Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Team UFS ensures that no student is left behind

07 December 2020 | Story Eugene Seegers | Photo Jolandi Griesel

CTL read more new — From the left; Tiana van der Merwe, Deputy-director: CTL; Prof Francois Strydom, Director: CTL, and Gugu Tiroyabone, Head of Advising, Access, and Success in CTL.

The UFS has taken an evidence-based approach to managing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the first week of lockdown, the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, put appropriate governance structures in place, consisting of a COVID-19 Senior Executive Team and seven task teams focused on managing the different aspects and responses to the pandemic. One of these task teams was the Teaching and Learning Management Group (TLMG), chaired by the Vice-Rector: Academic, Dr Engela van Staden. This multi-stakeholder group represents all the environments in the university responsible for teaching, learning, and support to the academic core.

The core function of the TLMG was to ensure that teaching and learning could continue in order to help staff and students to complete the academic year successfully. The first step in the evidence-based response was to understand students’ device access, data access, and connectivity. The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) developed a survey to which 13 500 students responded. The results showed that 92% of students had an internet-enabled device, 70% could get access to the internet off campus, and 56% had access to a laptop.

The survey was followed by the Vulnerable Student Index (VSI) developed by the Directorate for Institutional Research and Academic Planning (DIRAP), which helped the university to create a better understanding of the vulnerability of about 22 000 students at the UFS.

#UFSLearnOn is born

Based on VSI results, the UFS immediately initiated the purchase of 3 500 laptops to be distributed to assist more students. In addition, the #KeepCalm, #UFSLearnOn and #UFSTeachOn campaigns were launched. These campaigns are aimed at creating the best possible support for academic staff and students respectively, by adapting existing support and practices most suited to an emergency remote-learning environment. The departure point of both campaigns was to design a response for the constrained environments of our students.

The #UFSLearnOn for students creates materials that students can download on cellphones and that would provide them with skills and ideas on how to get connected and create an environment where they could study at home. The #UFSLearnOn website has been viewed by more than 77 000 students to date, and the resources were shared with other universities to support a collaborative approach to addressing the COVID-19 challenge. A total of 177 000 Facebook users have been reached by these #UFSLearnOn materials.

The #UFSTeachOn campaign focused on supporting staff to transform their materials and teaching approach to a new reality. Staff members who attended training sessions numbered 3 800, a testament to their commitment to create the best possible response. Both the #UFSLearnOn and #UFSTeachOn campaigns are continuing, with an overwhelmingly positive response from staff and students.

Multi-pronged approach

However, these campaigns would become two of the 16 strategies the UFS has developed to manage the risks created by the pandemic. Creating responses is, however, not enough; you need evidence that these initiatives are making a difference. Therefore, the CTL was tasked with creating a monitoring system using data analytics. To date, 34 reports have served at the weekly TLMG meetings. The reports monitor the number of staff and students on the Learning Management System (LMS), measuring how much time they are spending learning, and whether they are completing assessments.

During the peak of the first semester, 90% of students were online, supported by academic and support staff. The average performance of students per faculty per campus was monitored. The use of data analytics allowed the UFS to identify students who were not connecting, as part of the #NoStudentLeftBehind initiative.

A ‘no-harm intervention’

Gugu Tiroyabone, Head of Advising, Access, and Success in CTL, says that this intervention was designed to effect behavioural change while not scaring a student, in an effort to enhance chances of success: “Under the banner of No Student Left Behind (NSLB) at the UFS – a ‘no-harm intervention’ – the task team continuously reflects on the numbers, which provides insights on student behaviour relating to access/engagement on the LMS system. The quantitative data is integrated with students’ qualitative narratives to tailor individualised responsive support through academic advising, tutorial support, and other student-support services in faculties and student affairs. The NSLB was one of many other faculty and institutional initiatives deployed during the pandemic to promote equitable outcomes despite the disparities students face as a result of the pandemic. The NSLB has fast-tracked the use of analytics and student narratives to transform the way we support students and enhance student success by effecting behavioural change that promotes student and institutional agency. NSLB has been an exercise of shared efforts to cultivate effective learning, teaching, and support that has exemplified the UFS’ organisational growth-mindedness. Numbers and words tell a better story – this has helped us become an agile, focused, and responsive institution.”

Keep moving forward

This approach has resulted in 99,95% of students participating in the first semester. The 0,05% (or 204) students who were not able to participate are being supported to continue their studies successfully.

The success of the UFS’ approach is not only borne out by quantitative evidence, but also by qualitative feedback, such as the following quote sent to an academic adviser on 24 August:

“Thank you so much (adviser’s name); if it wasn't for you, I would have dropped out, deregistered or even committed suicide during this pandemic. I want to say that I have passed all my modules with distinctions, all thanks to you. After all the difficulty of learning I have experienced during this period. Please continue your great work to others (you were truly meant for this job) and God bless you.”

There are hundreds more testimonials like these, which testify to the inspiring efforts of students and staff at the UFS to finish the academic year successfully with very low risk. Some of these testimonials have been captured in the CTL publication, Khothatsa, which means ‘to inspire or uplift’.

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorates during its centenary week

2004-10-07

The University of the Free State (UFS) will award 12 honorary doctorates on Thursday 14 October 2004 to a diverse group of outstanding South Africans and international experts.

This will be the last in a group of 18 honorary doctorates that the UFS will be awarding in its centenary year.

The awards comprise of a number of well-known language experts and writers, experts in higher education, first-time awards in community service and development studies, as well as music.

“This reflects quality and also diversity, a spectrum of convictions as well as the recognition of persons who played a major role in changing society in the last couple of decades, “ says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

The awards can be grouped in the following categories:

Language and literature:

Mr Karel Schoeman (D Litt (hc)) – well-known Afrikaans author and former student of the UFS. Some of the awards he has received include the Hertzog prize for prose (1970, 1986 and 1995), the CNA prize (1972 and 1994), the Old Mutual prize (1985 and 1991), the SABC prize for best television drama in 1990, the M Net book prize in 1997 and the State President award (former President Nelson Mandela: Order for Excellent Service – silver) in 1999. It is an honor for the UFS to have this gifted and creative person among its former students. This conferment is a fitting recognition of his status as leading South African writer.

Ms Antjie Krog (D Litt (hc)) – well-known South African poet and former student of the UFS. Her popularity as poet is evident in her piercing honesty and unequalled power of expression. Some of the awards she has received include the Eugéne Marais prize in 1973, the Rapport prize in 1987, the Hertzog prize in 1990 and the RAU prize in 2000. Her writing has been translated into seven languages. She has also received numerous honors for her involvement in and journalistic documentation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) proceedings. It is therefore an exceptional privilege for her alma mater to honor her with an honorary doctorate.

Prof Jaap Steyn (D Litt (et phil) (hc)) – recently, Prof Steyn again distinguished himself as biographer whose thorough research is apparent in the published biographies of illustrious writers such as NP van Wyk Louw and MER. The numerous awards, among which the Stals prize from the South African Academy of Science and Art for the Van Wyk publication, are a matter of record. He conducted the research for this great prize-winning work as honorary professor at the UFS.

Prof Jakes Gerwel (D Phil (hc)) – Chancellor of the University of Rhodes and Director of Naspers, Old Mutual, Gold Fields and Brimstone. His doctoral thesis was published in The Netherlands under the title Literatuur en apartheid. Konsepsies van “gekleurdes” in die Afrikaanse roman tot 1948 (1983). He received an honorary doctorate from Clark College ( Atlanta), the City University of New York and Missouri in the USA, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Cape Town, the University of Natal, Rhodes University, the University of Stellenbosch and the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also outstanding professor in the Humanities at the University of the Western Cape, honorary professor in the Humanities at the University of Pretoria, and was the chairman of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

Development Studies:

Dr Frederick van Zyl Slabbert (D Phil (hc)) – for his academic achievements, his endeavors for bringing about a peaceful transition in South Africa and his demonstration of the social investment role of the corporate sector. Dr Van Zyl Slabbert has received honorary degrees from the University of Natal and the Simon Fraser University in Canada. He has published seven books and various academic articles.

Community Service:

Prof Robert G Bringle (D Phil (hc)) – from the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in the USA. He is currently Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and Philanthropic Studies at the IUPUI and also Director of the IUPUI’s Centre for Service Learning. He is honored for his exceptional contribution to several of the UFS’s community service projects as well as his role in the advancement of a multi- and inter-disciplinary approach to academic development and the integration of service learning within the faculties of the UFS. He has also made a valuable contribution to the conceptual framework of the UFS’s unique community service policy and more recently to the advancement of a research culture regarding community service.

Higher education:

Dr Khotso Mokhele (D Phil (hc)), President of the National Research Foundation (NRF) is honored for his contribution to the South African higher education sector. He has also made a substantial contribution to the development of the research capacity of universities and technikons in South Africa. Dr Mokhele was born in Bloemfontein and matriculated at the Moroka High School in Thaba Nchu.

Prof Saleem Badat (D Phil (hc)), the Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Prof Badat has devoted himself to transforming and building South African higher education, and has constantly challenged the higher education sector to retain the moral basis of higher education and tackle its challenges with intellectual honesty, ingenuity, creativity and courage. He is honored for his intellectual leadership in the development of a equitable, just and quality higher education system in South Africa.

Law:

Prof HA (Boelie) Wessels (D Legum (hc)) – for his contribution to the fields of Roman Law, Legal History at the UFS. He is currently a part-time lecturer at the UFS’s Faculty of Law.

Medicine:

Prof CJC Nel (D Phil (hc) Posthumous) – for the way in which he strived for the advancement of excellent medical education in the country. Prof Nel also did pioneering work in the field of transformation in higher education. Under his guidance the School of Medicine at the UFS became one of the first medical schools to adopt a parallel-medium system of instruction.

Music:

Prof Leo Quayle (D Mus (hc)) – for the significant contributions he has made to the development of music – not only in Bloemfontein, but also on national level and abroad. His initiative, enthusiasm and dedication contributed to the eventual founding of the Free State Musicon, as well as the first symphony orchestra and the first string quartet in Bloemfontein. Prof Quayle is a former head of the Department of Music at the UFS.

Prof Jack de Wet (D Mus (hc)) – well-known for his exceptional contribution to violin tuition in South Africa. As pedagogue of international stature, he still moulds violinists who compete at national and international level. At an advanced stage of his career, he still actively conveys his knowledge, experience and distinctive insight in his field of speciality to yet another new generation of young violin teachers. Today the symphony orchestras in Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth also stand on the foundations laid by him.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
7 October 2004

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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