Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
30 October 2018
|
Story Rulanzen Martin
|
Photo Peet van Aardt
How do you transform the higher education curriculum? You involve the exact people the curriculum is intended for. The book, Initiative for Creative African Narratives (iCAN,) illustrates how decolonisation can be achieved through literature for students by students.
iCAN is an initiative by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of the Free State (UFS) to mentor students in creative and narrative writing. Under the mentorship of Dr Peet van Aardt, project coordinator, and Ace Moloi, author and UFS alumnus, iCAN Volume 1 was recently launched with 47 short stories written by UFS students.
“The project is a response from the centre for the ever-increasing need for decolonised curricula, steeped in the local cultural perspective of ubuntu,” said Dr Van Aardt.
“This book is an example for how decolonisation can be implemented,” said Prof Francois Stydrom, Senior Director of CTL. The overall aim of the iCAN project is to have the content that materialised from it to be included in the curriculum of first-year students at UFS in the near future.
Book provides multiple voices
Starting in May 2018, CTL presented a series of creative writing workshops on all three of the UFS campuses. “It’s a medium that allows a diverse range of students to express their views and develop their voices as writers,” said Prof Strydom.
It is a form of empowerment, to pass the baton to students to improve the UFS curriculum by writing and publishing their own stories, thereby contributing to larger bodies of knowledge through their lived experiences.
“I believe we as a university need to enable students so that they move away from just being users to becoming contributors to the curriculum,” Dr van Aardt concluded.
Strategic Plan for 2012-2016 launched
2012-06-07
Vision
A university recognised across the world for excellence in academic achievement and in human reconciliation.
Mission
The university will pursue this vision through its mission:
- Setting the highest standards for undergraduate and postgraduate education.
- Recruiting the best and most diverse students and professors into the university.
- Advancing excellence in the scholarship of research, teaching and public service.
- Demonstrating in everyday practice the value of human togetherness and solidarity across social and historical divides.
- Advancing social justice by creating multiple opportunities for disadvantaged students to access the university.
- Promoting innovation, distinctiveness and leadership in both academic and human pursuits.
- Establishing transparent opportunities for lifelong learning for academic and support staff.
Values
The following five core values represent deeply-held commitments that inform every policy and steer every action. These values underpin both the Academic Project and the Human Project of this university.
- Superior Scholarship
- Human Embrace
- Institutional Distinctiveness
- Emergent Leadership
- Public Service
Motto
IN VERITATE SAPIENTIAE LUX
(In Truth is the Light of Wisdom)