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07 July 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Dell.org
Dr Thashlin Govender, program director, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation South Africa.
The University of the Free State (UFS) is pleased to announce that it will be providing students with additional, holistic support to ensure no student is left behind during the COVID-19 pandemic. UFS aims to go beyond meeting the academic needs of students by bolstering initiatives aimed at providing mental health support, tending to future career anxiety, and upscaling mentorship. 

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic most students and educators have faced new challenges. Many are overwhelmed by online teaching styles and students with previous access to academic support on campus are now forced to go at it alone at home. These challenges result in more than potential long-term academic setbacks, they trigger emotional reactions which many students may not be equipped to solve whilst meeting academic and social demands.

In its commitment to ensure that all students are academically supported, the UFS introduced the Keep calm, #UFSLearnOn campaign for students and the #UFSTeachOn campaign for staff during April 2020. The projects the university will implement aim to build on this campaign and help tackle student’s new realities. The initiatives include extended one-on-one tutoring via the university’s A_STEP call centre, which will enable the upscaling of tutorial support for the most vulnerable students who are experiencing challenges with learning due to a lack of resources; scaling of e-mentoring to provide socio-emotional support to the broader student population and to create additional capacity for more accurate tracking of students’ support needs. This will lead to the required socio-emotional support for students affected by the circumstantial changes brought about by COVID-19. 

Other projects that will benefit from the funding include a dedicated toll-free 24-hour student mental-health helpline to better equip the university’s psychological support services to assist students who are experiencing mental-health crises; scaling graduate employability opportunities to expand the offering and reach of the UFS Career Services office and improve the efficiency of current initiatives; and additional support for Health Sciences students in the delivery of emotional support to students who are experiencing great uncertainty about the future due to the adapted online teaching and learning methodology. 

“The UFS has adopted an online learning approach and, although indications are that students have adapted to this mode of learning and teaching, the additional services will assist tremendously in ensuring that the university succeeds in completing the academic year. These projects are funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and we are grateful to have a committed and likeminded partner embarking on his journey with us,” says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS. 

“Providing a supportive, encouraging environment is imperative for students to achieve academic success. This is truer now than ever before, as online learning has tasked students with taking their academic careers into their own hands, often with limited opportunities to receive personalised advice and support. Our hope is that the initiatives brought to life by UFS will serve as a catalyst for both short and long-term benefits for the students most in need,” says Dr Thashlin Govender program director, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation South Africa.

News Archive

UFS presents unique rally
2006-05-11

On Friday 9 June 2006 the University of the Free State (UFS) will present the second Amazing Race Rally in Bloemfontein. 

The rally is presented in aid of children and babies with serious diseases in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health in the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences.  These children are in need of intensive care, and suffer from cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and conditions, endocrinological diseases or gastro-enterological conditions.

By raising the necessary funds, equipment can be acquired to meet the unique healthcare needs of these children and babies and it will also enable the UFS to maintain the high standards of education, training and research in this field.

Last year about 12 corporate teams from among others Vodacom, Medi-Clinic, Eskom, Mimosa Mall and Nedbank and four teams from the UFS competed in the rally.  The Medi-Clinic team was the winner.

This year the teams will again follow a specific route with various check points by car.  Here they will have to complete activities or solve clues before receiving their clue to the next checkpoint.  The teams will be travelling with cars branded with the logo of the company they represent.

Companies and institutions in Bloemfontein can enter in the rally by means of sponsoring a check point, entering a team of two persons or sponsoring some aspects of the day. 

The rally will give participants an opportunity to test their knowledge of the city, as well as their time management skills, communication skills, team work and even their relationships! 

The programme will start at 12:00 on the UFS Main Campus and the first team to complete this task is the winner of Bloemfontein’s second Amazing Rainbow Rally.

Extensive publicity of the event on OFM in the weeks running up to the day will ensure that participants are easily recognised and will create a measure of excitement.

Enquiries about the rally can be directed to Ms Adéle van Aswegen at (051) 401-3535 or Ms Ilse Olivier at (051) 401-2415.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:  (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
11 May 2006

 

 

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