Entropic measures for student enrolments at Unisa

Abstract

Entropy originated from physics, was introduced by Boltzman in 1872 and shows a degree of uncertainty or chaos for a system/subsystem. The versatility of the entropy concept was proven through several fields of science: chemical engineering, electrical engineering, metallurgical engineering, communication theory, theoretic entropy, water resources, and student performance in an open distance learning context, etc. In the current study, theoretic entropy is extended to quantify the amount of information/uncertainty of student enrolment associated with graduations and academic staff head counts (HC) at Unisa. Entropic computations revealed preliminarily the degree of uncertainty of enrolment; hence the information contained in enrolments did not vary sensibly from college to college. Similar results were also obtained for graduations as well as staff (HC). Around 16 to 17% degree of uncertainty, ignorance or chaos can be accounted for for enrolments, graduations and staff HC. To reduce the level of uncertainty, a reconfiguration/integration of Unisa as a system in terms of planning of its different subsystems was suggested: registration-enrolment plan, learner support, academic staff, ICT capabilities. Hence a schematic diagram has been derived for system integration. Further work needs to be done for the integration of different elements of Unisa in order to reduce the level of uncertainty in the system.