No generation of South African youth has spent more of its life in digital environments than this one, yet growing numbers are choosing to learn, work, and socialise in physical spaces again. Higher education is part of that return, as students recognise that campus learning brings them closer to real workplace conditions, where they can test what they know under supervision, challenge ideas as they take shape, and gain the confidence that develops through repeated human interaction.
Leon Smalberger, CEO of the Academic Institute of Excellence (AIE), says the renewed pull of contact learning reaches far beyond nostalgia for campus life. “Young people are becoming more selective about what they allow technology to replace in their daily lives, and education is the last thing they’re willing to compromise on. They’ll use digital tools when they make learning faster or easier to access, but they still want the parts of education informed and enriched by human judgement and hands-on practice to happen with other people in the room.”
The latest available figures from the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) Statistics on Post-School Education and Training in South Africa report show that nearly two-thirds of students studied through contact programmes. Across public higher education institutions (HEIs), 65.3% were enrolled in contact programmes, while contact undergraduates achieved an average success rate of 81.6%, compared with 70.9% among distance students. Graduation rates were also higher for contact programmes: 25% versus 15% for undergraduates, and 20% versus 15% for doctoral students.
For Smalberger, that significant difference in success rates comes down to the lack of structure many students face at home compared with the discipline and support of studying on campus, where they learn in a classroom alongside like-minded students and lecturers who can step in quickly when they begin to falter.
Classrooms provide stability and support that distance learning cannot
Smalberger notes that many first-year students arrive from schools where teachers controlled the pace of work, closely monitored attendance, and intervened when performance began to slip. Distance learning strips away much of that external structure at the exact point when students are expected to carry a heavier workload on their own.
“Homes are often crowded with distractions and practical limitations, from family responsibilities and expectations to the simple absence of a quiet place to work, a usable digital device, or a stable internet connection, which many South Africans still cannot rely on. These conditions make sustained learning far harder and too often contribute to higher dropout and failure rates among distance-learning students than among their contact-learning peers.”
Conversely, contact learning protects study time by removing students from the assumption that being at home means being available. Travelling to campus and entering a scheduled classroom create a boundary that families, employers, and students themselves can recognise, giving academic work a fixed and protected place in the day, which can be especially important for first-time students whose households may have little experience of what tertiary study demands.
The classroom also shifts some responsibility for maintaining momentum back to the institution. Missed classes, incomplete work, and declining participation can be addressed and corrected early enough to prevent them from affecting the student’s academic future. Distance students often have to recognise that decline themselves, ask for help, and recover lost ground without the same external structure keeping them connected to the course.
“At AIE, contact learning combines the stability of the classroom with access to workshops, studios, laboratories, and collaborative project spaces where students can work through problems in conditions closer to those they will encounter after graduation. The value of campus learning then extends beyond physical attendance, giving students protected time, visible support, and an environment built around the demands of the qualification rather than the competing pressures of home.
“For students who need that structure in their lives, and who simply do not have the necessary resources and support at home to focus on their studies, a return to the classroom model can make a significant difference and ultimately save them from substantial wasted time and money, while better preparing them for graduation day and everything that comes after,” concludes Smalberger.
