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23 September 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Barend Nagel
Prof Puleng LenkaBula
“I want to establish a paradigm shift from community engagement to engaged scholarship, which will transfer science between communities and form reciprocal collaborations in order to create new knowledge, research niche areas, influences, and support systems to aid innovative and progressive teaching and learning processes at the UFS.” – Prof LenkaBula
The University of the Free State (UFS) Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Student Affairs, and Community Engagement, Prof Puleng LenkaBula, recently visited the Fulda University of Applied Sciences in Germany to discuss a possible future collaboration between the two institutions.

This was inspired by their multidisciplinary approach to higher-education courses, which she aims to facilitate at the UFS in order to pioneer critical thinking among students to ultimately bring about effective and innovative societal problem-solving in South Africa.

Fulda University is an exceptional higher-education institution with the ability to develop and transform itself to purposefully improve its infrastructure, the quality of students, and studies offered by the university. Their different degrees are structured to intersect with the requirements of the progressive European economic environment.

According to Prof LenkaBula, Fulda University is an outstanding institution specialising in applied sciences and theoretical studies, which set them apart from other universities in the advanced European higher-education system.

Prof LenkaBula believes that the prospect of developing joint master’s and/or doctoral degrees between the UFS and Fulda University would expose UFS students to high-quality international higher-education systems. This will ensure that our students are provided with essential skills to become globally competitive and relevant in their designated career fields, and to become strong contenders in an environment characterised by globalisation and the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).
She referred to the global exchange of knowledge systems between the UFS and Fulda University as an opportunity for the UFS to improve the university’s global rankings through learning and participating in international collaborative approaches in higher education. 

“In order for our university to cease being seen as an ivory tower, it must be involved in producing knowledge that is beneficial to socio-economic and political development – not only for South Africa, but also for the rest of the world,” said Prof LenkaBula.


News Archive

Global exercise initiative launched on Bloemfontein Campus
2012-03-14

 

Healthier and fitter Kovsies
Photo: Anja Aucamp
13 March 2012

Staff and students are getting ready to sweat this week with the launch of the worldwide Exercise is Medicine Programme on the Bloemfontein Campus on 14 and 15 March 2012.

The programme will be introduced for the first time in Africa and our university is the only African university that forms part of the launch.

Exercise is Medicine is an initiative which encourages health care providers to include exercise when designing treatment plans for patients. The programme designed by the American College of Sports Medicine and it has a presence in countries such as Australia, Italy, China and Brazil.

As part of the programme launch, staff and students will attend presentations by prominent health practitioners and participate in a range of fitness activities such as Taebo and Zumba. The Wellness Division of the Centre for Health and Wellness has more activities planned for the rest of the year to keep Kovsies healthy. This will include a cycling event and netball, volleyball and soccer games.

Dr Louis Holtzhausen, Head of the Division Sport and Exercise Medicine, says that it has been proved unequivocally that regular exercise is good for people's health.

"It is clear that regular exercise should not only be promoted by the medical profession, but that physical activity should be monitored and recorded by doctors as a major modifiable risk factor for morbidity and mortality."

Dr Holtzhausen says one of the goals of the Exercise is Medicine Programme is that physical activity becomes a vital sign to be recorded, with doctors routinely discussing it with their individual patients.

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