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International exchange students back on our campus

26 July 2022 | Story Bulelwa Moikwatlhai | Photo Supplied

UFS exchange students — Experiencing the UFS in person for the first time are from the left: Sandor Potjer (VU Amsterdam), Bulelwa Moikwatlhai (UFS OIA), Ricarda Kochems (Bremen University, Germany), Froukje Pronk (VU Amsterdam) and Matome Mokoena (UFS OIA)

As the UFS COVID-19 Regulations and Required Vaccination Policy has been lifted with immediate effect – allowing 100% capacity of both students and staff members and a fully operational campus – the Office for International Affairs welcomes its first physical exchange cohort after two years. The cohort of students hail from the various international partners of the UFS, namely the University of Bremen in Germany, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Sciences PO Bordeaux in France. The students will be hosted in the UFS faculties of the Humanities, Economic and Management Sciences, and Natural and Agricultural Sciences, respectively.

These students have been paired with Umoja Buddy Programme ambassadors to help ensure their smooth transition and integration into student life at the UFS. Furthermore, the students received an invitation from the President of the International Student Association (ISA), Courtney Madziwa, to join their association, thus exposing them to students from other countries to learn about the various cultures.

On 18 July, the Office for International Affairs (OIA) arranged a hybrid orientation programme for the exchange students, including those students who have not yet arrived on the Bloemfontein Campus. The students took part in an icebreaker activity, where they had the opportunity to learn from and teach other participants about their home countries. Dr Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director of the OIA, welcomed the exchange students to the Bloemfontein Campus, and expressed excitement to have physical exchanges again. Furthermore, the guest presenters ranged from student leadership, staff members, and service providers.

The presentations were practical, demonstrating, among others, how to create a password on the institutional website – presented by Mr Molemo Mohapi from UFS ICT. The presentation on how to fully utilise Blackboard was facilitated by Ms Vuthihi Mudau from the UFS CTL division. We take the safety of all our students seriously, so Ms Elise Oberholzer from the UFS Protection Services has given the students some tips on how to safeguard themselves.

News Archive

First Beyers Naudé lecture held at UFS' Qwaqwa Campus

2011-03-15

Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), delivered the first lecture to celebrate Dr Beyers Naudé’s life and legacy in a series of public lectures at the UFS’ Qwaqwa Campus.

In his address, Prof. Jansen warned that South Africa cannot afford a genocide of which the seeds are sown by those who continue to use racist and derogatory terms against their fellow citizens.

“The present debate in the media that was started by Jimmy Manyi’s comments and subsequently followed by the column by Kuli Roberts in the Sunday World about what they called ‘coloureds’ in the Western Cape, is not a ‘coloured’ debate. It is a South African debate and the silence from certain quarters of our society is disturbing,” said Prof. Jansen.

He pointed out that all countries that had previously experienced genocide had started in the same way when “those who were in power chose to keep quiet when wrong and dangerous statements were being uttered”.

“This country needs courageous citizens and leaders like ‘Oom Bey’ who sacrificed all the privileges and opportunities of being an Afrikaner in apartheid South Africa. He courageously stood up against his own people by declaring apartheid as evil and un-Christian. That’s the consciousness that all Kovsie students and the entire community must strive for.

We want Kovsie graduates who are also graduates of life. We want Kovsie graduates who will have the conscience to question wrong-doing, irrespective of who did it, and irrespective of where wrong-doing is being done. That’s the Kovsies we will all be proud of,” Prof. Jansen concluded.

The lecture was preceded by a student debate on the theme and was the first of the four in the 8^th annual Beyers Naudé Memorial Lecture Series themed Conscience and courage in the struggle for justice. The second lecture will be presented by Prof. Kwandile Kondlo, who heads the UFS’ Centre for African Studies, on 28 April 2011, and the main event is scheduled for 9 September 2011.

Media Release
14 March 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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