Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
02 November 2018 | Story Charlene Stanley | Photo Johan Roux
Grassroots Champions Rising Above Challenges
Prof Richard Teare, President of the Global University of Lifelong Learning (GULL) (far left), Karen Venter, Head of Service Learning (second from left) and Bishop Billyboy Ramahlele, Director of Community Engagement (second from right) with graduates of GULL’s non-academic programme.

Reciprocity. That’s what it’s all about when it comes to engaged teaching and learning in a community context.  Everyone must benefit – which includes getting recognition for what you’ve achieved,” says Karen Venter, Head of Service Learning in the Directorate: Community Engagement.
   
This conviction was put into practice at the recent Grassroots Community Engagement Awards. It was an opportunity to thank and award all the role players who made a success of this year’s Learning Festival, presented in partnership with Bloem Shelter on the Bloemfontein Campus earlier this year. During the festival, 55 skills development workshops were offered in a collaborative effort to create sustainable income-generating micro enterprises.

Global University for Lifelong Learning graduates

The awards function also doubled as a proper ‘Cap and Gown’ ceremony for 18 participants in the Global University for Lifelong Learning (GULL) programme. For the past three years, they’ve been involved in action learning on a uniquely designed Professional Bachelor Pathway to Holistic Development. This pathway is rooted in spiritual, personal, and professional development, where the learning of skills for entrepreneurship is key to gain personal and professional viability, moving from dependence to independence.

“GULL’s approach is to give people in the community a chance to advance themselves. Our focus is professional and not academic. It’s about life skills and professional skills where people don’t have the funds or qualifications to follow an academic route,” explained Prof Richard Teare, President of GULL, who came all the way form the UK to officiate the ceremony.
  
Academics and Life Skills running parallel

“What makes the UFS involvement in our programme so great, is that it’s run parallel with an excellent academic programme offered by the university.”

He emphasised the importance of graduation ceremonies, as it instilled a sense of pride and gave graduates an opportunity to reflect on how far they’ve come in improving their own circumstances. 

“This is a deep form of learning, because we are enabling people to move from their difficult circumstances and release their own inner potential.”

News Archive

Breyten Breytenbach to speak on poetry and philosophy at UFS
2013-02-22

 

Breyten Breytenbach
Photo: Supplied
22 February 2013

The Department Philosophy is hosting a public lecture and panel discussion with the poet Breyten Breytenbach on poetry and philosophy on Wednesday 27 February 2013. Breytenbach will read from work that has never before been heard in public. Members of the public will also be able to ask him questions. The discussion will be in Afrikaans, with simultaneous interpretation to English and Sesotho. Entrance is free.

  • Wednesday 27 February 2013
  • 15:00
  • Odeion

Enquiries can be directed to Johann Rossouw at rossouwjh@ufs.ac.za

Short Breyten Breytenbach biography:

Breyten Breytenbach was born in 1939 on the banks of the Breede River in the Little Karoo. He studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town and left South Africa in 1959. His exile was confirmed after the Sharpeville massacre and his marriage to Yolande Ngo Thi Hoang Lien of Vietnamese origin, which brought him into conflict with the Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality Act.

In 1964 he began publishing poetry, as well as prose. Since the early sixties of the previous century, he started exhibiting in various European art galleries. In 1975 he clandestinely returned to South Africa where he spent seven-and-a-half years of a nine-year sentence for terrorism in South African prisons. He lectured at various universities in both South Africa and the United States. He helped establish the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, and was co-founder of the Gorée Institute in Dakar, Senegal, where he is still involved. He works from Catalonia, Paris and Gorée.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept