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Clinical Simulation – Where is it going?

01 March 2023 | Story Alicia Pienaar

The Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Prof Gert van Zyl, invites you to the inaugural lecture of Prof Mathys Labuschagne, Head of the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit within the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Subject: Clinical Simulation: Quo Vadis?

Venue: Auditorium, Equitas Building, Bloemfontein Campus

Date: 8 March 2023

Time: 17:30

RSVP on or before Friday 3 March 2023

Light refreshments will be served after the inaugural lecture.

About Prof M Labuschagne

Prof Mathys Labuschagne is the Head of the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit within the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State. He completed his MB ChB degree and qualified as an ophthalmologist in 2006.

He developed an interest in health professions education and obtained a PhD in Health Professions Education in June 2012. The title of his thesis was: Clinical Simulation to enhance undergraduate medical education and training at the University of the Free State.

Prof Labuschagne was appointed Head of the Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit at the University of the Free State. The facility is utilised for undergraduate and postgraduate clinical simulation training, as well as interprofessional training and research. He has a special interest in simulation as training tool, precision skills training, and mastery of learning and simulation as tool to prepare students for interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

Prof Labuschagne is part of a multi-institutional consortium that developed the MySkills Medic app. It is a clinical procedural skills application aimed at graduating medical students, interns, and community-service doctors. He was appointed as a member of the Ophthalmology Foundation Education Simulation Subcommittee (affiliate of the International Council of Ophthalmology) tasked with developing a white paper to guide simulation training for ophthalmologists. He is involved in postgraduate supervision for master’s and PhD students in HPE.

News Archive

UFS Council adopts guidelines for the development of a new Language Policy

2015-12-04

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) adopted the following guidelines from the report by the Language Committee regarding the development of a new Language Policy for the UFS, based on the core values of inclusivity and multilingualism:

that English becomes the primary medium of instruction in undergraduate education and, as largely exists already, in postgraduate education.
that the UFS embeds and enables a language-rich environment committed to multilingualism, with particular attention to Afrikaans, Sesotho, isiZulu, and other languages represented on the three campuses.
that an expanded tutorial system be available to especially first-year students in Afrikaans, Sesotho, isiZulu and other languages, in order to facilitate the transition to English instruction.
that the parallel-medium policy continues in particular professional programmes, given the well-defined Afrikaans markets that, at the moment, still makes such language-specific graduate preparation relevant.
that the language of administration be English.
that the English-medium language policy be implemented with flexibility and understanding, rather than as a rigid rule disregarding the circumstances.

These guidelines were adopted at the Council meeting which took place on the Bloemfontein Campus on Friday 4 December 2015.

“This important and emotive matter was discussed in a high-quality, open debate and I am satisfied with the way the decision was reached,” says Judge Ian van der Merwe, Chairperson of the UFS Council.

The decision by Council comes after a mandate was given to the University Management on 4 June 2015 to conduct a review of the institutional Language Policy. A Language Committee was subsequently established by the University Management Committee (UMC) to undertake a comprehensive review of the existing parallel-medium policy and to make recommendations on the way forward with respect to the university's Language Policy.

The Language Committee conducted a comprehensive consultation process on the future of the Language Policy with all university stakeholders. This included multiple dialogue and submissions sessions, as well as an opinion poll on all three campuses.

Guided by the Council resolution of 4 December 2015, the UFS management will now proceed to design a Language Policy that would be presented to the UMC and Senate for voting purposes again, which vote would be formally presented to Council at one of its governance meetings in 2016. The Institutional Forum, a statutory body that represents all university stakeholders, would also advise Council at that stage, per its mandate, on the new Language Policy.

In the event that a new Language Policy is accepted by Council in 2016, the earliest possible date for implementation would be January 2017.

http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6567 (26 November 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6540 (28 October 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6521 (20 October 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6469 (30 August 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6444 (25 August 2015)

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