Service Learning and the Human Project

It is important to the UFS that students learn the value of public service through both their formal degree studies – such as the various service learning programmes that count for credit towards the qualification – and through voluntary work in surrounding communities where there is need. It is especially important in one of the poorest provinces of the country that the striving for academic excellence co-exists with the quest for public service; for the UFS the giving of oneself in devotion to those in need is a mark of excellence.

The spirit of public service which the university seeks to inflame in each student flies in the face of rampant consumerism and self-indulgence in the broader society; it is a quest that is in many ways counter-cultural at this stage in the history of the country.

That is all the more reason why students are taught to value the application of their skills – from architecture to teacher education to medicine to history to media studies and more – for the improvement of the human condition.

UFS Strategic Plan 2012–2016, Section 7.4 - www.ufs.ac.za/supportservices/docs/librariesprovider43/students-skills-library-documents/note-taking-931-eng.pdf.