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#YouthMonth2021: CUADS – Humanising student experiences

17 June 2021 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Supplied

CUADS read more — CUADS: Recognised for its efforts in human reconciliation within higher education spaces by creating and providing opportunities for students with disabilities to thrive academically.

In commemoration of Youth Month 2021, the South African government zooms in to uncover opportunities available to the South African youth, drawing more young people into the economy, and initiating various youth development and empowerment initiatives to support young people.

In line with this, the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Universal Access and Disability Support (CUADS) has established and implemented a number of technological and academic support measures to humanise the experiences of students with disabilities at the UFS, encouraging universal access and academic success for all students. The ultimate aim is to have young people with disabilities employed in order to participate in the economy of South Africa.

CUADS continues the mission established when the department first opened: to become a higher-education institution support service recognised for its efforts in human reconciliation by creating and providing opportunities for students with disabilities to ultimately achieve academically, and to have an institutional culture of embracing and welcoming persons with disabilities on all three campuses of the UFS.

According to Martie Miranda, Assistant Director of CUADS and chair of the Higher and Further Education Disability Services Association, CUADS is monumental in its ability to accommodate the specific needs of students with sensory, physical, and learning disabilities, and has inspired other South African universities to enhance the qualities of their services by adapting their strategic visions to that of CUADS, which aims to operationalise and cater for the core needs of students through the UFS Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP), founded on the Strategic Policy Framework on Disability for the post-education and training sector.

The UFS ITP assists in addressing physical barriers (accessibility to and within buildings, e.g., ramps, doorways, services, and information), attitudinal barriers (communication access, awareness and advocacy, integrated programmes to mix and learn between peers), and structural barriers (policies, flexible service delivery, and employment practices).

CUADS, in line with the UFS Division of Student Affairs (DSA), prioritises student success and plans to maintain continuous engagement with students (on an individual basis, but also per disability category) to continue the support needed to ensure student success.

News Archive

First Global Leadership Summit brings partner universities to our university

2012-05-17

The University of the Free State (UFS) is gearing up for the Global Leadership Summit when students from universities all over the world will visit the UFS. The summit will take place from Sunday 8 July to Friday 20 July 2012. About 180 staff and students from universities in the United States, Asia and Europe are expected to visit the UFS during these two weeks and eminent scholars and politicians have already confirmed their participation. Among them are Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Dr Tim Murithi, Prof. Mark Solms, Fulbright Scholars who were previously tenured at the university, and a number of ambassadors.

Prof. Aldo Stroebel, Director: International Academic Programmes, Office of the Vice-Chancellor, says that our university has increasingly embedded internationalisation in its strategic priorities. The Leadership for Change Programme, jointly hosted by International Affairs and Student Affairs, is a significant step forward in this context. This innovative and unique programme, initiated in 2010, serves as a leadership development programme focused on first-year students. It aims to build layers of new thinking and engagement among students from diverse backgrounds. As part of a year-long engagement, each student spends a period abroad where there is intense exposure to the academic, social, cultural and residential lives of students in other countries. A formal mentor development programme for staff runs concurrently with the initiative.

In the 2010 programme, 71 students in various cohorts were placed at nine universities in the USA. Following on the success of this initiative, in 2011, 150 students were hosted at partner universities in the USA, Europe and Japan. The impact of cross-cultural and cross-border experiences on changing and enriching the participants’ minds and attitudes has been manifested in a wide variety of ways at both the UFS and the partner institutions.

The Global Leadership Summit, with the theme, “Transcending Boundaries of Global Change Leadership”, is a reciprocal programme of the Leadership for Change initiative. It will focus on international engagements in addressing salient issues around change leadership, diversity and racial reconciliation in Higher Education through critical dialogues between staff and students from all over the world.

The programme will be continued during 2013 when 150 students will again be selected for participation and placement abroad.

Media Release
17 May 2012
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: +27(0)51 401 2584
Cell: +27(0)83 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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