Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
03 April 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Vhugala Nthakheni
Uhuru Qwaqwa Arrival
The #UFSWalkToUhuru team arrives at the UFS Qwaqwa Campus on Friday 22 March.

The University of the Free State (UFS) Division of Student Affairs, in collaboration with the UFS Office for International Affairs, have joined hands to drive a fundraising and student-accessibility initiative dubbed, ‘The Walk to Uhuru’ (#UFSWalktoUhuru), which is aimed at raising funds and advocating for the educational rights of the less privileged. 

The project aims to raise funds in excess of R2 million from the public and stakeholders affiliated with the UFS (Kovsie staff and students). The project derives from the 2018/2019 UFS Institutional Student Representative Council (ISRC) mandate ‘Students Must Graduate’. The ISRC mandate aims to source funding opportunities for UFS students to register, and to complete their studies across all three campuses in 2020 and beyond.

The first leg of the project, a 350 km walk from the Bloemfontein to the Qwaqwa Campus, has already taken place and concluded on Friday, 22 March 2019 as planned. The #UFSWalkToUhuru team successfully completed the first leg of their journey to academic freedom for financially disadvantaged students at the UFS. The Uhuru team is now focusing its attention on the second leg and is determined to take on Mount Kilimanjaro (Uhuru) from 20 June to 20 July 2019.

The team sat down for a debriefing session to unpack the overall experience and result of the first half of the initiative, and they all agreed that the walk to Qwaqwa was an enlightening experience. It was a walk that comprised learning opportunities, team building, and goal crushing.

According to Rethabile Motseki, member of the #UFSWalkToUhuru team, the walk to Qwaqwa made a significant impact on the project, as the university community is now aware of the significant goals that the team is trying to accomplish. The team has also resumed their fitness-training programme to ensure that they are ready to take on the Uhuru climb in June.

A media briefing will take place shortly (date to be confirmed) to detail the ongoing fundraising initiatives rolled out by the #UFSWalkToUhuru team.  We implore you, and the nation as a whole, to help establish a better future for disadvantaged UFS students by donating to the initiative.

Students, staff, and the public can support the cause and make contributions/donations to the initiative by visiting the UFS Walk to Uhuru #givengain account page.

For more information, contact UFS SRC President, Sonwabile Dwaba, on DwabaSJ@ufs.ac.za  or Rethabile Motseki on MotsekiR@ufs.ac.za  

News Archive

Six Kovsies Stanford College
2014-05-30


Back, from the left: Rudi Buys (Dean: Student Affairs), Philip Kitsopoulos (BCom Law), Ulrich Kristen (Medicine) and Stephan Erasmus (Medicine).
Front, from the left: Sebabatso Makafane (Nursing), Kaylene Pillay (Psychology) and Vuyisile Kubeka (BA Media and Journalism).

Six Kovsie students were selected to attend a three-week seminar at the Stanford Sophomore Collegein September 2014.

Stanford Sophomore College (SoCo) is an immersive learning experience. Participants attend class meetings during the morning and afternoons include class activities, explorations of Stanford, field trips and organised events.

UFS students were invited to apply for one of six SoCo courses in February 2014. After the long wait, the successful Kovsie applicants were recently announced.

The names of these outstanding Kovsie students are:

  • Sebabatso Makafane, Vuyisile Kubeka and Philip Kitsopoulos – all attending the New Millennium Mix: Crossings of Race and Culture course,
  • Ulrich Kristen – attending the Resistance Writings in Nazi Germany course,
  • Kaylene Pillay – attending the Ghost Stories: Why the Dead Return and What They Want From Us course, and
  • Stephan Erasmus– attending the Responses to the AIDS Epidemic course.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept