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e-Service Learning initiative helps CEM students to make an impact locally

02 April 2025 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

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

New challenges for animal science discussed

2006-04-04

Some of the guests attending the congress were from the left Dr Heinz Meissner (honorary president of the South African Society for Animal Science (SASAS) and senior manager at the Animal Production Institute of the Agricultural Research Council), Mr Paul Bevan (President of SASAS) and Prof Magda Fourie (Vice-Rector: Academic Planning at the UFS).
Photo: Lacea Loader

New challenges for animal science discussed

The South African Society for Animal Science (SASAS) is presenting its 41st Congress at the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

The congress started yesterday and will run until Thursday 6 April 2006. The theme is New challenges for the animal science industries.

It is one of the largest congresses in the 45 years since SASAS was founded in 1961. Among the delegates 12 African countries are represented, with the biggest delegation from Kenya. Delegates are also from the United States of America, Iran, Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal and African countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana.

“Many of our members play an important role in the training of animal scientists at universities. The congress is specifically industry orientated so that scientists can interact with farmers through the respective producer organisations,” said Prof HO de Waal, Chairperson of the organising committee and lecturer at the UFS Department of Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences.

According to Dr Heinz Meissner, honorary president of SASAS and a senior manager at the Animal Production Institute of the Agricultural Research Council, the National Livestock Strategy (NLS) Plan clarifies the role and responsibility of the livestock sector.

“Through this strategy we need to focus on enhancing equitable access and participation in livestock agriculture, improve global competitiveness and profitability of the livestock sector and ensure that the ventures implemented do not over utilise our resources,” said Dr Meissner.

In her welcoming address, Prof Magda Fourie, Vice-Rector: Academic Planning at the UFS highlighted the related challenges that the UFS will be focusing on specifically over the next five years. “We have identified five strategic clusters that represent broad areas of excellence in research and post-graduate education. Two of these are food production, quality and safety for Africa and sustainable development,” she said.

“The food safety and security cluster will focus on the production of food in all its varieties within the African context, encompassing the entire value chain – from production to consumption and nutrition related issues. This would include a strong emphasis on sustainable production systems,” she said.

According to Prof Fourie the rural development cluster will engage in questions around the role of higher education in sustainable development. “One of the focus areas in this strategic cluster pertains to sustainable livelihoods. It refers to a way of approaching development that incorporates all aspects of human livelihoods and means by which people obtain them,” she said.

Prof Fourie said that the challenges we are facing such as food production can only be effectively addressed through collaborative efforts. “That is why it is important that collaboration takes place between different scientific disciplines, researchers, institutions and countries who are confronted with similar difficulties,” she said.

According to Prof de Waal the congress will give key role players a unique opportunity to present a profile of what they perceive an animal scientist should be and state their specific requirement regarding the animal sciences and its applications.

“In this way we can determine what the industry’s needs are and we can re-align our curriculum to suit these needs,” said Prof de Waal.

During the next two days, various areas of interest will be discussed. This includes ruminant and monogastric nutrition, animal physiology, beef, dairy, sheep and ostrich breeding and sustainable farming covering the range from commercial to the small-scale farming level.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
4 April 2006

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