All of the articles in this proceedings volume have been presented at the 10th Focus Conference during 23-25 August, 2023 in in Durban, South Africa. These articles have been peer reviewed by the members of the Technical and Scientific Committee and approved by the Editor-in-Chief, who affirms that this...

Increased enrolments and opening opportunities for access met with the requisite success outcomes have presented challenges in higher education. Such challenges are established in the quality and standards of teaching, learning, and student assessments. Institutional effectiveness in the delivery of...

The built environment (BE) profession, encompassing disciplines such as architecture, urban planning, civil engineering, and construction management, plays a pivotal role in shaping the physical spaces we inhabit and enhancing the socio-economic status of the people. As the BE continues to grow in complexity...

This reflective paper aims to explore the need to embrace alternate pedagogical practices in the traditional curriculum. Being an academic who teaches first-year students and leads the First-year Experience Programme (FYE) at a university of technology has allowed me to reflect not only on my practice...

The role of tutorship in higher education is well established, including its benefits for both students and tutors. Despite tutorship being a vastly researched topic, tutor training appears to be at the periphery of the treatise of tutorship. Given the significant role of tutors, it is in the interest...

This study explores the experiences of lecturers who transitioned from industry to academia at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) in Durban, South Africa. The participants represented diverse faculties. The findings revealed that lecturers were motivated to transition to academia for various reasons,...

Universities are generally regarded as reservoirs of knowledge, and skills where academics generate novel and new ideas and initiatives. However, it has become apparent that the innovation outputs are not aligned with the potential that exists within the South African Universities of Technology (UoTs)....

The foundation of any nursing education programme lies in developing clinical competence and professional growth for aspiring nurses. Therefore, implementing diverse clinical teaching and learning strategies, including peer group clinical mentorship, is imperative. The present study delved into the importance...

Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are taking higher education or the education sector in general by storm. Artificial Intelligence is among the emerging tools in educational technology. Numerous Application Programming interfaces (APIs) exist. However, recent developments in AI have seen the...

The direct implication of curriculum as a response to the upsurge in unemployment is still without some doubt, particularly in the context of higher education in South Africa. For the first time in history, the unemployment rate has increased to an all-time high of 32.7%, with young unemployment at 61%....

Since 2017, resistance by the agricultural industry to accept the placement of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) students from the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) was observed in the Department of Agriculture. With the general monitoring, and feedback from farmers between 2018 and 2021,...

Teaching and Learning (T&L) in higher education is an important discourse that determines the teacher and learner's experience, effectiveness, and efficiency in the classroom. Biomimicry, a practice that draws inspiration from nature's forms, strategies, and systems to solve human challenges...

COVID-19 compelled many to innovate. This paper presents a notepad and a calculator app to enable students to do their work on a mobile device and submit their assignments using the mobile device. This means that they did not need computers at all. It also means that they did not need to be in a specific...

This bibliometric review investigates the impact of technology on student learning facilities, focusing on understanding current trends and identifying potential future directions. The study analyses various scholarly articles, books, and conference papers to provide an overview of the research landscape....

Enhancing postgraduate research supervision and publication strategies for the future success of higher education institutions is fundamental to sustainable research development in universities. A study was conducted to explore existing challenges and strategies for improving postgraduate research supervision...

Entrepreneurship is a vital skill for engineering students in the 21st century, as they face complex and dynamic challenges that require innovative and entrepreneurial solutions. However, traditional engineering education often fails to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture among students and faculty....

Lecturers are at the centre of all teaching and learning in Higher Education Institutions irrespective of the country and continent. For years now, student module and teachers’ evaluations have come at the end of every semester and the outcomes have been promising, but student performances remain a major...

The South African economy continues to crumble, just like its strength to support its inhabitants weakens with time. As a result, the unemployment rate continues to hit the country severely, with the youth being the most vulnerable. Despite a steady accumulation of qualifications from institutions of...

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a global phenomenon that brings advancements in artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and robotics. It has brought about radical changes in societal and economic structures, necessitating the re-evaluation of curricula across various...

Whether laboratory practicals (LPs) enhance theory learning and live up to expectations in science education or not is an ongoing discussion among researchers. LPs are expected to enhance students’ understanding of the theory learned in class and create an opportunity to develop employability skills....

Automated academic advising, as an innovative student support tool, might encourage students’ mediation of their academic and advising support in a learning platform. In our pilot project, conducted in one school at a university in South Africa, we sought to understand the factors that enhanced cum-laude...

This study explores the perceptions of online learning among students and lecturers at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT), focusing on the successes and challenges associated with its implementation. The theoretical framework employed in this research is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM),...

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a concept used to describe the current technological transformation characterized by the blending of digital, physical, and biological systems. It has the potential to significantly impact higher education by transforming the way students learn, the skills they...

Students’ employment in the workforce is a recurring education issue. Partnerships can improve program quality, resource use, and individual partners by strengthening, helping, and altering them. This paper argues that by adopting a broader perspective, difficulties related to professional experience...

As the construction industry evolves rapidly in the era of Industry 4.0, there is critical to reassess and realign construction management education and teaching approaches to meet these new demands. Thus the need for research looking at the misalignment between current construction management education...

Writing Centres (WCs) have become a critical component of HE, especially in their role of building students writing capabilities. Moreover, WCs are ascribed to the purpose of student retention through inclusive teaching practices. Remarkably, there has been a paucity of evidence-informed studies investigating...

The conversation on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), started in 2015, and since then practitioners in the various fields of expertise have been trying to understand the possibilities and challenges that this revolution will/has ushered in. This paper presents a qualitative systematic review of...

This study examines the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) on the use of technology in higher education. With the increasing integration of technology into all aspects of society, higher education institutions are facing new opportunities and challenges. This study utilises a qualitative...

There is a significant amount of research available on translanguaging pedagogy, which highlights the substantial efforts of tertiary-level researchers in South Africa towards this approach. This study explored the perceptions and experiences of undergraduate medical students towards translanguaging...

Taking an attendance register for a meeting has traditionally been accomplished by means of a paper and pen. Technology provides opportunities to implement software systems to accomplish the same objectives. This paper presents an electronic register, Trackie, which was developed for Android devices....

The significance of student academic advising and its contribution towards student success cannot be overemphasised. Yet the conceptualisation, implementation and impact of academic advising have not been rigorously researched in most South African Universities, particularly Universities of Technology....

The obvious underrepresentation of women in leadership posts in South African Higher Education Institutions sparked this study. The objective of the study was to uncover the embedded challenges that women encounter when occupying leadership roles in such institutions. A critical review of the literature...

The paper examines how institutions can prepare students for the careers of the future through experiential learning, industry partnerships, monitoring and feedback using a systematic literature review methodology that involves a review of articles from various databases. 120 articles were identified...

Advertising codes set out by advertising self-regulatory bodies regulate advertising practices and keep advertisements honest, truthful, and decent contributing to sustainable development. These self-regulatory advertising codes can act as ethical guidelines by which designers can assess visual communication...