Latest News Archive

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

The New Face of Student Mental Wellness at the UFS

08 February 2022 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Charl Devenish

Dr Munita Dunn-Coetzee has joined the University of the Free State as the new Director of Student Counselling and Development. This is after an eleven-year stay at Stellenbosch University as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Student Structures and Communities, and later as the Director of the Centre for Student Counselling and Development.

Dr Dunn-Coetzee’s role at the UFS

As leader of the department, Dr Dunn-Coetzee sees her role as one in which she is responsible for moving her team forward. “My role is to really look at what the team needs. This is from infrastructure right through to their own personal development, and to making sure that they have what they need to get their jobs done,” she stated. In addition, Dr Dunn-Coetzee’s responsibilities include, “looking at our strategic intent, aligning with what the university wants, being relevant in terms of our service delivery, and connecting enough with the students”. In fact, one of the things she is excited about is learning from the students at the University of the Free State. “The big thing for me is to make contact with students and to engage with them about what is going on at ground level; the one thing I don’t want to be is someone who sits in the office, sends emails, and think I know what’s going on,” she explained.

A commitment to the mental health of UFS students

Although her two predecessors were internal appointments, Dr Dunn-Coetzee argues that being an external appointment allows her to have a fresh perspective. As such, one of her main priorities for the year is looking at student leaders, day residences, residences on campus, and residential heads, and analysing whether they are empowered enough to have conversations about mental-health issues with students. “The one thing that concerns me is that we have been online for two years, and now that we are telling students to come back to campus, it might evoke a level of anxiety in some students,” she explained. Therefore, ensuring that the department is student-centred in everything it does is very important to Dr Dunn-Coetzee. This varies from the way in which students are dealt with, how emails are responded to, and how students are treated when they walk into the Kovsie Health Building.

A long-term vision for the department and the university

Even though she has not been at the University of the Free State for very long, Dr Dunn-Coetzee has some long-term goals that are bound to positively impact both the students and the staff in her department. “I would like to have a research focus within our department; it is very easy to say that we are doing good work and that we have an impact on our students, but we need to have something that proves it,” she said. Therefore, an evidence-based approach is one of the directions she would like to pursue in her department. In addition, Dr Dunn-Coetzee argues that there is a need for a space in which intern psychologists can be trained. “It keeps your current staff on their toes, and it helps you to really play a role in developing psychologists in South Africa,” she expressed. Therefore, opening this space for young psychologists is something she hopes to make a reality in her time at the university. Furthermore, developing her staff and ensuring that they grow their skill set is an important goal she would like to achieve. “My focus is not to have people work here for thirty years; I need to empower them so that they can develop as much as they can. Of course, I love having them here, but in the event that they want to work somewhere else I need to make sure that they are skilled,” she said. Lastly, a goal she is adamant to achieve is to ensure that the service delivery by Student Counselling and Development is of a high standard on all three campuses.

As such, Dr Dunn-Coetzee would like to be viewed by the student community as accessible and approachable. “I would like for students to walk in here and feel comfortable; it doesn’t matter what you identify as – there is a space for you here,” she said.

News Archive

Legal elite tackle thorny issue of corruption

2013-01-24

Our Faculty of Law brought together top experts and judges for a Symposium on Corruption, to investigate one of the most pressing concerns of South Africans.
Photo: Stephen Collett
24 January 2013

YouTube Video

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng yesterday (24 January 2013) concluded the proceedings of the first day of the International Symposium on Corruption, hosted by the Faculty of Law of the University of the Free State (UFS). In his address Justice Mogoeng made no excuses as to the magnitude of the threat corruption presents to South African citizens.

“Urgent action and efficient measures are called for to arrest this scourge, for the sake of our constitutional democracy,” he warned. “Our vibrant constitutional democracy will not and cannot survive in the face of rampant corruption.”

Justice Mogoeng said the spate of civil and labour unrest erupting throughout the country can be attributed to corruption. According to him the scope and far-reaching implications of corruption drives South Africans to “boiling point” and evokes “anger, frustration and a don’t-care-attitude that often manifests in widespread protest actions” and disrespect for the rule of law.

“South Africans, irrespective of race or creed, must identify and focus on their common enemies and find a conciliatory and unifying way of dealing with what divides them, including the lingering prejudices of the past,” Justice Mogoeng urged.

Despite the threat corruption poses, he stressed that all South Africans have a role to play in the fight against corruption and that there are different role players that can become involved in the process. Especially important is the media and faith-based agencies which, according to Justice Mogoeng, can regenerate morals and secure a “national moral code.” The State must further ensure enforcement of anti-corruption measures and preside over the selection of individuals of “solid character” to reside in agencies meant to fight corruption.

He highlighted the need for an unbiased and independent judiciary, one immune to outside influences controlled by powerful forces, as well as personal agendas.

Although Justice Mogoeng believes that the private sector is most guilty of transgressions based on corruption, he stated that a “well-coordinated war” against it must be waged in all sectors in order to stamp it out.

Justice Mogoeng presided over the unveiling of the redesigned foyer of the CR Swart Building and praised the Faculty of Law for its innovation with regard to the symposium.

“I look forward with great optimism to more well-organised symposiums that strike at the nerve-centre of the well-being of our constitutional democracy,” he concluded.

Symposium seeks answers and solutions

The Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) concluded its International Symposium on Corruption on Friday 25 January 2013. The event featured a stellar cast of speakers, including the Chief Justice of South Africa, three current Supreme Court of Appeal judges, high-court judges, advocates, prosecutors, journalists, as well as local and international legal academics.

Throughout the two-day symposium, corruption was dissected as a severe problem in the South African socio-economic landscape and solutions were sought to alleviate the pressing concern.

The main attractions of the symposium were undoubtedly the attendance and presentations delivered by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, as well as Prof. Leon Wessels. Prof. Wessels was described as “one of the founding fathers of the constitution of South Africa” by Judge Fritz Brand, a current Appeal Court judge and the third-longest serving judge in the country.

“Corruption is stealing the constitutional dream of this country. Corrupt leaders are fearless, those who expose corruption, are fearful,” Prof. Wessels warned.

Judge Brand closely trails the second longest serving judge in the country in former Kovsie, as well as former UFS Council Chairman, Judge Faan Hancke. Both judges addressed the symposium and chaired sessions, along with Prof. Johan Henning, Dean of the Faculty of Law, and Judge Ian van der Merwe, Chairman of the UFS Council.

It was, however, not all doom and gloom, as several of the speakers offered tangible ideas in what was often termed the “war on corruption”. Celebrated Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika who has been arrested following the police leasing scandal which he exposed, urged South Africans to stand together in their fight against corruption, before it is too late.

People on the front lines in the day to day fight against corruption also spoke at the symposium, giving the audience a better understanding of the intricacies and challenges involved in the process. The Head of the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit, Mr Willie Hofmeyer, as well as Advocate Xolisile Khanyile, who is the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Free State, elucidated this struggle.

The symposium also hosted Prof. Chizu Makajima, a celebrated academic from the United Kingdom.

The two-day symposium ended in style as the delegates gathered in the Centenary Hall on the Bloemfontein Campus for lunch, with a further address by Prof. Leon Wessels

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