THE IMPACT OF STUDENT REFERRAL IN STUDENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT UNIT AT TSHWANE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Student Development and Support (SDS) at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is a specialised and professional unit that aims at developing and supporting students towards achieving their academic goals. TUT has six campuses spread in three provinces of South Africa and each campus has its own SDS unit. The challenge that always faces SDS is to identify students who desperately need its services. Amongst other approaches, student referral was used in 2009 academic year by SDS unit in all TUT campuses.

Student referral refers to a system of directing a student to a source for help or information. Referral can be done by lecturers, mentors, friends or any other party. An analysis was done on consultation reports of 2009 in the SDS units of three TUT campuses. The findings were that most of the students, who received service at the SDS units, came through due to referrals done by lecturers, mentors or friends as opposed to self-referral.

It was therefore concluded that student referral as a system used in SDS, has a positive impact and plays an important role in identifying the relevant students who should receive SDS services. It is a system that also brings collaboration and cooperation with other stakeholders within the university.