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Annual conference enhances teaching and learning

10 October 2022 | Story Edzani Nephalela | Photo Supplied

UFS CTL Teaching and Learning Conference — The University of the Free State (UFS) recently held its annual Teaching and Learning Conference. The theme of this year’s conference was Celebrating excellence in learning and teaching, coinciding with the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s (CTL) 10-year celebrations.

The University of the Free State (UFS) recently held its annual Teaching and Learning Conference which began with three pre-conference workshops on the Bloemfontein Campus on 12 and 13 September and ended with a virtual conference hosted from 14 to16 September 2022.

The aim of the UFS Learning and Teaching Conference is to provide academics and academic support staff the opportunity to showcase their innovative learning and teaching practices within different disciplines, as well as to advance the scholarship of teaching and learning at the institution. The theme of this year’s conference was Celebrating excellence in learning and teaching, coinciding with the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s (CTL) 10-year celebrations. During the pre-conference workshops, the focus was on blended learning, curriculum development, and student engagement.

Dr Engela van Staden, Vice-Rector: Academic, opened the virtual conference on 14 September. She highlighted that universities contribute to the country’s economy through the type of graduates they produce. Therefore, the lecturers are vital; they must use various learning and teaching strategies and diligently perform their jobs to prepare students for the world of work.

“We must stay current and grasp new advancements in our discipline and teaching methods. These techniques should also recognise students' diversity and multilingualism. With the new Language Policy, we should ensure that our dominant languages are used in academia in years to come. We are here to assist students in becoming employable graduates, and one of the elements that CTL has embarked on is the support we are receiving from them through various programmes, such as Enterprising your Degree: ePortfolio Development (EDED), which provides our students with platforms to market themselves in many professional fields,” Dr Van Staden said.

Furthermore, Dr Van Staden emphasised the importance of research in enabling and empowering students to remain relevant. COVID-19 has also demonstrated the importance of the teaching approach and tested its efficacy in the classroom. This has resulted in the UFS moving towards becoming a digitalised institution. She stated that the institution has an agreement with the Free State Department of Health to conduct robotic surgery. She further explained that this is not about replacing academics, but about improving teaching and learning.

In his welcoming address on the second day of the virtual conference, Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, said that the reduction of the achievement gaps between a diverse group of people over the past decade demonstrates that the UFS is not just talking about innovation, equity, quality, and success, but about walking the talk – practically implementing what they profess, to make a real difference in the lives of the students, and to ensure the relevance of the institution.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the effective use of advanced data analytics was one of the contributing factors that enabled us to transition to an online learning and teaching environment successfully. It has allowed us to identify a lack of participation in online tuition, to reach out to individual students at risk, and respond with appropriate support mechanisms – thereby ensuring student success,” Prof Peterson added.

He further explained that Vision 130 commemorates 130 years of the UFS’ existence and is also a strategy to reposition the university for 2034 to ensure stability and clarity for planning and decision-making, while leaving scope for adaptation and agility. This vision will, among other things, promote

• academic excellence, quality, and impact;

• maximum societal impact with sustainable relationships; and

• a diverse, inclusive, and equitable university.

Sizofunda Ngenkani: The Politics and Voice and Merit Principles in Higher Education

Prof Pearl Sithole, Vice-Principal: Academic and Research on the Qwaqwa Campus – one of the keynote speakers – asked, “What impact does our education have on the world? Consider our social enterprise. This demonstrates that there are stumbling blocks that prevent us from learning. We understand that education is a two-way street – capabilities and quality of access. Much has been done to demonstrate that education is more than a classroom endeavour, yet something must explain why education has failed to have the intended influence in societies. This is targeted at the interaction between society and education, and as academics, we are up to the task to ensure that these issues are solved through various programmes.”

Building future excellence through scholarship, collaboration, and action for impact

In his keynote address, Prof Francois Strydom, Senior Director: CTL, presented some of the strategies that have contributed to CTL’s success since its inception in 2012, despite some of the challenges that institutions of higher learning encountered.

“Scholarships, collaboration, and action have always been instilled in us. We have integrated higher education research, organisational development, and management literature, considering international and national institutional viewpoints and settings. We acknowledge and promote faculty contributions and the dedication of teaching and learning managers who are supported by deans and academics to enhance the quality of teaching and learning,” said Prof Strydom.

He also emphasised the different programmes and research that contributed to this result. There are 223 national and 52 international conference papers, 288 research reports, two books, 93 articles/book chapters/peer-reviewed conference publications, and 35 postgraduate student supervisions.

Following the conference, the centre will be hosting its annual teaching and learning awards event on 12 October 2022 to recognise and award the excellent work done in learning and teaching at the UFS.

News Archive

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC

2005-08-03

The UFS Central SRC

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC of the University of the Free State, Mr Tello Motloung on Wednesday 3 August 2003

The Chairperson of the UFS Council, Judge Faan Hancke,
The Vice-chancellor and Rector of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie
The Vice-Rector Student Affairs of the UFS, Dr Ezekiel Moraka
The Presidents of the main campus SRC and the Vista campus SRC
Colleagues in the Central SRC, campus SRCs, students and fellow South Africans

Please receive my heartfelt revolutionary greetings

Vice-chancellor and rector what I bring here with me assisted by facts, is just the work of my imagination. Like a love letter addressed to a sweetheart miles away, even though you do not know how she feels, what she wants to hear, and do not even know what she looks like.

I value speech as just an honest intimation, that’s why I got into a habit of establishing a dialogue with people, looking at each other’s face, and persuading one another of what we are saying.

Vice-chancellor, today marks an important milestone in the history of the existence of the UFS. Today reflects the confidence and trust that students of the UFS have placed in us. They are confident that the Central SRC has both the will and the capacity to take our university forward as we confront the challenge of transformation.

Students are confident that they are correct to trust the Central SRC as the principal agent of change in our university that is genuinely committed to the objective of building a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic university. We need to frankly ask ourselves, as CSRC members, whether are we up to all these challenges?

All Central SRC members have to understand this fully, internalize it, and ensure that everything we do, does not betray the confidence and trust of students, or disappoint their expectations. I say this knowing that all Central SRC members have committed themselves to serve the students of the UFS, black and white, and no one among us (CSRC) needs any special lectures about this central commitment.

The UFS should be an omnibus, welcoming everybody on board. But we should be a bus with a clear direction. We will certainly lose our way if we, as an institution, don’t have a clear road map spelling out where we are heading to.

There should be clear guidelines on the role of students in the transformation process. Students should also be viewed as role players in transformation along with the University management, and not just opposing forces. There is no right time, other than this one, to move away from the politics of opposition to politics of transformation.

However, we need the support of management to do so. The University should value the role and contribution of student leaders, hear our legitimate claims and consider them as part of political and policy decision making.

Vice-chancellor and Rector, it remains our task to ensure that the UFS is transformed into an institution that is seen to be playing a vigilant role in developing students academically, intellectually, socially, culturally, politically and otherwise. The process of transformation is not ending tonight, it is just beginning tonight.

Judge Hancke, Prof Fourie, Dr Moraka, fellow students and fellow South Africans, I lead students at this university with a sense of pride and duty, and I know very well that I lead men and women, students who are all determined that we reach our destination safely and on time.

A navy divided within its ranks will be destroyed and vanquished by the enemy, but the navy united in purpose and action, loyalty and commitment will not sink but sail on to victory.

It is befitting to mention that every drop of my blood is telling me that the UFS is my home. I firstly became a student here, I became the SRC treasurer in my first year here, I became the deputy president here, and I became the first president of the Central SRC of the UFS.

Therefore you should never doubt my commitment towards the transformation of this university. To paraphrase what was said by students at another institution, “If there is no UFS in heaven, then I am not going.”

Let me conclude by thanking my ancestors for teaching me that even if I wined and dined with kings and queens, I am not a king myself, so I should not turn my back on people who made me what I am today.

Most importantly, I would like to thank the Almighty God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving me time and power to lead this university.

It will be theoretically irresponsible if I ended my speech without indicating that “Only a Kovsie knows the feeling”.

I thank you.

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