After WSU we embarked on the drive back through East London to Alice – some 5 hours. The drive was easier as there was less traffic and no rain so I was more confident on the roads. Driving into Alice was a complete contrast for different reasons. One of the largest faculties there is agriculture and one is confronted by green green pastures and lots and lots of dairy cows before encountering the FH Alice campus. An old campus with almost Victorian style white buildings with red roofs all constructed very geometrically around squares with fountains and green space. The dynamic at FH was very different. Perhaps because there is a greater diversity of language groups more students were happy to talk in English although obviously understood isiXhosa well. And there was a far greater diversity of experience both in terms of the disciplines in which the students were studying and their backgrounds. They weren’t all local with some being Zimbabwean and others coming from Soweto saying they chose to come to FH because there were less distractions here than at the big unis and they could focus on their studies.
Certainly there appeared to be not just less but NO distractions in Alice. Aside from a Chinese take out (which the students think had disappeared) their eating options were the student hall or self catering. There was a HUGE reliance on technology for entertainment with laptops needed for playing movies as they lacked TV’s. Many were stuck in res all weekend on campus with no outside entertainment although they said there were sometimes parties in the student hall. I suppose its not surprising then that tensions can run rife (as exemplified by the death of one of the stduents we'd interviewed by phone due to head injuries sustained from an apparent fight with another student).
Ones of the impressions I got here during the focus groups was that whilst for the WSU students technology was a highly desired resources and critical for their learning, at UFH it was also critical to students ability to survive what appears to be quite an isolated existence in some cases.