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Abstract

The teaching and learning milieu in a post-apartheid South Africa has transmuted fundamentally. Twenty-five years ago a university class accommodated 100 students; this has augmented into a class of approximately 2000 learners. Notwithstanding this transformed learning environment affects students, academics, and learning process significantly. Failure to deliver supplementary fiscal and human resources has left both students and academics unsupported. The proliferation of students has simultaneously and surprisingly seen a reduction in academics within faculties. Ineffectual organizational human resource and infrastructural developments has compounded the challenges. Scholarship on pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning in large classes is examined, adopting a qualitative desktop methodological approach. The adverse impact on first-year students and academics at universities in South Africa is documented. The results from this study denote the challenges experienced by academics and students in endeavoring to maintain academic standards. Sociological insights on the complexities, challenges, and possibilities that lie ahead, are examined.