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Students with disabilities thrive with support of FNB grant

25 April 2019 | Story Mamosa Makaya

Since 2016, the University of the Free State Center for Universal Access and Disability Support (CUADS) has received a grant from First National Bank worth R2 498 000, which supports tertiary bursaries for students with disabilities. Bursary holders are funded through CUADS, as the administrator of the bursaries.

These are students enrolled for various academic programmes who require academic assistance and/or assistive devices such as electronic handheld magnifiers, laptops, and hearing aids. The FNB grant also covers tuition, accommodation, study material and books, and meals. The success of the grant is already evident, with one of the recipients having graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in December 2018. A second student was capped at the April 2019 graduations with a BSc Honours in Quantity Surveying.

Supporting the principles of the ITP

The UFS received the grant from FNB in instalments, starting in the 2016 academic year to date, supporting the needs of 40 disabled students. This grant and the work of CUADS speaks to and supports the principles of the Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP), namely inclusivity, transformation, and diversity. The vision of the Universal Access work stream is to enable the UFS to create an environment where students with disabilities can experience all aspects of student life equal to their non-disabled peers. The ITP provides for the recognition of the rights of people with disabilities as an important lesson in social justice and an opportunity to reinforce university values.

The successful administration of the grant to benefit past and present students is a ‘feather in the cap’ of CUADS, and is a shining example of the impact of public private investment and the endless possibilities that open up when there is a commitment to developing future leaders in academic spaces, allowing them to thrive by creating a learning environment that is welcoming and empowering.

News Archive

Postgraduate Film and Visual Media Programme at UFS from 2015

2014-12-04

There is great excitement at the University of the Free State (UFS) about the approval of a new honours and master’s programme in Film and Visual Media to be offered at the Faculty of the Humanities as from January 2015.

Prof Suzanne Human, Head of the Department of Art History and Visual Culture Studies at Kovsies and Director of the new programme, says this will be an interdisciplinary Film and Visual Media programme. There will consequently be a strong theoretical-philosophical basis in the training, as well as the practical experiences of students. The UFS will be the only university in South Africa where this much emphasis is placed on the historical and theoretical aspects of film-making.

“The world of images is, in our day and age where we are overwhelmed by images on a daily basis, a central study field relevant across various disciplines and even links the natural and human sciences,” says Prof Human.

“Film, which replaced books in the lives of young people in many ways, is an exciting field of which most people have some knowledge and involves a broad field of information with wide relevance.”

The programme will be presented with the cooperation of international scholars and experienced experts from the local industry. Chris Vorster – better known as Ryno from 7de Laan – with more than 20 years of experience in writing, directing and performance for theatre and TV, was appointed as lecturer in Film-making Theory and Practice in the newly-built film studio as from 2 January 2015.

This new postgraduate programme is developed in cooperation with several UFS departments:
• Prof Suzanne Human and Johanet Kriel (History of Art and Visual Culture Studies);
• Prof Nico Luwes, Dr Pieter Venter and Debeer Cloete (Drama and Theatre Arts);
• Prof Helene Strauss (English);
• Dr Anthea van Jaarsveld and Dr Cilliers van den Berg (Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French).

Specific admission requirements apply. For example, students should have a related BA degree with a minimum achievement level of 65%. Admissions are limited and subject to selection, therefore students that are interested should apply as soon as possible.

Admission requirements

For more information, please send an email to filmandvisualmedia@ufs.ac.za.

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