A big, warm welcome to all our international students who have joined the academic trip at the University of the Free State. Your experience at the UFS will not only result in you accumulating more knowledge, but it will also result in you developing tremendously as a human being (socially, psychologically, and intellectually).
I would like to extend a special welcome to the international postgraduate students. In most cases, international postgraduate student life requires self-drive and can be void of any social support to which one might be accustomed. The mandate of the Postgraduate School is to create an enabling environment for postgraduate students to excel in their academic quests. We provide additional support to those provided by faculties and departments, in the form of workshops, courses, and other presentations, which equip students with the requisite skills for successful completion of their postgraduate education.
These workshops are currently presented online as webinars due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshops/courses that we offer have the aim of broadening postgraduate students’ knowledge of research processes/methods, which in turn will positively influence throughput, publications, and the quality of postgraduate research being produced. The topics covered in presentations include, but are not limited to, academic writing, proposal writing, qualitative and quantitative research methodology, and writing articles from your thesis. We are also strengthening our academic writing support to postgraduate students through the Write Site.
On top of our capacity-building endeavours, we assist postgraduate students (especially honours, research master’s, and PhD students) with funding information. This includes funding from the UFS, NRF, and other bodies. The Postgraduate School issues a monthly newsletter on available funding opportunities for students and junior staff.
NB: Please note that the Postgraduate School only communicates with UFS students via ufs4life email addresses. Please contact ICT for assistance with activation.