Participant’s characteristics
A total of ten students participated in the study, of which six were males and four were females. All the students who participated in the study have undergone a process of remediation in their academic integration journey at the University of Witwatersrand.
Three overarching themes emerged from the data analysis, namely, perceptions of remediation, reasons for remediation, and experiences on remediation (Table 1).
Table 1
Themes emerging from the data
Themes | Description |
Perceptions regarding remediation | Participants’ understanding of remediation, including their attitudes, beliefs, and opinions. |
Reasons for remediation | Description of factors that led to participants not performing well academically |
Experiences on remediation | Describes the participants’ journey through the remediation process |
Theme 1: Perception of remediation
Participants describe remediation as an opportunity to improve academic and clinical competence for students who are in-between pass and fail.
“Basically, how I understand remediation is that it's a program that has been set by Wits which; is set to just improve a student’s academic experience or clinical experience because it's something in between a pass and a fail because it's not a fail. It's not like a repeat but it's not a pass either. It means that there's just something that you just need to work on. So, it's that period that's just in between the passing and the failing” STU 3
One participant described remediation as a second chance for those who did not do well academically, to save them from repeating the year. However, they refer to remediation as the opportunity to rewrite, not the actual process:
“Second chance, that’s what I would call it. It's a second chance because just takes 1 point less for you to repeat the rotation the next year and one point to be given that chance to actually rewrite and redeem yourself. So, yeah, I'll call it a second chance” STU 4
Some participants understood remediation as the journey that the students embark on before rewriting the subject that they are remediating.
“So, in the process of remediation? A student is required to go back to the clinical spaces, for a set period of time and to revisit certain things, like clinical experiences. Like basically, you get a logbook that is like a downsize logbook to the normal logbook that we have during our eight weeks rotation. So, this one is just for two weeks where you have to present yourself to the clinical space is every day present cases and do procedures and as attend tutorials as well. And yeah, just show yourself up clinically and to just match up where they might have been, some gaps in the studying that resulted in a person not getting the pass mark even though they didn't exactly get the failure it so as to repeat so yeah” STU 3
All the participants linked the remediation is to not meet the minimum requirements as set by the university.
“You have to pass your clinical the logbook part, right. That part you have to pass it. There's no remediation for it if you fail it, you just repeat it right then. The two exams, the Viva and the theory part the MCQ part. So, on the Viva pass mark 60 you have to reach 50 to qualify for remediation” STU 4
Furthermore, remediation did not come as a shock to students, they were all aware of the remediation criteria.
“I only saw those results and yeah, they told us prior, like, okay, the minimum, if you don't meet the minimum requirements that means you will be remediating” STU 1
Conversely, some participants were confused about remediation, they mentioned that that remediation is another name for supplementary exam, one participant said
“Well, in our program, there's never really a mention of supplementary exam. Umm, we use the remediation term. So, I understood it as the same thing, just a different name” STU 3
Theme 2: Reasons for remediation
Some students who remediated mentioned that although they believed that they did well in other rotations, they understood that they were not doing well in the subjects that they remediated, one student said: “My overall performance it was, I don't know what to say. It was OK, it was masked a lot with these remediation processes with those subjects that I had issues with, but the other ones were fairly OK, I did above average I think” STU 3
Some were surprised that they had to go through remediation, they believed that they did their best.
“When I came to Wits, I had that thing that I'm going to give it my best and make sure I finish in record time. I don't want to repeat like, and that's what I've been doing. But clearly it was not enough at some point because I keep lagging with three points, two points, 5. But yeah, I was working, anticipating, failing. No” STU 4
One participant felt that the subject that he was remediating was the easiest of all his subjects, and he never anticipated remediation, he said “So I didn't anticipate needing remediation especially for the subject that I was remediated because it's seen as one of the easy ones” STU 3
Students cited different challenges that led to them not performing well academically and ended up in remediation. Some had challenges transitioning from Cuba to South Africa, they mentioned that when they got to South Africa, they were overwhelmed about lots of information which demotivated them and ended up in remediation as a result.
“So last year, I was not that motivated honestly, I started lacking. A lot of professionalism and all those things because I felt like, I had gotten back from Cuba, and I was bombarded with all this information” STU 2
Most participants compared how things were done in Cuba to South Africa, for an example, one participant blamed the poor academic performance to group dynamics, citing that in South Africa they have bigger groups as compared to Cuba, which allowed them not to put an effort since it is easy to hide under the radar:
“But yeah, it was different. It was a different setting as well because but the group in Cuba, was smaller. We had a smaller group than we did in, in Wits when I was doing physio so it was a bit different as to how the material is delivered and how you have to present yourself in the settings and the other settings that don't allow you to hide in the background because you like you're a smaller group so you have to like present yourself and so forth” STU 3
Another participant blamed the poor academic performance to the fact that they are not exposed to the content that South African trained students are exposed to, and they isolated from them. They further suggest that mixing both groups will make a difference:
“I feel like the coordinator, they should integrate us with the Wits students because we are not exposed to what the like GEMP (Graduate Entry Medical Programme) students, we don't know what they're doing. What's expected? We just do our own thing. We integrate, they mix us together, that would be really helpful for us. Especially when we are in the hospitals, so it will be much easier if we are mixed together” STU 1
Another reason that was cited reason that led participants to not doing well and ending up in remediation was family related. Participants were away from home for many years, and when they came back to South Africa, they were closer to their homes, hence those went home more often believed that they consumed their study time on going home.
“I don't know, because I used to go home every now and then. I used to feel like, okay, going home maybe affected me. I should have stayed and studied. Yeah. So, I started blaming family” STU 1
On the other hand, some participants knew that their poor academic performance was due to them being not well prepared for exams. For instance, one participant said “I don't have any other particular reason, but I think I was not prepared enough for that exam” STU 2.
Similarly, one student admitted to not engaging during the clinics rounds, which landed the students in remediation.
“It really went down because I was not really participating anymore, but, during what ward rounds in the clinics, I wasn't really participating anymore” STU 1
Theme 3: Experiences with the remediation
Participants described their experience on remediation as tough because of the increased amount of work, with remediation in addition to their normal subjects.
“It's tough in a sense that because obviously you have to put in two times the work; because you want to make sure that you get past it” STU 5
One participant described her experience when she was first told that she was remediating as unpleasant and that she kept it to herself: “The feeling is not nice. I couldn't even talk to anybody. I was just alone with the marks” STU 1
Some who were not expecting remediated became emotional upon receiving the news. One participant said:
“I was obviously, I was a bit emotional, obviously because I felt like, oh, I thought I was ready for the exam but then when the results came in. I was shocked but it happens. I mean, maybe I made mistakes when I was uh, you know, cause, sometimes you make mistakes, and you are not even aware” STU 2
Other participants raised their frustration with ending up in remediation just for failing to meet requirements by only one mark:
“I didn't anticipate it, I honestly didn't even after going through the exam, and I didn't think that it would end up being a remediation. So yeah, it was quite shocking to learn. But then I was like, OK, let's just put ourselves together and go back and then it came out the same way and the worst part was that it was a one-mark thing. So, it was always very frustrating that it's so close, yet so far away, you know” STU 3