Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
26 October 2023 | Story VALENTINO NDABA | Photo PEXELS
mental health during exam season
Ensuring good mental wellbeing is very important ahead of and during exam periods.

As the exam season approaches, students across the board face large amounts of extra stress and anxiety. Examinations carry tremendous weight in determining students’ prospects, making it a time of immense pressure.

The Department of Student Counselling and Development (SCD) at the University of the Free State (UFS) has been a steadfast source of support to its students since the SCD's establishment in 1977. SCD offers an array of free services to all registered students across the Bloemfontein, South, and Qwaqwa campuses, regardless of their level of study, whether undergraduate or postgraduate.

SCD's primary objective is to cultivate a deep understanding of holistic mental health within the UFS community and address wellness concerns effectively. This mission is pursued through individual therapy sessions, group sessions, workshops, developmental programmes, and career counselling. The department also plays a pivotal role in knowledge production, evidence-based interventions, and mental health innovations, contributing significantly to students’ mental wellbeing.

Academic wellbeing 

To coincide with the exam season and World Mental Health Awareness Month in October, SCD offers academic-wellbeing resources tailored to students to help them become ‘Wellbeing Warriors’. These resources include guides such as 'Taming Test and Exam Anxiety’, 'I Don't Know How to Study’, and 'Where Is My Time Going?'. These resources are designed to equip students with the tools they need to manage the stress and anxiety that often accompany exams.

Taming Test and Exam Anxiety

According to Nadia Maloney, Senior Counselling Psychologist and Acting Assistant Director of SCD, “Common test anxiety symptoms include heart palpitations, sweaty palms, difficulty breathing, feeling overwhelmed, irritability, fatigue, and sleeping difficulties. We’re probably in agreement that experiencing any of these symptoms is highly uncomfortable, not conducive to an ideal learning environment, and can affect your exam outcome.”

The 'Taming Test and Exam Anxiety' guide, compiled by Maloney, emphasises the importance of mitigating these symptoms to create an ideal learning environment in order to achieve better exam outcomes.

I Don't Know How to Study

For those who find themselves struggling with study methods, Lize van den Bergh, a Senior Counselling Psychologist, has created the 'I Don't Know How to Study' guide, which underscores the significance of adapting to the university's unique challenges early on, offering valuable tips and techniques to enhance study skills.

Where Is My Time Going?

The 'Where Is My Time Going?' guide, also crafted by Van den Bergh, tackles the issue of time management. It offers practical advice for students who often feel that time is slipping through their fingers due to various commitments and responsibilities. “Study methods consist of many important behaviours and techniques. Because university is different to school, the sooner you learn how to adapt to these changes, the better you will manage,” Van den Bergh said.

As stress and anxiety levels peak around exam time, the importance of studying smart, not just hard, cannot be stressed enough. Students looking for further assistance can reach out to the SCD Office via the provided contact details:

+27 51 401 2853 / SCD@ufs.ac.za (Bloemfontein Campus)
+27 51 505 1989 / SCDSouth@ufs.ac.za (South Campus) 
+27 58 718 5125 / SCDQQ@ufs.ac.za (Qwaqwa Campus)
+27 800 00 6363 / 24/7 Toll-free UFS Student Careline 

News Archive

Stress and fear on wild animals examined
2013-06-04

 

Dr Kate Nowak in the Soutpansberg Mountain
Photo: Supplied
04 June 2013

Have you ever wondered how our wild cousins deal with stress? Dr Kate Nowak, visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Zoology and Entomology Department at the UFS Qwaqwa Campus, has been assigned the task to find out. She is currently conducting research on the effects that stress and fear has on primate cognition.

The Primate and Predator project has been established over the last two years, following Dr Aliza le Roux’s (also at the Zoology and Entomology Department at Qwaqwa) interest in the effects of fear on primate cognition. Dr le Roux collaborates with Dr Russel Hill of Durham University (UK) at the Lajuma Research Centre in Limpopo and Dr Nowak has subsequently been brought in to conduct the study.

Research on humans and captive animals has indicated that stress can powerfully decrease individuals’ cognitive performance. Very little is known about the influence of stress and fear on the cognition of wild animals, though. Dr Nowak will examine the cognition of wild primates during actual risk posed by predators. This is known as the “landscape of fear” in her research.

“I feel very privileged to be living at Lajuma and on top of a mountain in the Soutpansberg Mountain Range. We are surrounded by nature – many different kinds of habitats including a tall mist-belt forest and a variety of wildlife which we see regularly, including samangos, chacma baboons and vervet monkeys, red duiker, rock hyrax, banded mongooses, crowned eagles, crested guinea fowl and cape batis. And of course those we don't see but find signs of, such as leopard, genet, civet and porcupine. Studying the behaviour of wild animals is a very special, and very humbling, experience, reminding us of the diversity of life of which humans are only a very small part,” said Dr Nowak.

At present, the research team is running Giving up Densities (GUD) experiments. This represents the process during which an animal forsakes a patch dense with food to forage at a different spot. The animal faces a trade-off between meeting energy demands and safety – making itself vulnerable to predators such as leopards and eagles. Dr le Roux said that, “researchers from the US and Europe are embracing cognitive ecology, revealing absolutely stunning facts about what animals can and can’t do. Hence, I don’t see why South Africans cannot do the same.”

Dr Nowak received the Claude Leon Fellowship for her project. Her research as a trustee of the foundation will increase the volume and quality of research output at the UFS and enhance the overall culture of research. Her analysis on the effect that stress and fear have on wild primates’ cognition will considerably inform the emerging field of cognitive ecology.

The field of cognitive ecology is relatively new. The term was coined in the 1990s by Les Real to bring together the fields of cognitive science and behavioural ecology.


We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept