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27 August 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Xolisa Mnukwa
Student Toolkit
The First Edition of the UFS Student Toolkit is now available on Blackboard.

Download the toolkit here

A common question first-time entering first-year students often ask themselves when they come to university, is: ‘How will I deal with the pressure?’

The University of the Free State (UFS) Department of Student Counselling and Development (SCD) – with the vision to promote, enable, and optimise students’ self-direction – has launched the first edition of the Student Toolkit on Friday, 23 August 2019.

The toolkit, which is now available on Blackboard, is intended to assist students in dealing and coping with challenges they face in their personal lives during their period of study at the UFS.

Students will be exposed to a variety of topics, pressing issues, and phenomena that they will encounter on a daily basis in their lives, such as academic and personal challenges, time management, procrastination, goal setting, anxiety, effective studying, stress management, mindful meditation, self-love, loneliness, relationships, sexual orientation, family frustrations, overthinking, death, and suicide. 

Present at the launch was the UFS Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Student Affairs, and Community Engagement, Prof Puleng LenkaBula; the UFS Dean of Student Affairs, Mr Pura Mgolombane; the UFS Director for Student Counselling and Development, Melissa Barnaschone; Counselling Psychologist and compiler of the UFS Student Toolkit: Lize van den Bergh.

In addition, BCom Marketing honours student and poet, Thuthukani Ndlovu, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Next Chapter, Tshepang Mahlatsi, three students who have benefitted from SDC services, delegates from the department, and other affiliated students were all in attendance. 

For more information about the Student Toolkit, contact the Department of Student Counselling and Development at scd@ufs.ac.za or call +27 51 401 2853.


News Archive

Critical conversations for an intellectually vibrant campus
2012-02-13

 
Prof. Helene Strauss lead a discussion of Khalo Matabane’s film, Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon.
Photo: Amanda Tongha

Our Bloemfontein Campus is set to become intellectually alive this year with a series of critical conversations hosted by our International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice. The series of conversations promise an impressive line-up of prominent South Africans, amongst them Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and Nobel Literature winner Nadine Gordimer.

The first conversation for this year was hosted on 7 and 8 February 2012 with a screening and discussion of Khalo Matabane’s film, Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon. The discussion, led by Prof. Helene Strauss from our Department of English, looked at the ethics of conversing across cultural and other divides.

Speaking at the discussion Prof. André Keet, Director of our International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice, said it bodes well for the university that it will listen to and view amazing intellectual work. He said, "The critical conversations directly speak to the human and academic project of the university."

The next critical conversation will be hosted on 21 February 2012 and will look at the politics of reconciliation.

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