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Keywords

quantitative literacy, commerce, engineering, science, student success, university entrance assessments

Abstract

In South Africa, university completion rates remain low, with only 23% of students finishing within the regulation time (three or four years). These completion rates continue to reflect racial inequalities, with ‘White’ students significantly more likely to complete degrees in professional fields such as engineering and commerce compared to their ‘African’ counterparts. To address these challenges, the South African higher education institutions, through their umbrella body, introduced the National Benchmark (NB) tests to assess students’ academic literacy skills—including quantitative literacy, academic literacy, and mathematics—to identify those most at risk of struggling with the curriculum. The NB tests aim to evaluate students’ readiness for higher education using scores and proficiency bands. This study examines the predictive validity of the NB Quantitative Literacy test scores and proficiency bands in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes in the faculties of commerce, engineering and science. The analysis focuses on completion, dropout, and retention rates within one first-time entry cohort at a South African university. Among 2,493 first-time entering students, 15% dropped out after the first year, 22% left by the regulation time, and 23% exited within two additional years. Graduation rates were 34% within regulation time and 67% within two extra years. Findings highlight the predictive value of the NB Quantitative Literacy assessment, emphasizing its potential role in informing admission and placement decisions, curriculum design, and teaching and learning strategies to enhance student success in STEM programmes.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.19.1.1490

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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