Jaaroorsig - University of the Free State

Bridging the gap with04the communityCentral to the university’s priorityof regional cooperation and engagementis the integration ofthe Qwaqwa and Vista BloemfonteinCampuses as valuable constituent partsof the UFS, and the strategic reconfigurationof these two campuses in order thatthe UFS, in conjunction with other partners,can play a meaningful role inregional engagement and development.A meaningful role for‘new’ campusesIn some circles there has been growingconcern that higher education in SouthAfrica is not doing enough to tackleproblems of poverty, extend educationalaccess to historically disadvantagedcommunities, and play a leading role indriving the socio-economic developmentof the country.Within this context, the Free StateHigher Education Consortium (FSHEC)launched a Tri-Campus Project early in2005 to reassess the role that three of itscampuses should be playing in the subregionsof the Free State in which theyare located. FSHEC is a consortiummade up of the University of the FreeState, the Central University of Technology(CUT), the Free State School ofNursing (FSSON) and the University ofSouth Africa (Unisa).The project has focused on strategicplanning for university campuses in theFree State that have been incorporatedQwaqwaand VistaCampusescan playleading rolein socioeconomicdevelopment.31