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28 May 2019 Photo Charl Devenish
UFS Africa celebration
I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me,” Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, and a founding father of the African Union.
Since the African Union’s establishment in 1963, the continent marks Africa Day on 25 May annually. To commemorate the achievements made by African leaders 56 years ago to decolonise the continent and pave the way for a united front on the global stage, the University of the Free State (UFS) hosts various events.

Ubuntu our beginning, ubuntu our ending 

The university celebrated Africa Day a day early this year. The Office for International Affairs coordinated the 2019 Africa Day Reflection and Celebration on 24 May 2019 at the Bloemfontein Campus. A dialogue session delved into the question of what ubuntu has evolved to mean in modern-day society and how best it can be embodied.

Moderator of the dialogue, Ace Moloi, reckoned that “we have a right not only to give ubuntu but to demand and invoke it from other people.” Staff, students and panellists engaged on the aphorism umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu and whether the philosophical principle is a pragmatic way of doing things or is only referred to when self-correcting.

Prof Colin Chasi, from the UFS Department of Communication Science, touched on how ubuntu is embedded in many Nguni languages. A case in point being the implied presence and connectivity typical found in indigenous language greetings. Other panellists including Prof Karin van Marle( Public Law lecturer at the UFS), Thapelo Mokoatsi,History lecturer at the UFS and Matau Setshase, UFS researcher, made contributions on decolonisation, individual identity, reconciliation, social issues, and traditional healers. The consensus reached was that a lot work still needs to be done in understanding and living the values represented by ubuntu.

Qwaqwa Campus Celebration

The Office for International Affairs (OIA) also hosted the first Annual Africa Day Student Dialogue on the Qwaqwa Campus under the theme: Health, Wellbeing, Access, Social inclusion, Equity and Equality on the African continent.

Africa Day Memorial Lecture

Presenting the 2019 Africa Day Memorial Lecture, Prof Francis Nyamnjoh, from University of Cape Town, delved into the topic of Ubuntuism and Africa: Actualised, Misappropriated, Endangered and Reappraised. “I seek to give currency to concepts such African communitarianism, ubuntu, Africanness, Afrocentricity, Afrocentrism, Africanity, Afrikology, humanness, wholeness and reciprocal altruism,” he said.

Hosted by the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies on 22 May 2019 the annual lecture is a calendar constant which reflects on the importance of celebrating the continent and its people.
 
Migration debate unpacked borders 

The UFS Debate Society reflected on borders and migration in Southern Africa on 21 May 2019. The debate unpacked the topic: The Southern African Development Community should develop a free internal migration policy. 

Lecturers also delivered presentations that dissected African societies, the nine frontier wars between the British and amaXhosa that formed South Africa’s borders, and the influence of labour and capital on migration. In closing, African international students shared their lived experiences, hardships and triumphs within the continent.

News Archive

UFS sets trend for higher education institutions
2005-09-21

The University of the Free State (UFS) offers more service-learning courses than any other higher education institution in the country and has the highest number of students enrolled for these service-learning courses.

This was the research findings on higher education institutions conducted between 2001 and 2004 by the Joint Education Trust (JET) into service-learning courses. These are courses which seek to integrate service to the community into the academic core of higher education institutions.

The results of this research indicated that the UFS is one of the few higher education institutions in South Africa that have made progress in integrating community engagement into the mainstream academy.

According to the findings 2 233 students at the UFS participated in service-learning courses supported by JET, while 858 students at the University of Transkei (UNITRA), 636 students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and only 600 students at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) participated in service-learning courses.

In total there were 6 930 students participating in service learning courses supported by the JET at 10 institutions throughout the country.

The research also found that out of a total of 182 service-learning courses supported by JET countrywide, the UFS had the highest number of such courses at 42, followed by WITS with 28, the University of Kwazulu Natal with 26, UWC 24 and UNITRA with 22.

Nationally, most of the service-learning courses at higher education institutions are offered in the human sciences (62), followed by health sciences (37), education (26), agriculture (14), and economic sciences (11).

According to leading academics, service-learning is a credit-bearing, educational exercise in which students participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs and helps the student to gain a deeper understanding of course content and a sense of civic responsibility.

Reacting to the research findings, the Rector and Vice-chancellor of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the university feels strongly that there should be integration of service-learning into the academic core of the institution.

“Through service-learning modules the UFS can give expression to its role of service to the community as an institution of higher learning, producing quality graduates who understand the communities in which they will have to function for the rest of their lives,” Prof Fourie said.

According to Mr Jo Lazarus, the project manager of the Community-Higher Education – Service Partnership (CHESP), which falls under the JET, a number of institutions have identified community engagement as a strategic priority and have allocated significant resources from their central budget towards its implementation.

Mr Lazarus said most students have an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards service learning.

“A large percentage of students surveyed indicated that their service-learning course helped to improve their relationship skills, leadership skills and project planning abilities. As significant is the fact that these courses also benefited them in terms of their awareness of cultural differences and opened their eyes about their own cultural stereotypes,” said Mr Lazarus.

“The key challenge still hampering the integration of service-learning as a core function of academic activity is that some institutions still see service-learning as an add-on, and nice-to-have activity,” he said.

According to Mr Lazarus higher education must demonstrate social responsibility and commitment to the common good by making available expertise and infrastructure for service-learning as a form of community engagement.

Media release
Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel:  (051) 401-2584
   Cell:  083 645 2454
   E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
   20 September 2005

 

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