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Registration 2020

Are you a first-year or senior student in need of essential registration information? Look no further, below is your official guide to the process.

Bloemfontein Campus:

First-year students:
20 – 24 January 2020: On-campus registration

Senior students:

9 January – 7 February 2020: Online registration
27 – 31 January 2020: On-campus registration

On-campus registration:
Callie Human Centre, Bloemfontein Campus
Weekdays from 08:00 to 15:00

South Campus:
First-year and senior students:
13 January 2020: UAP: Education (excluding international students)
14 January 2020: UAP: Natural and Agricultural Sciences (excluding international students)
15 January 2020: Higher Certificate: The Humanities (excluding international students)
16 January 2020: Higher Certificates: Economic and Management Sciences and second-year extended EMS programme (excluding international students)
17 January 2020: All international students (all faculties)

On-campus registration:

Madiba Hall, South Campus, Bloemfontein
Weekdays from 08:30 to 15:30

Sub-regions:

Motheo: 20 January 2020
Motheo TVET College: Bloemfontein Campus
09:00-15:00

Bethlehem: 
21 January 2020
Maluti TVET College: Bethlehem Campus
09:00-15:00

Welkom: 22 January 2020
Moruti House / Goldfields TVET Skills College: Welkom
09:00-14:00

Kwetlisong:
 23 January 2020
Maluti TVET College: Phuthaditjhaba Campus
09:00-14:00

Oudtshoorn: 27 January 2020
South Cape TVET College: Oudtshoorn
09:00-14:00

Sasolburg: 28 January 2020
Flavius Mareka TVET College: Sasolburg
09:00-14:00

Qwaqwa Campus:
First-year students:
8 - 17 January 2020: On-campus registration

Senior students:
9 January 2020: Online registration
27 – 31 January 2020: On-campus registration

On-campus registration:

Main Entrance and Mandela Hall, Qwaqwa Campus
Weekdays from 08:00 to 15:00

Please bring the following when you come to register:
- Your identity document (ID)
- NSC (Grade 12 results, N4, N5, N6 certificates – if applicable; NCV L4 certificate – if applicable)
- Proof of payment/bursary/NSFAS (first payment has to be done FIVE DAYS PRIOR TO REGISTRATION)
- Financial agreement form (credit-facility form that was sent to you by the UFS)
- ID of the parent or third party that signed the financial form
- Black pen
If you are younger than 18 years on the day of registration, your parent/legal guardian has to approve and sign the registration form with you.

Please note that you need to make the following payment five (5) days prior to registration:

First payments for registration 2020 (please click on the link to view the document).

Registration enquiries:
If you have any queries, contact the Student Service Centre at +27 51 401 9666 or send an email quoting your student number to studentadmin@ufs.ac.za. Our friendly staff is ready to assist you.

Password enquiries:
If you have any password related queries, contact the ICT helpdesk on +27 51 401 2000 and select option two.



Information on academic advice before registration

More information on registration, and how to add/change modules


Important information for 2020 first-year students

News Archive

Weideman focuses on misconceptions with regard to survival of Afrikaans
2006-05-19

From the left are Prof Magda Fourie (Vice-Rector: Academic Planning), Prof Gerhardt de Klerk (Dean: Faculty of the Humanities), George Weideman and Prof Bernard  Odendaal (acting head of the UFS  Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French). 
Photo (Stephen Collett):

Weideman focuses on misconceptions with regard to survival of Afrikaans

On the survival of a language a persistent and widespread misconception exists that a “language will survive as long as people speak the language”. This argument ignores the higher functions of a language and leaves no room for the personal and historic meaning of a language, said the writer George Weideman.

He delivered the D.F. Malherbe Memorial Lecture organised by the Department Afrikaans at the University of the Free State (UFS). Dr. Weideman is a retired lecturer and now full-time writer. In his lecture on the writer’s role and responsibility with regard to language, he also focused on the language debate at the University of Stellenbosch (US).

He said the “as-long-as-it-is spoken” misconception ignores the characteristics and growth of literature and other cultural phenomena. Constitutional protection is also not a guarantee. It will not stop a language of being reduced to a colloquial language in which the non-standard form will be elevated to the norm. A language only grows when it standard form is enriched by non-standard forms; not when its standard form withers. The growth or deterioration of a language is seen in the growth or decline in its use in higher functions. The less functions a language has, the smaller its chance to survive.

He said Afrikaans speaking people are credulous and have misplaced trust. It shows in their uncritical attitude with regard to the shifts in university policies, university management and teaching practices. Afrikaners have this credulity perhaps because they were spoilt by white supremacy, or because the political liberation process did not free them from a naïve and slavish trust in government.

If we accept that a university is a kind of barometer for the position of a language, then the institutionalised second placing of Afrikaans at most tertiary institutions is not a good sign for the language, he said.

An additional problem is the multiplying effect with, for instance, education students. If there is no need for Afrikaans in schools, there will also be no  need for Afrikaans at universities, and visa versa.

The tolerance factor of Afrikaans speaking people is for some reasons remarkably high with regard to other languages – and more specifically English. With many Afrikaans speaking people in the post-apartheid era it can be ascribed to their guilt about Afrikaans. With some coloured and mostly black Afrikaans speaking people it can be ascribed to the continued rejection of Afrikaans because of its negative connotation with apartheid – even when Afrikaans is the home language of a large segment of the previously oppressed population.

He said no one disputes the fact that universities play a changing role in a transformed society. The principle of “friendliness” towards other languages does not apply the other way round. It is general knowledge that Afrikaans is, besides isiZulu and isiXhosa, the language most spoken by South Africans.

It is typical of an imperialistic approach that the campaigners for a language will be accused of emotional involvement, of sentimentality, of longing for bygone days, of an unwillingness to focus on the future, he said.

He said whoever ignores the emotional aspect of a language, knows nothing about a language. To ignore the emotional connection with a language, leads to another misconception: That the world will be a better place without conflict if the so-called “small languages” disappear because “nationalism” and “language nationalism” often move closely together. This is one of the main reasons why Afrikaans speaking people are still very passive with regard to the Anglicising process: They are not “immune” to the broad influence that promotes English.

It is left to those who use Afrikaans to fight for the language. This must not take place in isolation. Writers and publishers must find more ways to promote Afrikaans.

Some universities took the road to Anglicision: the US and University of Pretoria need to be referred to, while there is still a future for Afrikaans at the Northwest University and the UFS with its parallel-medium policies. Continued debate is necessary.

It is unpreventable that the protest over what is happening to Afrikaans and the broad Afrikaans speaking community must take on a stronger form, he said.

 

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