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17 February 2021 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Pixabay
Two final-year MBChB students show how it is done when they donated blood earlier this year.

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) staff and students in the Faculty of Health Sciences have challenged other departments in the faculty as well as other faculties and departments at the University of the Free State (UFS) to see whose staff and students will donate the most blood!

Mrs Angela Vorster, UFS Clinical Psychologist, says the South African National Blood Services (SANBS) has been appealing for increased blood donations since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. In order to provide support, the School of Clinical Medicine at the UFS held a virtual blood donation challenge in 2020, to encourage students to participate in altruistic behaviour and to enable the pre-clinical platform year groups to also feel like they are providing essential medical assistance.

“This was hugely successful and consequently we decided to include a blood donation challenge in our annual Mental Health Awareness programme. The benefits of donating blood are not only of a physiological nature (e.g. it assists in reducing iron levels and helps to control high blood pressure etc.) but means you are giving something of yourself. It will definitely save at least one life, perhaps more, and is incredibly beneficial in enhancing feelings of self-worth and personal meaning,” says Vorster.

The Faculty of Health Sciences invited the SANBS to UFS this week to provide all students and staff with the opportunity to donate blood at their place of work and study. So Have a Heart and take a few minutes to relax with a cookie and cool drink while your heart does the work of blood donation for you.

Details are as follows:

When: 18 and 19 February

Where: Francois Retief Foyer UFS

Time: 07:00-14:30

News Archive

UFS welcomes unanimous judgement about its Language Policy in the Supreme Court of Appeal
2017-03-28

The University of the Free State (UFS) is pleased with the unanimous judgment handed down in the Supreme Court of Appeal this morning, in which the application from AfriForum and Solidarity to review and set aside the decision by the UFS Council to adopt a new Language Policy was dismissed.
 
The court accordingly directed that AfriForum and Solidarity pay the legal costs of the UFS, which include the costs of two Counsel. This is the second time that the two applicants were ordered to pay the university’s legal costs.
 
The UFS further welcomes the decision by the Full Bench that the Free State High Court made a mistake last year by indicating that the UFS Council made an irrational decision when it approved the new Language Policy on 11 March 2016.
 
“Today’s decision is a milestone in the history of the University of the Free State and underlines the importance of the decision made by the Council last year. The decision comes with a responsibility, as we now have to ensure that all our students can become part of the global community of scholars by providing them with the necessary support. We also have to make our staff and students understand the implication of the court’s decision,” said Prof Nicky Morgan, acting Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS.
 
The effect of today’s judgment is that the UFS may proceed to implement the new Language Policy according to its Implementation Plan. The new policy entails English as primary medium of instruction, but with the introduction of a tutorial system in Afrikaans and progressively in Sesotho to support students’ learning in their first and second year of study.
 
The policy has been piloted since January 2017 with first-year students in three faculties: Law, Health Sciences, and the Humanities. In these faculties, the majority of students indicated their preference to be taught in English. The Afrikaans-English policy will be maintained in the rest of the faculties in 2017 and phased out according to an implementation plan as from 2018.
 
Current registered students are able to complete their studies in the language they selected upon registration.

Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Brand Management)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27 51 444 6393

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