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UFS Department of Student Affairs honours student leaders

10 December 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Supplied

Student Awards — The UFS rewarded student leaders for their hard work through the Division of Student Affairs (DSA) Student Leadership Awards (SALA).

The University of the Free State (UFS) Division of Student Affairs has recognised and awarded a number of student leaders in the areas of student life, arts and governance through the 2019 Student Affairs Leadership and Achievement Awards (SALA).

Through SALA, the DSA aims to recognise and promote outstanding student leadership, thereby alleviating the threat of financial exclusion, which has been identified as a major challenge that students are currently facing. “With these awards, the department is making a small contribution towards mitigating such a challenge, especially for those students who are always at the forefront of student life, serving others while they themselves face similar challenges and contradictions,” explained Dean of Student Affairs, Pura Mgolombane.

The SALA committee convenes to select the student leaders to be awarded according to a definite rubric, which also determines the amount to be allocated. This year, the basic amount allocated was R6 000, whereas the highest amount was R25 000. The financial aspect of SALA is meant to assist students to pay for their tuition fees, with the money being paid directly into the student accounts.

The rewards honour and incentivise students who have held leadership offices and impacted either the UFS Bloemfontein, South or Qwaqwa campuses and/or the student community of the university in a generally positive manner.

According to Mgolombane, the founder of the UFS Next Chapter organisation, Tshepang Mahlatsi, was one of the student leaders who was recognised as a leader deserving of an award amounting to R25 000 for his participation as a leader in various aspects of student life, from leading within UFS residences, to the Faculty of Law, and as an avid mental-health advocate.

A total of 31 student leaders from the Bloemfontein Campus, 11 from the South Campus, 18 from the Qwaqwa Campus, and nine other students from all three campuses who outshone their peers, were SALA recipients in 2019.

News Archive

UFS in forefront with ASGI-SA initiative

2006-05-10

At the conceptualisation colloquium and stakeholder dialogue were from the left Dr Aldo Stroebel (senior researcher at the UFS Research Development Directorate), Dr Edith Vries (acting Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Development Trust) and Prof Frans Swanepoel (Director: UFS Research Development Directorate).

UFS in forefront with ASGI-SA initiative

Two staff members of the University of the Free State (UFS) have been appointed as members of the advisory board of the national programme for the creation of small enterprises and jobs in the second economy. This programme forms part of government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGI-SA).

Prof Frans Swanepoel, Director of the UFS Research Development Directorate and Dr Aldo Stroebel, senior researcher at the UFS Research Development Directorate, are working with a team of experts from the UFS on a draft implementation strategy for the national programme. Both Prof Swanepoel and Dr Stroebel are also associated to the UFS Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

“The strategy is being developed in collaboration with institutions like the Independent Development Trust, the Department of Agriculture, the National Development Agency and the Department of Trade and Industry,” says Prof Swanepoel.

The other team members of the UFS are Prof Basie Wessels, Director of the Mangaung-University Community Partnership Programme (MUCPP) and Mr Benedict Mokoena, project manager at the MUCPP.

Dr Stroebel was also member of the organising committee of a conceptualisation colloquium and stakeholder dialogue that was recently presented in Johannesburg. The conference was attended by more than 400 delegates from government departments, higher-education institutions and civil society, including Dr Kobus Laubscher, member of the UFS Council.

The conference was facilitated by Ms Vuyo Mahlati, previously from the WK Kellogg Foundation’s Africa programme and opened by Ms Thoko Didiza, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs.

“The colloquium formed the basis of an induction workshop during which a group of 150 individuals (50 teams of three) from all nine provinces, identified to initiate the implementation of the national programme, was trained and orientated towards an induction manual in collaboration with Hand-in-Hand, an Indian counterpart,” says Prof Swanepoel.

Dr Stroebel and Mr Benedict Mokoena formed part of the team to conceptualise and finalise this training manual. The induction training includes a case study of a successful community self-help partnership model, namely the MUCPP at the UFS. Prof Wessels and Mr Mokoena are both playing a leading role in the further development of subsequent training initiatives throughout South Africa, in partnership with the relevant provincial departments.

“The involvement of the UFS in the programme is a compliment to us. It reflects the value government sees in the use of academics and experts in the management of the ASGI-SA initiative. It is also an indication of one of the aims of the UFS to play a role in South Africa and Africa and in the transformation and change that is taking place in our country,” says Prof Swanepoel.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
10 May 2006

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