Orientation familiarise freshers with varsity

In action: The law faculty's orientation team entertains freshers during an orientation session.

The brief sketch staged by Professor Wouter de Vos and his team at the Faculty of Law's orientation session kept it real. Randomly-selected freshers were asked questions and threatened with the deductions from their year marks should they get their answers wrong - almost like a real lecture room.

But this all was in the name of the UCT orientation as faculties across campus introduce freshers to different facilities and different aspects of university life.

Professor Thandabantu Nhlapo, deputy vice-chancellor, conveyed the vice-chancellor's message, and urged first-years to take part in social responsibility activities.

Nhlapo also stressed the importance of working hard academically, and encourage the newcomers to make use of facilities and services that support students.

Orientation includes providing academic advice about courses and programmes, assessment tests and questionnaires, computer training, campus and library tours, as well as introductions to student services like the Careers Office, the Counselling Service and AIDS Community Educators (ACEs). The more than 120 student clubs and societies also showcase their activities, while the International Academic Programmes Office (IAPO) runs its own orientation programme.