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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

Lots of inspiration at Autumn Graduation Ceremony

2013-04-08

Photo: Hannes Pieterse
27 March 2013

The university’s Autumn Graduation Ceremony promises to be another special occasion, with speakers from South Africa and abroad that will address the graduates.

A total of 526 diplomas/certificates and 2 796 bachelor’s and honours degrees will be awarded at the ceremony. The diplomas/certificates and degrees will be awarded during eight ceremonies in the Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus from 16 to 19 April 2013.

Well-known radio host and Idols South Africa judge, Gareth Cliff, will be the guest speaker at two ceremonies on 18 April 2013. He will be joined by Vicus Visser, the South African YouTube singing sensation dubbed Bloemfontein’s Justin Bieber. Vicus and his brother Vincent, will perform during the two ceremonies.

Graduates will also be able to draw inspiration from the American student and tap dancer, Joshua Johnson, whom overseas media report widely about. Joshua inspired American audiences with his story of hope and perseverance. The student from Penn State University travels five hours by bus to New York every weekend, where he dances on the subway train to earn money for his tuition fees.

Joshua has appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and his story has also been told in the New York Times and on the American news programme ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.

Joshua will be the guest speaker at the ceremonies on 16, 17 and 19 April 2013. He will also deliver a dance item.

The programme for the respective ceremonies is:

Tuesday 16 April

09:30 Diplomas and certificates up to and including honours degrees in the Faculty of the Humanities: only Social Sciences and Communication Science.
14:30 Diplomas and certificates up to and including honours degrees in the Faculty of the Humanities: Social Sciences and Communication Science excluded.

Wednesday 17 April

09:30 Diplomas and certificates up to and including honours degrees in the Faculty of Education.
14:30 Diplomas and certificates up to and including honours degrees in the Faculties of Health Sciences, Law and Theology.

Thursday 18 April

09:30 Diplomas and certificates up to and including honours degrees in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: only Agricultural Sciences and Architecture.
14:30 Diplomas and certificates up to and including honours degrees in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: only Natural Sciences.

Friday 19 April

09:30 Diplomas and certificates up to and including honours degrees in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences: all diplomas and degrees in the Faculty, except BCom and BComHons.
14:30 Diplomas and certificates up to and including honours degrees in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences: only BCom and BComHons.

The Qwaqwa Campus’ graduation ceremony will take place on 8 June 2013. Diplomas/certificates up to and including doctorates will be awarded at this ceremony.

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