general.