Student-athlete dual careers in South African public universities: insights from an ecological perspective

Student-athletes must navigate the complex demands of academic work and high-performance sport, often within higher education environments that place competing pressures on their time, energy, and performance. This study explores how student-athlete experiences differ across two South African public universities that vary primarily in their geographic setting, using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory and the Process–Person–Context–Time model as a guiding framework. An exploratory qualitative design was employed, with semi-structured interviews conducted with 22 undergraduate and postgraduate student-athletes (9 women, 13 men) engaged in high-performance sport. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings reveal that academic demands constitute the most persistent source of stress, driven by externally regulated assessments and long-term academic consequences, whereas athletic pressures are largely development-focused and internally regulated. Personal attributes such as motivation, resilience, and goal orientation, along with peer and team support, emerged as critical resources; however, injuries, transitions, and cumulative fatigue frequently disrupted coping mechanisms. Despite differences in institutional context, experiences were broadly similar, highlighting that dual-career engagement is shaped by ongoing interactions between individuals and their environments rather than singular determinants. Based on these insights, a conceptual framework is proposed that integrates person, process, context, and time dimensions, offering both theoretical and practical guidance for designing ecologically informed support systems that enhance sustainable dual-career development in higher education.