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2022 Africa Week

07 April 2022 | Story Bhekumusa N. Zikhali

Celebrating Africa Month – call for contributions

The University of the Free State Office for International Affairs, in collaboration with the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice, will be hosting its fifth annual Africa Day commemoration. The 2022 commemoration will be hosted across all three campuses in a marathon we call Africa Week, which unifies the activities through cross-campus collaboration speaking in one voice for one institution. The activities will be three-tiered, starting with an opening ceremony for Africa Week on the South Campus, a celebratory dialogue on the Bloemfontein Campus, and lastly, the closing ceremony of Africa Week on the Qwaqwa Campus. All three activities will be embodied under the theme ‘African Higher Education – Celebrating African Education’, which will embrace artistic expressions, music, dance, and meaningful dialogue that will provide an element for teaching and learning. You are all cordially invited to tune in.

In accordance with COVID-19 protocols/rules, the different activities will have limited capacity for attendance, but live streaming will be made available to the rest of us. This may change at any given time according to circumstances as determined by the relevant departments of the institution.

You are all cordially invited to tune in; be on the lookout for the RSVP link for attendance. In the meantime, save the date and the links below.

Livestream link: https://livestream.ufs.ac.za/

Opening Ceremony South Campus
Date: 23 May 2022
Venue: Open space outside the cafeteria
Time: 13:00 – 15:00

Celebratory Dialogue Bloemfontein Campus
Date: 25 May 2022
Venue: Centenary Complex
Time: 16:00 – 19:00

Closing Ceremony Qwaqwa Campus
Date: 27 May 2022
Venue: VIP Hall
Time: 12:30 – 15:00

News Archive

Communication Science lecturers walk away with Best Teachers Award

2015-11-26

The winners: Jolandi Bezuidenhout, Rentia Engelbrecht, Jamie-Lee Nortje with Prof Milagros Rivera (Head of Department of Communication Science).

Jolandi Bezuidenhout, Rentia Engelbrecht, and Jamie-Lee Nortje are the names behind the award-worthy A-Step programme. These lecturers in the Department of Communication Science at the University of the Free State (UFS) have been facilitating extra class for students in the extended programme since 2008. On 12 November 2015, they celebrated a major milestone when the programme received the Excellence in Teaching and Learning Innovation Award.

The annual awards are hosted by Dr Lis Lange Vice-Rector: Academic at the UFS, and administrated through the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

It was the first time that the Faculty of the Humanities had received the award. The lecturers were named the Best Teachers in the UFS, emerging in first place in the category: Student Engagement and Learning.

The A-Step sessions form part of a governmental programme dedicated to supporting students by offering diverse curriculum-related activities. Students attend two classes per week where they are equipped with language and life skills. As of 2015, the sessions were expanded to benefit not only the extended programme but all 788 students in Introduction to Verbal and Nonverbal Communication (KOM114).

“The activities are based on theoretical work we do in the mainstream classes,” explained Nortje. Primarily, the activities are meant to “help the student engage the work in a meaningful way so that they can understand it,” she said, which is why the sessions are designed in a fun and creative way.

The ‘Best Teachers’ organised and developed the A-Step sessions collectively and diligently over the years. The award, and the improved students’ academic performance, bears testimony to the effectiveness of their teaching style.

Marissa Grobbelaar, the Academic Staff and Development Project coordinator at the CTL, commended the lecturers’ efforts. Grobbelaar believes that “the way they approached their teaching and the passion which was evident in it,” was one of the reasons they deserved the award.

A former A-Step student, Rorisang Sekhasa, attested that, “the programme was very helpful because you get to have one-on-one sessions with your lecturer, and understand the work better. What was done in class is elaborated on in detail.”

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