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28 June 2023 | Story Kate Poen | Photo Supplied
Kate Poen
Kate Poen is an Academic Adviser in the Centre for Teaching and Learning.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is celebrating Youth Month by showcasing the positive influence of the institution on career development. As part of this initiative, we are sharing the stories of UFS alumni who are now working at the university.

Kate Poen, Academic Adviser in the Centre for Teaching and Learning, shares her UFS journey:

 

Q: Year of graduation from the UFS:

A: April 2018 and 2023.

Q: Qualification obtained from the UFS:

A: BSocSci Honours in Psychology and PGDip in Higher Education.

Q: Date of joining the UFS as a staff member:

A: I joined the UFS as a staff member in 2017.

Q: Initial job title and current job title:

A: My initial job was as a Teaching Assistant for UFS101 (now UFSS) under Transition Development and Success (TDS) and I am currently an Academic Adviser under Advising, Access, and Success (AAS) in the Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Q: How did the UFS prepare you for the professional world?

A: The UFS has taught me responsibility and accountability as a professional. It instilled in me the competence of lifelong learning, to consistently develop myself personally and professionally, as well as the ability to always innovate my skills, and not only be an individual able to compete on a national level, but globally in the higher education space as well.

Q: What are your thoughts on transitioning from a UFS alumnus to a staff member?

A: Transitioning from a UFS alumnus to a staff member has been interesting. Being a UFS alumnus in my experience opens the door to opportunities for growth and development, even with the challenges it does bring. It is a personal choice as to whether one sees and uses the opportunities. What it does provide one with is definitely an informed perspective of the staff experiences, especially support staff.

Q: Any additional comments about your experience?

A: I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve been afforded at the institution to not only grow as an individual, but also to make a difference and a little impact in the work that I do daily. Grateful for the relationships I was also able to establish with colleagues in different spaces on all three of our campuses.

News Archive

UFS gets support for improving university access and success in South Africa
2013-10-24

 

Members of the SASSE Research team are from left: Carike Jordaan, Dr Francois Strydom, Lana Swart, Seisho Gaboutlwelweboutlwelwakemo, Michael Henn en Katleho Nyaile.
Photo: Supplied
24 October 2013

The university’s Centre of Teaching and Learning (CTL) received a grant for US$820 000 (about R8 million) from the Kresge Foundation for their South African Survey of Student Engagement (SASSE) research team.

The SASSE research team is committed to furthering student access with success by promoting quality teaching and learning institutionally and promoting collective impact around student success nationally.

Through this three-year project, the SASSE team aims to provide a range of deeply contextualised and globally benchmarked student engagement measures that can be used at institutional and module/course level for the South African context. The data from these measures can be used to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning, and participating institutions will have access to appropriate capacity development interventions to empower them to use the data to promote evidence-based change in their institutions.

Dr Francois Strydom, Academic Director at the CTL, says the lessons from this higher-education project could be used to develop a stronger post-school sector which could help the country to deal with the massive challenge of youth unemployment; thereby promoting equity, social justice and a prosperous democracy in South Africa.

The Kresge Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation in the United States, which is focused on creating opportunity for low-income people through various programmes. This three-year project forms part of the Kresge Foundation’s Education Programme, which focuses on promoting access and success at South African universities. Therefore the SASSE project aims to contribute to the Kresge-sponsored Access and Success in Higher Education in South Africa (ASHESA), to promote a national conversation on improving student success.

In January this year, the university was one of four South African universities selected to take part in a multi-million rand programme to bolster private fund-raising and advancement efforts. For this programme the UFS was granted US$640 000 (about R5,6 million) over a period of five years.

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