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Off-campus students at the centre of Safety Summit

04 November 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish

SK Luwaca at UFS Safety Summit for off-campus students — Sikhululekile Luwaca, leader of the UFS Safety Champions, addresses a delegation at the Higher Education Safety Summit from 18-19 October 2019 at the Bloemfontein Campus.

A meeting of minds over student safety recently took place at Kovsies. The Higher Education Safety Summit saw a cohort of 165 students from the University of the Free State (UFS), Central University of Technology and Sol Plaatje University, collaborating with the heads of Protection Services from the respective institutions to devise a safety blueprint specifically focusing on the off-campus environment.

“The rental tribunal came on board to assist with rental disputes between students and landlords, in addition to accreditation issues being discussed,” Sikhululekile Luwaca, former SRC President of the Bloemfontein Campus and leader of the UFS Safety Champions that form part of the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice.

Luwaca further said that the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality also committed to assist the universities in addressing crime and enforcing by-laws. “A strategic safety plan was developed around spatialisation and zoning of student communes, developing a system that will assist universities to establish where students stay by using technology such as geographic information system (GIS),” he added.

What were the objectives of the summit?
Being the first of many to come, the summit set out clear objectives which all stakeholders have committed to work tirelessly to achieve, both in the short and long term.

The goals of the summit were threefold. Firstly, the intention was to build capacity between students and staff of all institutions involved to implement programmes by transferring the skills and knowledge between one another.

Secondly, the idea was to gather and consolidate input from the various higher-learning institutions and by so doing diversify the solutions. Thirdly, the purpose of the summit was to create an official platform where partners may consult on interventions that will ripple from the local, to the provincial and further to national level.

Andiswa Msomi, Spatialisation Group Leader and the Safety Champions’ administrator said she appreciated the shift in perspective that the summit brought. “The summit brought to my attention that sometimes we focus so deeply on one aspect of a problem that we end up not seeing alternative solutions. Due to active participants, new solutions came up, new ideas were brought forth and more importantly, we were able to get other institutions on board,” she said.

What are some of the tangible outcomes?
Going forward, an internal report which focuses on crime prevention measures will be presented to all UFS stakeholders. An external report, which will be submitted by the Safety Champions to the government in January 2020, is expected to be integrated into the Provincial Crime Prevention Strategy.

News Archive

Academics should strive to work with students towards publishing, says NRF-rated researcher

2017-07-17

Dr Rodwell Makombe, Y-gegradeerde navorser.
Foto: Thabo Kessah

“The National Research Foundation (NRF) is a prestigious research institution and to be recognised by such an institution means that my work is worthwhile. This alone motivates me to do more research.” This is how Dr Rodwell Makombe reflected on his recent recognition as an NRF-rated researcher – one of the few on the Qwaqwa Campus. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of the Free State’s Qwaqwa Campus.

“This recognition is indeed an important milestone in my research career. It means that my efforts as a researcher are recognised and appreciated. The financial research incentive will enable me to engage in more research, attend conferences, and so forth,” he said.

Comparing research in the Humanities and Sciences
Dr Makombe’s research area is broadly postcolonial African literature, but he is particularly interested in postcolonial literatures and resistance cultures. He is currently working on a book project entitled Visual Cultures of the Afromontane.

When asked what he thought about Natural Sciences being in the lead as far as research is concerned, he said that this is mainly caused by funding opportunities.

“It means that my efforts as a
researcher are recognised and
appreciated.”

“It is easier to access funding for research in the Natural Sciences than for the Humanities. Researchers in the Humanities usually do research without any form of funding. However, there are also differences in the way research is done in the Sciences than in the Humanities. Science researchers tend to work together on different projects, which make it easier for them to have their names on publications, no matter how small their contribution. This is also connected to the issue of funding,” he added.

He continued: “Since research in the Humanities is largely unfunded, it is difficult for researchers to establish research groups. Another issue is that most academics in the Humanities do not necessarily teach modules within their research interests. Therefore, they tend to be overloaded with work as they have to do research in one area and teach in another area.”

NRF-rating and funding
For Dr Makombe, the solution to this challenge lies in academics in the Humanities working towards publishing with their students. “This way,” he said, “both the students and the academics will get publications that will help them to get NRF-rating and other forms of research funding. Modules in the Humanities need to be aligned to academics’ research interests to avoid mismatches between teaching and research.”

He previously worked at the University of Fort Hare and the Durban University of Technology and has published several articles in both local and international journals.

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