University reputation and undergraduates’ self-perceived employability: mediating influence of experiential learning activities

ABSTRACT

Stratification, in the form of silent exclusion that is experienced by some groups of students because of the perceived low reputation of the university attended, and which the students have no control over, has been observed as a social menace that works against the concept of equity in education. To address this problem, a need exists for universities with lower reputations to go the extra mile to develop the employability skills of their students, which, in turn, will enhance their self-perception of employability. The major objective of this study was to investigate the influence of experiential learning activities on the relationship between university reputation and self-perceived employability among undergraduates in South African universities. Data were collected by means of an adapted questionnaire from 402 respondents drawn from two universities in the same province in South Africa. To achieve our objective, four hypotheses were formulated and tested through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS 25. The findings show that both direct and indirect effects of university reputation on undergraduates’ perceived employability through experiential learning activities are positively significant. To minimise the negative effects that universities with low reputations are likely to have on undergraduates’ acquisition of experiential learning, on their self-perceived employability, and subsequently on their employment prospects, the government, the Department of Higher Education and universities (particularly, the low-rated ones in South Africa) need to put in place some timely interventions, some of which are suggested in the study.

KEYWORDS:

• Experiential learning
• students’ self-perceived employability
• university reputation
• South Africa
• structural equation modelling (SEM)

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to acknowledge Dr Atiku, S.O. of the School of Management, IT and Governance, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa for his contribution to this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Oluyomi S. Pitan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-8999

Colette Muller http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6183-8574