SANRC FYE Conference 2018: An Important Space for South Africa’s FYE Community is Now Taking Shape

Abstract

The SANRC’s annual First-Year Experience Conference is rapidly becoming established as a focal point on South Africa’s higher education calendar. The 2018 conference was held at the Garden Court Marine Parade in Durban on 23–25 May 2018. The conference was attended by a wide spectrum of delegates from South Africa’s universities. From the large number of 130+ delegates who were present, it was possible to see that this young conference has grown impressively since the inception of the new Centre only a short time ago in 2015. The conference theme, “Toward the pursuit of excellence in national support to South Africa’s first-year students: critically examining all aspects of the FYE”, embraced a number of different themes: • Teaching for first-year success; • Measurement and accountability in first-year support services; • Innovative first-year support initiatives; • Engaging the student voice; and • Orientation programmes as a key element of student support. The programme reflected the diverse body of work of FYE scholars and practitioners along the lines of the various themes. Seventy-three papers were presented in total, in addition to the workshop sessions.