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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 Council votes on top appointments
2003-11-24

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) today voted on the filling of four senior vacancies, including three posts at Vice-Rector level and one at the level of Dean.

The Council voted as follows:
- Prof Magda Fourie will be offered the post of Vice-Rector: Academic Planning
- Dr Ezekiel Moraka will be offered the post of Vice-Rector: Student Affairs
- Prof Teuns Verschoor will be offered the post of Vice-Rector: Academic Operations
- Prof Letticia Moja will be offered the post of Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences

Two of the candidates, Prof Teuns Verschoor and Prof Magda Fourie, are currently acting Vice-Rectors at the UFS. Prof Verschoor is acting Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and Prof Fourie is acting Vice-Rector for Academic Planning. Dr Moraka is currently Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Pretoria (UP). Prof Moja is currently the acting Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the UFS.

According to the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie, the filling of these senior vacancies comes after one of the most thorough search and selection processes ever at the UFS.

“It is wonderful that we are able to celebrate the outcome of this process that has brought forward such excellent candidates who reflect our country’s diversity. It shows that we can achieve the goals of quality and diversity at the same time,” Prof Fourie said.

Prof Magda Fourie (49) received her Ph D on Institutional governance of higher education in transition: a South African perspective from the UFS in 1996. She joined the UFS in 1998, later becoming Director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies and Development and Professor in Higher Education Studies. She said in her declaration of intent her aspiration is to contribute to making the UFS the excellent university it foresees in its vision and mission. Academic planning should position the UFS with regard to its core activities strategically as an institution of excellence that will meet the future from a strong basis of academic integrity and credibility.

Dr Moraka (45) received his Ph D in Education Management on Management of change and conflict resolution by student affairs officers at historically white universities in South Africa from the UP in 2002. He is Dean of Students at the UP since 2001. Before that he was Head of Student Support and Student Social Services at the UP for six years. He was also, among others, a lecturer at a college of education and a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa. He said in his declaration of intent that diversity can become so greatly emphasised that people can be driven further apart. Focus should be on moulding a student community where everyone can feel at home, a community which lives together and works together without destroying what is unique to each individual.

Prof Verschoor (53) received his LL D in 1980 at the University of Pretoria on The criminal responsibility of psychopaths and similar figures. He was professor in and Head of the Department of Criminal Law and Medical Law at the UFS for 17 years before becoming Dean of Students in 1994. He said in his declaration of intent that he dreams of the realisation of projects that are awaiting the enthusiastic support, bringing together and empowering of persons involved by a Vice-Rector that wants to see the UFS prosper in an era of continuing dynamic development. In this he would like to make a substantial contribution.

Prof Moja (46) received her MB ChB in 1982 from the University of Natal and her M.Med in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1990 from the Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa). She became a full professor in 2003 at the UFS and has been acting as Dean of the UFS’s Faculty of Health Sciences since February 2003. She said in her declaration of intent that the challenge for her is to manage change with the ultimate aim of both achieving the vision of the UFS and satisfying the needs of the community. Some of the academic challenges include the training of more people from designated groups and rural areas. Careful planning and integration of the curriculum should be done to ensure that all students perform to their best.

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