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BACKGROUND
• Student success is an international priority and various initiatives have
been implemented in higher education to enhance student success,
especially in the first year of study.
• Very few of these initiatives have been successful because they have
not focussed on improving the classroom experience (Tinto 2012).
• In order to address this gap, student engagement is increasingly being
mooted as a prerequisite for learning (Pittaway 2012). Tinto (2012)
argues that enhancing engagement in the classroom is imperative for
students to succeed, especially in the first year.