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29 March 2022
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Story Teli Mothabeng
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Photo Supplied
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Philmon Bitso, Student Recruitment Officer, with the top-10 cohort of the class of 2021 Free State Star of Stars.
The Department of Student Recruitment Services at the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted its annual Free State Star of Stars competition at the Amanzi Private Game Reserve during the first week of March. The event saw some of the brightest young minds in the Free State inducted as UFS first-year students into this year’s top-10 cohort for the competition. This marks the first Star of Stars event since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This new cohort consists of a dynamic group of academically gifted students from Quintile 1-3 schools in the Free State who are currently enrolled for different UFS academic programmes, ranging from Medicine, Law, Education, and various Bachelor of Science courses. Many of these students had to overcome insurmountable challenges to perform as well as they did in their Grade 12 academic year and to become part of the top-10 cohort for the class of 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Student Recruitment Services was forced to take a different approach to celebrate these deserving students; consequently, a weekend-long induction camp was the substitute for the annual gala dinner.
Apply for the 2022 Free State Star of Stars competition
The UFS realised the need to establish a platform that recognises and celebrates the diverse and, in most instances, difficult circumstances that disadvantaged schools (Quintile 1-3) are facing. Consequently, the Star of Stars competition was developed and established in 2016. This competition provides disadvantaged Grade 12 learners from all districts in the Free State an opportunity to showcase their excellence, while motivating them to aspire to achieve more.
Book on SA sign language and the local deaf community
2006-04-24
The Sign Language Division of the Department of Afro asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice at the University of the Free State (UFS) and the Belgian universities of Ghent and Brussels are in the process of writing a book on South African sign language and the South African deaf community. The book will consist of two parts: an ethnographic part on communication by deaf people in South Africa on the basis of life stories told by deaf people and a sketch grammar of South African sign language. At the same time the researchers are engaged in cross-linguistic grammatical research of South African sign language as compared to Flemish sign language.
Two Belgian academics are currently visiting the UFS to work on the book and on the cross-linguistic aspects. Here are from left to right Ms Emily Matabane (academic assistant from the UFS Sign Language Division), Prof Mieke Van Herreweghe (Ghent University), Prof Myriam Vermeerbergen (Vrije Universiteit van Brussel) and Mr Philemon Akach (senior lecturer at the UFS Sign Language Division and coordinator of the research project).