Over the past decades, reported research have continuously alluded to the impact of “digital natives,” “millennials,” and a range of reported “generations,” and warned about the need to adapt across all spheres, including education, educational approaches and student support. Higher education akin to these demands. Contemporary trends in student styles indicate an ever-expanding preference in using digital options. In essence, the use and application of technology and expectations hereof are changing with the emergence of each new generation. This necessitates a deepening in understanding, of inter alia, developments and application of educational technology and instructional design. With the disruptive technological changes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), a new entry-level student, characterised by an increased digital imprint and a marked preference to using only mobile technology, surfaced and is already coined in literature as “the phygital generation”. Phygital is the concept of using technology to bridge the digital world with the physical world with the purpose of providing a unique interactive experience for the user. The term has first been introduced by the marketing and consumer industries. Here, smart and mobile technologies enable interaction and experiences for increasingly daily needs such as online purchases, traveling, learning, communication. The question is: how does this new trend affect teaching and learning? Evidently, students from this generation prefers to learn from microcontent and they are averse to voluminous content. Is there an understanding of the nature of the phygital generation, with its focus on mobile technology? Will this exacerbate the digital divide in marginalised communities? Framed by Critical Pedagogy, this paper interrogates the knowledge that a group of lecturers and their support staff in a Higher Education Institution in South Africa must accommodate a new generation of students. Using an interpretive design, qualitative data were collected from a purposively selected group of educators and support staff. Semi-structured interviews were used in this case to gauge their awareness and readiness to accommodate this new generation in their teaching and learning ecosystem. Findings are that participants are aware of the change but are not prepared for contemporary trends. Informed by critical theory, the paper offers critical indicators to address the gap.

COVID-19 has distorted the teaching and learning pedagogy, as well as the research process of higher education institutions, particularly in Africa. This pandemic-imposed restrictions on movement and demanded a shift to online interaction. This blurred the lines between work and home life and has exacerbated the deep chasms of inequality upon which South African society operates. Established on empirical evidence, substantiated by documentary data, this paper explores how these existing inequalities, exacerbated by COVID-19, manifest in the postgraduate research space of South African higher education institutions. Qualitative data were collected during a recorded focus group interview, and thematically analysed. Through a Neo-Weberian lens, it will illustrate that the pandemic, among other challenges, posed significant ethical challenges to honours students completing their research projects, in turn, shifting policies and requirements of higher education institutions (HEIs) themselves to ensure the protection of their students and quality of research output. These include concerns around digital exclusion, locating participant consent, as well as the collection of data via online channels (Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype) and their privacy parameters. Considering these gulfs of inequality, the paper recommends key requirements for the future of ethically sound research in higher education in South Africa.

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Globally, institutional repositories (IRs) have become part of the services offered in academic libraries. This is, however, not yet the case in African academic libraries. In South Africa, the majority of academic libraries have embarked on digitising their research output. The aim of the study reported on in this article was to describe the IR of the University of Zululand (commonly known as Unizulu). A literature review, personal experience and observations were used to gather information for the study. It was found that although there were a number of challenges in the beginning stages, the project known as UZSpace was launched successfully. It was also found that due to the fact that the open access principle was embraced, and through the use of harvesters, the IR was heavily utilised especially during the first few months after going live – a trend that is still continuing. The article points out the challenges experienced; highlights the current status of the project; and shows the strengths and weaknesses of the project. Recommendations include that the IR management should form its own department under the auspices of the library; staff issues be resolved; and contingency plans be put in place for when a staff member leaves the project. The digitisation of the research materials should also be done in-house instead of being outsourced in order to save time and finances.

This case study reports on observations and outcomes after the first phase of a digital learning commons implementation project at a private higher education institution and offers solutions to improve this information service. The paper asks whether the learning commons framework by Faber (2012)