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Stellenbosch University Student Representative Council presentation/ response regarding their perspective on the responsiveness of higher education to COVID19?

Presenter

Luigia Nicholas is a Postgraduate Tax Law Candidate at Stellenbosch University (SU) in the Western Cape, South Africa. She completed her Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing at Stellenbosch University (SU) in 2019. She is a student assistant and student mentor at the Disability Unit in the Centre for Student Counselling and Development at SU and the Special Needs Manager on the Student Representatives Council at Stellenbosch University where she advocates for a more accessible campus for students, staff and visitors. She is also an Intern at the International Collaboratory for Leadership in Universally Designed Education. She has a visual disability and works with the support of assistive technology and a guide-dog named Haiku.

Abstract

SU, SRC and adapting to COVID 19

Covid 19, lockdown and online classes have brought about a big change in education, leadership and accessibility. Moving towards an online platform has had some challenges and structures were forced to change and adapt to the new age. In leadership structures, student leaders had to adapt to engaging with each other over an online platform and lectures had to change to become more accessible for an online platform. This meant creating materials that could be accessed by all students. This presentation will discuss the measures put in place by Stellenbosch University and leadership structures in order to gain better access to students.