Determining first-year students' awareness and perceptions of the student support office: a case of a university of technology in South Africa

Abstract

The student support service’s role in helping first-year students adapt and concentrate on their studies at institutions of higher learning could not be emphasised enough. Students who use the student service are likely to transition well and have positive academic experiences. Through communication, the student support services should draw the attention of stakeholders to the available services. This study aimed to determine first-year students’ level of awareness and perception of student support services at the University of Technology in South Africa across all faculties. The objectives of the study were as follows: To determine first-year students’ awareness of the Student Support Services office across all the selected University of Technology in South Africa faculties. • To assess first-year students’ perceptions of the Student Support Services office at the above university of technology. • To determine a relationship between awareness, perceptions, and the intentions to use the Student Support Services office. • To determine whether awareness and perceptions impact the intention to use the Student Support Services office. A quantitative design was employed by distributing a self-administered questionnaire to survey the level of awareness, perception, and intention to use variables from 308 respondents who were on campus and volunteered to respond to the questionnaire. The sample was made of most of the respondents (67%) who were females, followed by males, who constituted 31.17%. The respondents who identified themselves as ‘other’ constituted 0.97%. The results revealed that students are not fully aware of the student support services. There is a correlation between awareness and perception. There is no correlation between awareness and intention to use. However, there is a correlation between perception and intention to use the student support services. Results illuminate that being aware of the student support service is insufficient for stakeholders to visit the office for help. Instead, the perception must be better to impact the students’ intention to use the student support services.