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02 April 2025 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Marinda Avenant
Dr Marinda Avenant (far right) at the first COPAFEU workshop in Helsinki with Dr Ignatius Ticha and Prof Beatrice Opeolu from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. She joined the initiative two years ago as part of a consortium applying for ERASMUS+ funding for the e-service learning project.

Dr Marinda Avenant, Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of the Free State (UFS), is working with her master’s students on a project to develop strategies to reduce the volume of solid waste reaching the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality’s already overburdened landfill sites. 

All this came about through ‘Co-Producing Knowledge on Sustainable Growth through Service-Learning Pedagogy between African and European Higher Education Institutions’ (COPAFEU) – a project focused on ensuring that graduates have the skills they need for employment and entrepreneurship, while also contributing to sustainable local development. To do this, COPAFEU is developing a new approach where students follow the enhanced service-learning (e-service learning) route, working on real-world challenges and producing free, innovative educational resources on sustainable growth.

Dr Avenant became involved in the COPAFEU initiative two years ago when she was invited to be part of a consortium of universities applying for funding for the e-service-learning project from the ERASMUS+ funding programme, an EU funding programme for projects supporting education, training, youth, and sport.

She is leading the COPAFEU project on behalf of the Centre for Environmental Management (CEM) and the UFS.


A first time

Together with Prof Olusola (Shola) Oluwayemisi Ololade, Associate Professor and Director of CEM, and other academics, Dr Avenant is developing the e-service learning component to be incorporated into the structured Master of Science programmes specialising in Environmental Management and Integrated Water Management, respectively. 

“Our postgraduate programmes in Environmental Management and Integrated Water Management are following a blended delivery approach catering to working professionals, with short contact sessions on campus before they return to their jobs.” Dr Avenant says that their curricula have never included a service-learning component due to the limited time students spend on campus as well as their work commitments.

Providing more clarity on the e-service learning concept, she explains that an entrepreneurial component is integrated into the conventional service-learning pedagogy. “As part of the project, students will collaborate closely with lecturers and community partners to co-produce knowledge and develop digital open educational resources.”
 
According to Dr Avenant, the master’s students started with the first phase of the project in January this year, working with the community partner – the Solid Waste Management section at the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality (MMM). In this phase, they visited a waste recycling pilot project, engaging with various stakeholders, including MMM environmental officers, residents from Mandela View, and waste pickers from the South African Waste Pickers Association, to reduce the volume of solid waste reaching landfill sites. 

Following the visit, students are conducting situation analyses of different aspects of the pilot project and are developing solutions to optimise the recycling initiative. They will present their findings and recommendations to stakeholders in an online webinar in June 2025.

In the second phase of this project, students will use the experiences and knowledge acquired in the first phase to create short videos exploring how civil society can contribute to reducing solid waste. Dr Avenant states that these videos will form part of open-access short-learning courses developed by the students themselves. “The courses will be hosted on a web-based platform, contributing to the creation of several massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the project’s final phase,” she adds.

For Dr Avenant, it is important to make an impact at the local level. “I believe that this is where environmental management truly ‘happens’ and where our students can have the greatest impact. It is also the level where environmental interventions are most urgently needed in South Africa. Real sustainable solutions and growth must happen within local communities,” she comments. 

“By focusing on local actions, our students can help to bring about meaningful and practical change,” she says.


Aligning with Vision 130

Although the Centre for Environmental Management’s involvement in the COPAFEU project has a local impact, it also aligns with Vision 130’s goal of expanding the university’s influence regionally and internationally. By collaborating with a consortium of two European and eight African universities, the project strengthens professional networks and increases the UFS’ global presence.

Just as these partnerships create opportunities for knowledge exchange and capacity building, they also provide a valuable platform for students to gain real-world experience and broaden their perspectives. Dr Avenant’s dream for her students is to see them grow into well-rounded environmental and water managers who can think critically, work across disciplines, and address complex real-world problems with innovative solutions. She hopes that this service-learning component will not only shift their perspectives, but also help them develop a diverse skill set, create a sense of social responsibility, and apply their knowledge in meaningful ways – whether by solving immediate environmental challenges or contributing to an open-access short learning course.

Beyond technical expertise, she believes that perseverance, accountability, resilience, teamwork, and ethical decision-making are just as important, and she is confident that this experience will help to establish these qualities in her students.

News Archive

UFS introduces its Study-4-Free at Kovsies Project
2011-01-25

The University of the Free State (UFS) invites all former students who require one or two modules for the completion of a degree, diploma or certificate to complete their studies for free in 2012.

Under the university’s ‘Study-4-Free Project’, former students with a maximum of two outstanding modules may apply for the opportunity of completing those modules free-of-charge. This once-off offer covers only tuition and registration fees.
 
Students will have to meet certain criteria and apply in order to take part in this once-off ‘amnesty’ offer. Only former UFS students who were registered between 2005 and 2010 will be considered. The offer is applicable to Bachelors and Honours degrees, diplomas and certificates with the added condition that the outstanding modules are still part of the university’s current curriculum.
 
Once students are approved to take part in the project, they may only complete their outstanding modules during the 2012 academic year. If a student should fail for any reason to complete the one or two modules in 2012, they will not be able to take up the offer again.
 
Students who meet the above-mentioned criteria can apply by sending the following information to study4free@ufs.ac.za full name and surname, UFS student number, the faculty in which the student was registered and the name of the outstanding degree, diploma or certificate in question must be supplied.
 
The closing date for applications is 31 July 2011.
 
 
Media Release
25 January 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
 

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