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UFS on track to revolutionise student success and boost sustainability

14 August 2025 | Story Onthatile Tikoe and the Centre for Teaching and Learning | Photo Supplied

CTL — From the left: Dr Jenny Glennie (SAIDE), Gugu Khanye (Director: Student Success – UFS), Prof Matete Madiba (Deputy Vice-Chancellor – UWC), Prof Francois Strydom (UFS Siyaphumelela Lead), and Prof Nthabiseng Ogude (Siyaphumelela Institutional Coach) at the 2025 Siyaphumelela Conference. The group played a key role in advancing conversations around student success, collaboration, and innovation in higher education.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is advancing a transformative approach to student success that positions it to become a national leader in enhancing social mobility. This vision was underscored at the 2025 Siyaphumelela Conference, where the university shared details of its groundbreaking collaboration with the National Institute for Student Success (NISS) at Georgia State University (GSU) in the United States.

Prof Francois Strydom, Senior Director: Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), explained that the initiative builds on lessons from GSU’s remarkable achievements. “The success of Georgia State University has been truly inspiring,” he said. “The NISS approach, which focuses on using data to dismantle systemic barriers and improve graduation rates, has transformed outcomes for a predominantly low-income and diverse student body. By contextualising this data-driven model for our environment, the UFS is proud to be the first university on the African continent to implement it.”

Building on proven success

GSU’s success in eliminating equity gaps in retention and completion among different racial groups was achieved through a redesign of its support structures and processes. Drawing on its own established track record of narrowing equity gaps in success rates, the UFS aims to replicate these outcomes in a way that is tailored to its unique context.

At the conference, the UFS Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) launched a new national report on student engagement trends and presented papers on a range of topics. These included innovative strategies for improving performance in high-priority modules, the use of predictive analytics to provide proactive student support, and research into gender differences in academic performance and class attendance in a post-COVID world.

Prof Strydom also led an exploratory panel discussion on strengthening collaboration between universities, business, and philanthropy to drive large-scale student success initiatives. “By facilitating a deeper understanding between philanthropic organisations, businesses, and universities, we can develop innovative and impactful approaches to funding and student support,” he said.

Driving innovation and sustainability

The UFS’ contributions at the conference were further reinforced by institutional projects focused on the evidence-based integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into student learning and success. These initiatives reflect a clear commitment to transformation that is both research-led and data-driven.

Looking ahead, Prof Strydom emphasised the opportunity before the institution: “We have a unique opportunity to leverage the lessons learnt from our student success initiatives to guide further research, deploy technology in ways that optimise human connection, and help create responsible societal futures while contributing to the sustainability of our university.”

News Archive

UFS serious about safe campuses

2011-02-09

Mr Willie Frankim, Head of Protection Services at the UFS, in the new control room on the Main Campus.
- Photo: Dries Myburgh

The University of the Free State (UFS) officially launched its security control room recently. This new addition to the university's infrastructure, which was implemented in December 2010, has already made a contribution to the combating of crime at the UFS.

The decrease in crime statistics for January this year (5 cases), in comparison to the statistics of January 2010 (51 cases) is proof that the UFS’s new approach to combating crime on campus has an impact.

According to Prof. Niel Viljoen, Vice-Rector: Operations, the safety of students, lecturers and staff of the UFS is of the utmost importancet. For this reason, it is continuously reflected on about what can be done to improve the levels of safety for the respective campuses.

Apart from the upgraded security control room, from where, amongst others, residences, pedestrian routes, campus buildings, parking areas, entrances at gates and computer rooms at residences are observed, a number of measures have been set in place to improve the task of combating crime.

These measures include:

- Security cameras in front of all the women’s residences. The UFS is in the process of also installing
security cameras in front of the men’s residences.

- Shrubs and trees that caused obstruction in front of cameras have been pruned.

- Security officers patrol the pedestrian routes as well as the Red Square on foot from 06:00-22:00.

- A security officer has been appointed at each residence to be on duty from 18:00 to 06:00
at the residence.

- Two vehicles patrol the Main Campus on a 24-hour basis.

- The UFS is in die process to install alarms, which will be linked to the central security control room,
in all buildings.

- In certain buildings panic buttons have been installed in strategic places.

- Where possible, better entrance control to building, especially office blocks, has been implemented.

-       Better management and integration of the security workers who are contracted from outside.
        More security workers have also been appointed to do duty at each residence as well as on the
        pedestrian routes (during the hours indicated).

- A survey has once again been done of all “dark spots” on the campus and better lighting is
currently being installed.

The reduced reaction times are a direct result of the operational process between security staff in the control room with met security staff that patrols the campus on foot and by vehicle

Media Release
09 February 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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