Improved student throughput remains on the South African Higher
Education (HE) priority list. To achieve greater throughput, all institutions of higher
learning need to contribute. The South African Military Academy offers distance
education (DE) programmes to employees of the South African Department of
Defence (DoD). Its distance education (DE) programme, earmarked to become the
main HE provider to the DoD, compared to its residential programmes, displays
poor throughput. Poor DE throughput contradicts recent advances in educational
technologies which provide a range of mitigation and support opportunities through
the creation of learning spaces that mediate successful student learning anytime
anywhere. This article contributes to the body of knowledge on firstly the disparate
profile of Military Academy DE students, and secondly, their disparate access to
learning technologies in their working and learning spaces. A survey among DE
undergraduates and DE lecturers revealed disparity among respective DE students’
HE-related demographics, and disparity in their access to learning technologies
(LT). Resolving disparity in access to LT can mitigate demographic disparity to
promote graduate throughput.