Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 10(2) 2022, v-viii | 2307-6267 | DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v10i2.4362   v

www.jsaa.ac.za
AFRICAN 
MINDS

Editorial

Collaborative Approaches to Scholarship in 
Student Affairs
Birgit Schreiber,* Teboho Moja** & Thierry M. Luescher***

JSAA 10(2) is guest-edited by the South African Association of Senior Student Affairs 
Professionals (SAASSAP) and Matete Madiba led this effort. The collaboration between 
the South African Association of Senior Student Affairs Professionals and the Journal 
of Student Affairs in Africa ( JSAA) has been a longstanding one. Indeed, it was in the 
wake of the 2011 SAASSAP conference at Stellenbosch University in South Africa that 
the idea of creating a platform for publishing the conference proceedings of student 
affairs conferences in Africa was mooted. In the course of 2012 and 2013, JSAA was 
conceptualised by its original editorial team, but particularly Dr Birgit Schreiber, 
Dr Thierry Luescher and Ms Tonia Overmeyer. It became a reality with the help and 
leadership of Prof. Teboho Moja. 

Many members of the South African student affairs leadership and SAASSAP 
members have contributed to the journal over the years and have contributed and 
collaborated to strengthen student affairs scholarship. This second issue of volume 10 of 
JSAA is the first formal collaboration; a guest-edited issue conceived and implemented 
under the leadership of Dr Matete Madiba, SAASSAP research and development officer 
and Director: Student Affairs of the University of Pretoria in South Africa and Dr Birgit 
Schreiber of the JSAA Editorial Executive. This is an issue rich with papers ref lecting 
the diversity of voices and issues in student affairs in South, Southern and continental 
Africa. The issue ref lects how we are still grappling with, ref lecting on, researching, 
and writing about the #FeesMustFall student activism of 2015/16, and also continue to 

*   Dr Birgit Schreiber is a member of the Africa Centre for Transregional Research at Alberts-Ludwig- 
Universität Freiburg, Germany, and the vice-president of IASAS and a member of the JSAA Editorial 
Executive. She is a senior consultant for Higher Education Leadership and Management, South Africa. 
Email: birgitdewes@gmail.com. ORCID: 0000-0003-2469-0504.

**  Prof. Teboho Moja is clinical professor of Higher Education, New York University, USA. She is also a 
visiting research fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, South 
Africa, and an extraordinary professor at the Institute of Post School Studies, University of the Western 
Cape, South Africa. She is JSAA’s Editor-in-chief. Email: tebohon.moja@nyu.edu. ORCID: 0000-0001-
6343-3020.

***  Prof. Thierry M. Luescher is the research director for Post-schooling in the Inclusive Economic 
Development Division of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Cape Town, and associate 
professor of Higher Education affiliated to the University of the Free State, Mangaung/Bloemfontein, 
South Africa. He is a member of the JSAA Editorial Executive. Email: tluescher@hsrc.ac.za. ORCID: 
0000-0002-6675-0512.

http://www.jsaa.ac.za
mailto:birgitdewes@gmail.com
mailto:tebohon.moja@nyu.edu
mailto:tluescher@hsrc.ac.za


vi   Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 10(2) 2022, v-viii | 2307-6267 | DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v10i2.4362

discuss the impact the 2020/21 COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has had on our practice 
and theorising of student affairs. 

This issue is also a ref lection of JSAA’s commitment to promoting collaborative 
research in student affairs. This issue in particular, has a noticeable number of articles that 
are co-authored and/or based on collaborative research and the resulting co-authorship 
is becoming, one hopes, the standard. This is a trend that was described already by 
Hunter and Leahey (2008), who found that collaborations in research were on the 
increase, and that co-author prestige was higher than that of sole-author, and only male 
sole-authorship remained, at least at that time, most common. In healthcare research, for 
example, collaborative interdisciplinary research also enjoys higher publication rates of 
high quality than single authorship (Bruzzese et al., 2020). 

This guest-edited issue is also a great example of collaboration in a further way 
in that it is made up of two parts: One part are the articles edited by the guest editor, 
Dr Matete Madiba, and the second part are articles from the open submission pool of 
manuscripts that were edited by the JSAA Editorial Team. The articles that fall into this 
second category include the following: 

In this issue Dick, Malefane and Müller explore the experiences of student peer 
leaders using arts-based ref lections to complement a qualitative methodology. They 
explore the intersection of multiple roles of students as peer educators, student leaders, 
activists, and residents in a student community. The study highlights the complexities 
emerging from navigating these different challenging roles. 

Govender, Reddy and Bhagwan explore the impact of COVID-19 on a group of 
students and discuss the emerging themes, using the online platform Microsoft Teams as 
research medium – a medium that has become normalised since the advent of COVID-
19. The emerging themes include the need for students to understand the transmissions 
processes of the virus, mental health issues, and financial stresses. 

The article by Machaba and Mostert uses statistical research methods with a large 
sample (N=1,211) to explore first year students’ fit with their course of study. The article 
highlights the importance of course choice for students and the role that high schools 
and universities can play in preparing students for making meaningful and good-fit 
choices, given that a change of faculty and course is difficult in the current rigid degree 
structures at universities in South Africa and other countries in Africa. The article 
highlights the kinds of changes required at structural degree and programme level at 
universities to support student success.

Another article exploring the first-year student experience (FYE) during COVID-19 
is authored by Bengesai, Paideya, Naidoo and Mkhonza. They conclude that the contact 
with, and support from the university in the form of the FYE transition programme was 
experienced as positive by this sample of first year students. 

De Klerk discusses notions and constructions of students as contextualized learners 
and how this understanding changes the nature and focus of academic advising. The 
author argues for a broader lens and that deeper contextualization of students is required 



Birgit Schreiber, Teboho Moja & Thierry M. Luescher: Collaborative Approaches to Scholarship …   vii

to include a consideration of the socio-economic challenges and constrains into which 
many students are embedded.

The next article is co-authored by Matlala, Pila-Nemutandani and Erasmus and 
they explore the impact of peer pressure on alcohol use in students’ lives. Matlala et 
al. find that many factors, especially the inf luence of family, play a significant role in 
mediating the impact of peer pressure. 

McConney and Fourie-Malherbe focus on the FYE and the role and impact of peer 
mentoring. They find that multiple factors in the peer mentors themselves, and in the 
quality and frequency of the mentoring process, play a significant role in increasing the 
positive outcomes of a peer mentoring programme.

The final article in the research section of this issue is authored by Ntema who 
employed data mining to advance a predictive model of students who are at-risk of 
dropout. He identified that the carry-over of failed courses is a reliable predictor of high 
risk of de-registration of a student. 

We have three book reviews in this issue, and each of them reviews a significant and 
outstanding book. 

Cunningham reviews Torabian’s book Wealth, Values, Culture and Education: Reviving 
the Essentials for Equality and Sustainability and highlights the multi-disciplinary lens 
Dr Juliette Torabain employed to illuminate the intersection of factors that derail and 
advance access to education.

Dipitso reviews Walker et al.’s book entitled Low-Income Students, Human 
Development and Higher Education in South Africa Opportunities, Obstacles and Outcomes 
published by African Minds, which provides critical insight into equity and access of 
low-income students to higher education in South Africa. 

Moletsane reviews #FeesMustFall and its Aftermath: Violence, Wellbeing and the Student 
Movement in South Africa, by Luescher, Wilson Fadiji, Morwe, et al., published by the 
HSRC Press. This extended visual essay and its accompanying exhibition of photographs 
and narratives generated by photovoice has become a topic of discussion on many 
campuses where the exhibition has been held. It provides the frame for ref lection on the 
well-being impacts of violence in the context of the student movement in South Africa. 

This issue would not have been possible without the tireless support of Bronwin 
Sebonka, our Journal Administrator at the University of Pretoria, and the meticulous 
work of Imkhitha Nzungu at our publishing house, African Minds. In addition, 
we thank our expanded editorial team for their sterling work. As customary, all the 
reviewers of the past volume and related manuscripts are gratefully acknowledged in the 
‘Thank you to our reviewers’ included in this issue.

References
Bruzzese, J. M., Usseglio, J., Goldberg, J., Begg, M. D., & Larson, E. L. (2020). Professional development 

outcomes associated with interdisciplinary research: an integrative review. Nursing Outlook, 68(4), 
449-458.



viii   Journal of Student Affairs in Africa | Volume 10(2) 2022, v-viii | 2307-6267 | DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v10i2.4362

Hunter, L., & Leahey, E. (2008). Collaborative research in sociology: Trends and contributing factors. 
The American Sociologist, 39(4), 290-306. DOI: 10.1007/s12108-008-9042-1.

How to cite:
Schreiber, B., Moja, T., & Luescher, T. M. (2022). Collaborative approaches to scholarship in student 

affairs. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 10(2), v-viii. DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v10i2.4362