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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

These boots are made for walking ... to Cape Town
2014-04-24

On Thursday 1 May 2014, four pairs of feet gave their first stride on a journey that will last for 33 days and stretch over 1 000 kilometres.

These feet belong to four very brave volunteers who will walk all the way to the Cape in order to highlight the problem of food insecurity among students.

Adéle van Aswegen and Ntokozo Nkabinde from the University of the Free State (UFS), together with Ronél Warner and Nico Piedt, both from Bloemfontein, are undertaking this hike as part of a fund-raising effort for the UFS’s No Student Hungry bursary (NSH bursary).

The NSH bursary, established in 2011 by Prof Jonathan Jansen, the UFS’s Vice-Chancellor and Rector, and Rudi Buys, Dean of Student Affairs, is aimed at alleviating food insecurity among students at the UFS.

The food bursary is awarded on the grounds of financial need, good academic performance, active participation in student-life programmes and a commitment to community service.

“The NSH bursary of about R30 per student forms only a small part of a student’s day, but it makes a huge difference in their lives,” says Vicky Simpson, coordinator of this programme offering assistance to more than 100 students.

You can follow our hikers’ progress on Twitter by using the #NSHstride. We will also keep you updated on Facebook and our website.

Meanwhile, everyone is invited to show their support for the hikers in a fun way. Take a picture of your foot (or feet), tweet the photo with #NSHstride @UFSweb or post it on your Facebook page and challenge all your friends to do the same.

Daily updates:
(You can also follow us on @UFSweb for daily tweets)

Day 14: 14 May 2014
18:33
43 km
Joalani Guest Farm

Day 13: 13 May 2014
17:30
33 km
Die Rondawels

Day 12: 12 May 2014
16:49
40 km
Aandrus B&B in Richmond

Day 11: 11 May 2014
39 km
Wortelfontein (Magdel and Christiaan)

Day 10: 10 May 2014
15:44
34 km
Hanover Lodge

Day 9: 09 May 2014
40.8 km
Camping between Colesberg and Hanover

Day 8: 08 May 2014
15:25
33.7 km
Colesberg, The Lighthouse Guesthouse

Day 7: 07 May 2014

15:08
23 km
Orange River Lodge

Day 6: 06 May 2014
15:57

51.06 km
Gariep Forever Resort

Day 5: 05 May 2014
12:18
28 km
Rondefontein

Day 4: 04 May 2014
15:27

35 km
Trompsburg: Fox Den

Day 3: 03 May 2014
17:30
46.74 km
Edenburg Country Lodge (Hotel)

Day 2: 02 May 2014
11:44 am
15.3 km
Tom's Place

Day 1: 01 May 2014
32 km
Leeuwberg

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