Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Incident on the Bloemfontein Campus related to off-campus emergency accommodation on 8 February 2022

09 February 2022 | Story Lacea Loader

The University of the Free State UFS) is aware of media reports on 8 and 9 February 2022 about challenges that students are facing related to off-campus accommodation and in particular an incident that took place on the Bloemfontein Campus in the early hours of 8 February 2022 when a group of students arrived late evening at Protection Services and requested emergency accommodation.

It is untrue that the university did not provide emergency accommodation to the group of students, and we wish to confirm that accommodation was indeed offered in two on-campus residences. However, the offer to provide such accommodation was not taken up by the Bloemfontein Campus Student Representative Council (CSRC) on behalf of the group. During Tuesday morning, university staff managed to obtain accommodation for the group in an off-campus emergency accommodation facility, to which they were taken by shuttle.

Several measures are in place to ensure the successful management of the accommodation process in consultation with and in agreement with various stakeholders. When the need arises, the university arranges emergency off-campus accommodation for students on all three campuses. Where a student cannot afford to pay for emergency accommodation, the university has measures in place, which include the provision of daily transport in the form of a shuttle service to the emergency accommodation and back to the campus – specifically during the registration period.

In addition, an Emergency Accommodation Committee, on which the CSRC sits, meets weekly. The CSRC is part of the committee’s decisions to accommodate the needs of students related to emergency accommodation.

News Archive

Community engagement must be a core function of universities

2009-05-21

Members of the NatCEMF Steering Committee are, from the left: Mr Jerome Slamat, Senior Director: Community Interaction, Stellenbosch University, Ms Beatrix Bouwman, Manager: Community Engagement, North-West University, Rev Kiepie Jaftha, Chief Director: Community Service, UFS and chairperson of the committee, Prof. Allan Femi Lana, Director: Institute for Rural Development and Community Engagement, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Prof. Seth Pollack, Fulbright Scholar, University of Western Cape (guest speaker at the meeting), Prof. Denver Hendricks, Director: Community Engagement, University of Pretoria, and Prof. Priscilla Daniels, Chairperson: Human Ecology and Research and CHESP Research Coordinator, University of the Western Cape.
Photo: Lacea Loader

It is important that all tertiary institutions in South Africa should work together and commit themselves to advance the cause of community engagement in the country.

This was one of the main outcomes of the second meeting held by the National Community Engagement Manager’s Forum (NatCEMF) at the South Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein recently. The meeting was attended by 34 representatives of 16 higher education institutions in the country.

“I am astounded at the interest in this matter. The representatives are committed to make community engagement a core function of their institutions and we all agreed that we should get more involved in expanding this across all institutions. A need for a formal structure for us all to work together and have a more collective voice was also identified,” said Rev Kiepie Jaftha, Chief Director: Community Service at the UFS and Chairperson of the NatCEMF Steering Committee.

“There is a growing need to expand and develop our engagement with communities – to share our experiences and best practices and to learn from each other. There are universities that are doing excellent work in this field and, by having a formal structure, we can do a lot more towards advancing community engagement,” said Rev Jaftha.

The meeting identified matters such as the coordination of higher education institutions’ involvement in community engagement, the facilitation of research about community engagement, promoting service learning as transformation, the establishment of a community engagement resource centre and the organisation of a national community engagement conference as some of its aims. A national steering committee was also elected.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept