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06 August 2018 Photo Sonia Small
Karen Lazenby WomenofKovsies
Dr Karen Lazenby strives for a stronger, rule-based, and consistent governance structure.
A transformed University of the Free State (UFS) will be one that promotes social justice in everything it does, a university where its diverse people feel a sense of common purpose and engagement. The UFS is developing this through its Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP) introduced in January 2017. 

“The majority of the current systems and processes in student administration at the university are still manual. This lack of automation leads to inconsistencies and service failures,” says Dr Karen Lazenby. As Registrar for Systems and Administration, Dr Lazenby is responsible for ensuring a smooth and efficient student lifecycle across all three campuses. 

With the ITP, the Governance: Systems and Administration work stream strives to have a stronger, rule-based, and consistent governance structure with a single line of accountability in student administration across all faculties and relevant support departments on the three campuses. By ensuring this ease of use and access there will be an integrated student experience and greater empowerment of students.

“Our focus is on automation and self-services for students (such as the time-table, requests for additional and ad hoc exams and appeals), to ensure transparency and accessibility of rules and policies, decisions relating to admission, progression rules, awarding of qualifications and graduation and faculty and general rules,” Dr Lazenby said.  It will also entail the optimisation of PeopleSoftCampus (the Enterprise Resource Planning system).

“Through this automation, I would also like to get the university’s student administration to such a level that academic staff can focus their energy on teaching and research and student administration staff can focus more on quality assurance,” said Dr Lazenby.

News Archive

Moving towards creating a more accessible UFS for mobility-impaired students
2015-07-21


Centre for Universal Access and Disability Support’s logo for persons with mobility impairments.
Design: Karoo Republic

Hi, my name is Jackson, and I am a wheelchair user following an accident that left me paralysed.

We often take for granted the ability to navigate obstacles, and to move readily from place to place. Few people have to worry about mobility on campus, but for students with mobility impairments, it presents many challenges that few of us are aware of.

 

The biggest struggle for students with mobility impairments is often encountered in the lecture room/hall. Once they arrive at the class (often struggling to get there on time), their next challenge might be entering the classroom and finding a suitable place where they can sit comfortably. As it is, there are only a few loose tables in most lecture halls. Consequently, the students have to sit through the lecture taking notes and working with their laptops resting on their laps. Obviously, this is uncomfortable and not conducive to their learning process.

 

When students have limited hand function, the result is that they write more slowly and with difficulty. However, the UFS does offer assistance from scribes, adapted computer hardware/software, assistive devices, and/or modified furniture. Such adaptations can be arranged by the Centre for Universal Access and Disability Support (CUADS), which boasts an official test and examination venue where students with mobility impairments can proceed with their tests and exams if they prefer.

 

Students with Cerebral Palsy may experience difficulties with quick, sudden physical movements, and delayed processing of information. Stressful circumstances can result in their experiencing difficulty when having to write or process information quickly enough during test and examination situations. The Extra Time Panel, in collaboration with Student Counselling and Development, determines the time concession for those students with mobility impairments who have such needs.  

 

The importance of accessible parking spaces exclusively designated for wheelchair users not only involves such places being closer to a building entrance but also wide enough for a wheelchair user to get in and out of a vehicle safely.

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