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Status of the UFS 2019 registration process

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

Afrikaans speakers should think differently, says Coenie de Villiers

2016-06-08

Description: Coenie de Villiers Tags: Coenie de Villiers

Coenie de Villiers was the speaker at the DF Malherbe
Memorial Lecture, held in the Equitas Building on the
University of the Free State Bloemfontein Campus on
24 May 2016.
Photo: Stephen Collett

Do not ask what can be done for your language, but what your language can do for others. With this adaptation of the late John F. Kennedy’s famous words, Coenie de Villiers stressed that the onus for the survival of their language rests with Afrikaans speakers.

According to the television presenter and singer, the real empowerment of Afrikaans does not necessarily take place in parliament. He was the speaker at the DF Malherbe Memorial Lecture, presented in the Equitas Building on the University of the Free State Bloemfontein Campus on 24 May 2016. The lecture by De Villiers, a UFS alumnus, was titled Is Afrikaans plesierig? ’n Aweregse blik.

Government not the only scapegoat
He used Kennedy’s famous phrase, Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, as framework. “I believe that, if we reverse our sights and do not ask what the world can do for Afrikaans, but ask for a change what Afrikaans – and in particular each and every user thereof – can do for others, then we have, in good English terms, ‘a fighting chance’ that Afrikaans will not only survive, but that it will thrive.” He said it would be too easy to just blame the government’s language policy and/or its lack of application for the language’s uncertainties.

Speakers should act correctly
He said the actions of speakers, sometimes motivated by a love for the language, often causes more damage. “It is not the language that should squirm under the microscope. It isn’t Afrikaans that is being tested: it is us, the speakers, writers, thinkers, doers, and tweeters of the language that are being measured.”
De Villiers believes one should stand up for your language without hesitation or fear, but not necessarily in the middle of the road, and never in such a way that you abandon the moral compass of humanity.

Language will live on
He told the audience that Afrikaans speakers should maintain their language every day with the merit, humanity, and respect that they believe the language – and they themselves – deserve. The language will “live on as long as we use it to laugh, and talk, and sing, and do not kill it off with rules and directives.”

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