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11 September 2024
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Story Anthony Mthembu
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Photo Anthony Mthembu and Chelsea Carolus
From the left: Geraldine Lengau, Senior Officer in the Unit for Institutional Change at the UFS; and Oratile Reina, West College Prime.
As part of the initiatives lined up for College Week, the student leaders of West College at the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted a dialogue that primarily focused on discussing social justice as a value of Vision 130. The dialogue was held at Outeniqua Residence on 3 September 2024 and was well attended by students within West College.
According to Oratile Reina, West College Prime, “the motivation for the dialogue was to prepare newly elected leaders and our college community to align their efforts with Vision 130 – a vision that aims to create a more inclusive, equitable, and socially just environment on campus”. As such, she highlights that the dialogue was an opportunity for leaders to discuss practical strategies for implementing these values in their respective spaces, and to encourage those in West College to become better citizens inside and outside the university.
A conversation on social justice
The dialogue was facilitated by Geraldine Lengau, Senior Officer in the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice at the UFS. Lengau touched on several aspects pertaining to the topic of discussion. Firstly, she allowed the audience to give their definition of social justice, especially as students within the institution. In addition, she went on to talk to the audience about sexual assault in the context of social justice. In this instance, Lengau gauged whether the students knew which processes to follow in the event of a sexual assault incident, and whether they were acquainted with the UFS Sexual Harassment, Sexual Misconduct, and Sexual Violence Policy. Furthermore, the audience was given the opportunity to outline what social justice looks like to them in the spaces they occupy, including in their respective faculties, the sports they play, and the leadership structures they form part of. “I was encouraged to see that students take their right to a socially just university in very high regard, and that they were willing to break it down from what Vision 130 proposes, in order to align it with their common understanding,” said Lengau.
As the dialogue concluded, the audience signed a pledge committing to uphold the values of Vision 130. According to Reina, “The pledge represents a promise to take concrete steps towards fostering an inclusive and equitable campus culture. By signing the pledge, the leaders are not only agreeing to embody these principles in their leadership roles but are also holding themselves accountable to their peers and the broader university community.”
UFS Director serves on international financial planning body
2010-03-29
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Adv. Wessel Oosthuizen.
Photo: Supplied |
Adv. Wessel Oosthuizen, Director of the Centre for Financial Planning Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) and Panel Chairperson of the Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB), was recently seconded to two FPSB meetings.
Adv. Oosthuizen is a member of two work groups that consist of representatives from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. The groups are tasked with developing a framework that would incorporate the abilities, professional skills and knowledge a student or candidate for certification would need to cover when developing viable written financial plans for clients. Additionally, the groups discussed the type and content of templates, tools and guidance documents that education, training and assessment bodies could use to ensure that financial planners were capable of integrating theory and practice when delivering financial planning to clients.
According to Adv Oosthuizen, the FPSB’s goal is to develop guidance documents and templates for practitioners, employers, educators and certification bodies that will support a robust evaluation of independent and supervised work experience for entrants to the field of financial planning, consistent with approaches taken by more established professions by the end of 2010.
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