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Student Affairs Celebrates Arts Week: 22-29 October 2021

21 October 2021 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa

The University of the Free State (UFS) Arts and Culture office invites all Kovsie students to enjoy the soothing sounds of music and poetry performed by students from all three UFS campuses during the Student Affairs Arts Week from 22 to 29 October 2021.

For a full Arts Week experience, visit https://www.ufs.ac.za/studentlifeartsweek where a new video will be activated daily for an exciting week-long festival.

Together with the Arts Week, a COVID-19 Vaccination Drive will take place physically on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus and on virtual platforms. The drive will host medical experts to discuss and address the concerns that students have about vaccination.

Click here for more information on the Student Affairs Vaccination Drive.

The university is developing a COVID-19 Regulations and Mandatory Vaccination Policy to ensure a safe environment for all UFS staff and students upon their physical return to campus in 2022.

All students are therefore encouraged to make the responsible choice to keep themselves and others safe by educating themselves through the vaccination drive.

The Student Affairs Arts Week comes after the Campus Principal of the UFS South Campus and team leader of Institutional Health and Wellness for staff and students, Dr Maria Madiope, expressed concern about how COVID-19 cursed humanity. She previously stated that both student and staff morale has been challenged and affected immensely, and she encouraged the Arts and Culture office to use the arts to boost morale and give hope.

Mr Temba Hlasho, UFS Executive Director of Student Affairs, also expressed concern about the level of student engagement and how music and song, particularly choral music, are well known for its therapeutic and healing abilities for people when tackling various life challenges.

The Bloemfontein Choir is set to pay tribute to all students, staff, family, and UFS loved ones who have been lost since the beginning of the pandemic.

May the music and poetry give you hope for the approaching final year-end exams and the festive season.

For more information on Arts Week, contact Lucy Sehloho at sehloholp@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

National accolade for Dr Philemon Akach

2013-10-21

Dr Philemon Akach
Photo: Sonia Small
21 October 2013

Excellence in Teaching and Learning is highly regarded at the University of the Free State, with our academics recognised on national and international platform.

Earning yet another accolade for the university, Dr Philemon Akach, Head of the Department of South African Sign Language, has been awarded a National Excellence in Teaching and Learning Award. The award by the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) and Council on Higher Education (CHE), recognised Dr Akach as a “leader in the field of teaching and learning – with impact beyond the classroom and the institution.” Recognising his pioneering work within deaf education, HELTASA and CHE commend Dr Akach as an “inspirational practitioner who recognises the inclusion of the marginalised in education.”

Dr Akach is one of five recipients, selected out of a total of 22 candidates from across South Africa that will receive the award. The other winners are from the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Pretoria. The five winners will receive the awards at a gala dinner at the annual HELTASA conference, which takes place from 26 to 29 November 2013.

Dr Akach, who will retire at the end of 2014, says the national recognition is the cherry on top as he prepares to return to his home country. Kenya. “How good can it be?” “This is my life calling,” he said about the 37 years he worked within deaf education.

The academic also received an Alumni Award for Outstanding Service at the recent Kovsie Alumni Awards.

Pioneering work by Dr Akach:

With Dr Akach steering the process, the UFS became the first university on the continent to offer Sign Language as an academic course in 1999.
Dr Akach was part of a nine-member task team that handed over the South African Sign Language (SASL) curriculum to the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga. A member of the ministerial task team since 2009, he helped to coordinate the development of the curriculum that will soon be offered as a school subject to Grade 0–12 learners in all 42 schools for the deaf in South Africa.

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