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Join the Student Affairs Vaccination Drive from 25 to 27 October 2021

21 October 2021 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa

The University of the Free State (UFS) is currently developing a COVID-19 Regulations and Required Vaccination Policy that all students will have to adhere to in 2022. This policy is being developed to ensure a safe environment for all staff and students upon their return in 2022.

The university is taking these measures to minimise the risk of exposing staff and students to infection and to enable a safe return to all three UFS campuses next year. However, the university will implement the policy in such a way that it will adequately accommodate individuals who are choosing not to get vaccinated for legitimate reasons.

In order to encourage our students to make the responsible choice by keeping themselves and others safe, the UFS Division of Student Affairs (DSA) is launching a COVID-19 Vaccination Drive that will take place from Monday, 25 October to Wednesday, 27 October 2021.

The programme is as follows:

Covid Vaccination Drive Programme

Monday, 25 October 2021

When: 11:00-14:00

Where: outside Gate 5, UFS Bloemfontein Campus

What: Live performances by students, KovsieFM, KovsieTV, Vox Pops, free UFS branded T-shirts, and giveaways

Wednesday, 27 October 2021

When: 11:00-14:00

Where: Thakaneng Bridge

What: Live performances by local artists and students, KovsieFM, KovsieTV, Vox Pops, free UFS branded T-shirts, and giveaways

COVID-19 Vaccination panel discussion

The Vaccination Drive will conclude on Wednesday, 27 October 2021 with an online panel discussion titled: COVID Vaccination. Informed Youth. Informed Decisions.

The discussion will start at 16:00 on MS Teams, and students are welcome to join us and ask for advice or clarification about the vaccine from our panel members. The link will be provided soon.

Facilitator:

Dr Musa Mthombeni, Local TV personality

Panel members include:

Tshepo Moloi, Alumni and Economist representation business sector

Dr Musawenkosi Donia Saurombe, Youngest female PhD holder, lecturer and UFS Alumni

Jerry Thoka, ISRC President

Vusumzi Gqalane, SRC Policy and Transformation on the UFS Vaccination Policy

Asive Dlanjwa, South African Union of Students (SAUS) spokesperson

Victor Sekekete, Free State Cheetahs Rugby Player

Shaxe Khumalo, Entertainment Industry

For more information on the vaccination drive, contact Rethabile Motseki, motsekir@ufs.ac.za or Michelle Nothling at NothlingM@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

Universities join hands in developing literacy tests

2010-03-19

At the signing ceremony, from the left, are: Prof. Driekie Hay (Vice-Rector: Teaching and Learning), Prof. Albert Weideman (Head: Department of English) and Prof. Lucius Botes (Dean: Faculty of the Humanities).
Photo: Supplied

The development of academic literacy tests recently took a step into the future with the formal establishment of the Inter-institutional Centre for Language Development and Assessment (ICELDA).

ICELDA, under its first executive head, Prof. Albert Weideman, Head of the Department of English at the University of the Free State (UFS), is a cooperative venture between the multilingual Universities of Pretoria, North-West, Stellenbosch and the Free State.

It is dedicated to the development of reliable state-of-the-art academic literacy tests and currently makes 32 000 tests available to partnering universities annually.

Most notably, it has produced three of the most reliable academic literacy tests in the country. These include an Academic Listening Test and the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL) for undergraduate students, with reliability levels that are more than 20% above international benchmarks.

“We are even more excited about our Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students (TALPS), which is already a crucial instrument in determining the literacy levels of postgraduate students at the Universities of the Free State, Pretoria and North-West,” said Prof. Weideman.

In addition, ICELDA is currently piloting studies for language tests for financial advisors, nurses, students of disaster management, as well as police studies at Unisa.

ICELDA will also collaborate with the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) at the National University of Singapore.

“One of the undertakings I made on my visit to Singapore a year ago was that I would assist in every way I could with the building of joint expertise with CELC in language testing,” said Prof. Weideman.

“However, our focus will remain firmly on research.”

He said his goal was to employ the surpluses generated by selling tests to provide promising students with bursaries to stimulate further study and design of academic literacy and other language tests.

By drawing more researchers into the field, Weideman said, ICELDA could provide the capacity for developing reliable language tests that South Africa had always lacked.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
19 March 2010

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