An investigation into student performance in first year biology at the University of Johannesburg

The transformation in South African higher education in the past 20 years has been earmarked by mass participation (almost 80% growth). The changes in the school curriculum and increased pass rates at school level place the transition from school to university under the magnifying glass. Universities are confronted with underprepared entering students and are designing interventions and models to maintain standards and increase graduation numbers. The latest suggestion of a Flexible curriculum proposes that an additional year (i.e. four year BSc degree) is more beneficial and advantageous to many first year students as opposed to the three year BSc. degree option. The Faculty of Science at the University of Johannesburg has been enrolling students in the BSc Life and Environmental Science programme (four year degree) which provides students with an opportunity to complete the one semester module in Biology (mainstream) over two semesters, in the four year offering. In the four year degree programme, students also start with the Biology module after completion of a generic first semester of bridging and not in the first semester when they enter university. This research compares the success of students in the two streams (three year programme where students complete the Biology module in one semester to the four year programme where the students complete the one module of Biology over two semesters. Appropriate inferential statistics were employed in the comparison of the 2011 – 2013 cohorts (sample of 389 foundation and 457 mainstream entries). It will be shown that the interventions implemented in the four year degree can be considered as effective in developing the students’ academic competency in biology relative to mainstream students