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11 January 2019 | Story Lacea Loader

Status of the UFS 2019 registration process

The on-campus registration process at the University of the Free State (UFS) has not yet commenced. Although the online registration process started on 7 January 2019, the on-campus registration process on the university’s Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses will commence on 21 January 2019.

Some media reports that the registration process commenced this week and that registration points on the Bloemfontein Campus have been shut down by a number of students, are untrue. The only student academic services currently available on the campus are that of information services and enquiries from students visiting faculties, as well as assistance with online access to the Central Application Clearing House (CACH).

A group of students under the banner of the SASCO Bloemfontein Branch, and operating without engaging with the university’s existing student structures, disrupted student academic services on the Bloemfontein Campus and blocked entrance to the campus at one of the five gates on Wednesday 9 January 2019, indicating that the university management has not effectively dealt with some student-related matters pertaining to the 2019 registration process. The on-campus student academic services programme was subsequently temporarily suspended. However, online and email academic services continued as normal.

Following Wednesday’s disruption, the executive management of the UFS engaged with the group of students who disrupted the student academic services programme, as well as with representatives of the Institutional Student Representative Council (ISRC). Concessions between the university and the ISRC were reached yesterday.

The executive management expressed its appreciation for the ISRC’s cooperation and for its commitment towards student access to higher education. As the legitimate statutory body representing students, the ISRC will work with the management to ensure that preparations for the upcoming registration process run smoothly. The management furthermore condemned the behaviour of the group of students who disrupted the student academic services programme.

The registration process on the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses will commence on 21 January 2019 when senior students requiring assistance or academic advice, will be assisted on the campuses. The registration process and academic advising services for first-time entering, first-year students start according to a set schedule from 25 January 2019 on the Bloemfontein Campus, and from 28 January 2019 on the Qwaqwa Campus.

Enquiries regarding registration can be directed to the university’s Call Centre at 051 401 9666. Detailed information about the 2019 registration process is available at www.ufs.ac.za


Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Marketing)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27 51 444 6393

News Archive

Harvard couple to present lectures on Biostatistics and Mathematics at the UFS
2015-12-07


Professor Donald Rubin

Prof Donald Rubin (John L. Loeb Professor of Statistics at Harvard University) and Elizabeth Zell (MStat - mathematical statistician in the Division of Bacterial Diseases) will visit the University of the Free State (UFS) where they will present lectures on their respective work.

Over his prestigious academic career, Prof Don Rubin’s 400 publications and 13 books have earned him around 180 000 citations at an h-index of 113. He is one of the most cited statisticians/mathematicians/economists/psychologists in the world over the last 10 -15 years. He has supervised 35 PhD candidates as sole-supervisor, 17 more as co-supervisor, with a further eight in the pipeline.

Prof Rubin who will meet with UFS academics in the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Sciences will also deliver a lecture: Rerandomisation to improve covariate balance in experiments.

Randomised experiments are the “gold standard” for estimating causal effects, yet in practice, chance imbalances often exist in covariate distributions between treatment groups. If covariate data are available before units are exposed to treatments, these chance imbalances can be mitigated by first checking covariate balance before the physical experiment takes place. Provided a precise definition of imbalance has been specified in advance, unbalanced randomisations can be discarded, followed by a rerandomisation. This process can continue until a randomisation yielding balance according to the definition is achieved. By improving covariate balance, rerandomisation provides more precise and trustworthy estimates of treatment effects.

Prof Rubin received an honorary professorship from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.


Elizabeth Zell

The lecture will take place on:
Date: Tuesday 8 December 2015
Time: 16:00
Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus

Zell earned her Master’s degree in Statistics at North Carolina State University, and for more than two decades, was an active bio-statistical researcher in various offices of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Since 2013, she has been the Principal Statistician and President of Stat-Epi Associates, Inc. Her 150+ publications have earned her 14 500 citations at an h-index of over 50. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and, in 2010, she received the Statistics Section Government Award for outstanding contributions to statistics and public health by the American Public Health Association. During her career at the CDC, she earned more than 20 CDC research awards and honours.

She will deliver two lectures at the UFS. The first is entitled A Potential Outcomes Approach to Documenting the Public Health Impact of the Introduction of PCV13 for the Prevention of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease. The topic of her second lecture is: Assessing the Effectiveness of Intrapartum Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Prevention of Early-Onset Group B Streptococcus Disease through Propensity Score Design

Elizabeth’s lectures will take place on:
Date: Wednesday 9 December 2015
Time: 10:45 and 13:00
Venue: West Block 111, Bloemfontein Campus

For more information, please contact Dr Michael von Maltitz at VMaltitzMJ@ufs.ac.za.

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