advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Unisa starts ‘Virtual Race’ to campaign for 150000 student devices

The University of South Africa (Unisa) has began a rather ambitious fundraising campaign known as the Virtual Race, which is looking to provide 150 000 students with smart devices to continue their studies.

Due to the pandemic Unisa this year was forced to move its exams and assignments all entirely online. While the institution is known for distance education its exams were still written in person. Traditionally assignments could be submitted online but the risk of contact infection through this means that online was also favoured for this endeavour.

Because of this and the high price of electronics in South Africa, many Unisa students were left hampered when it came to their education. This is what the Virtual Race is trying to address.

“Approximately 150 000 Unisa students require such devices to enable them to study and to write exams. The rand value of the ask is R500m. We deliver education to approximately 400 000 students located in South Africa and around the world. We are the largest ODeL institution in Africa and the oldest distance education university in the world which educates almost 35% of university students in South Africa and contributes an estimated 60 000 graduates into the South African labour force,” Unisa writes.

On the official Virtual Race page – which you can read here – it doesn’t state if the lofty R500 million is the ultimate goal of the campaign.

As you may have guessed by the name of the endeavour this does have to do with a race, but this isn’t a fun run or some other kind of group exercise fundraiser you may have experienced in the past, as large gatherings are not a great idea right now.

Instead the race will take place electronically. Between 2nd November and 31st December those wanting to contribute can enter by paying R65 per person.

Those entered can then choose from a variety of physical events to do in their own time. Once completed they can take a picture of their achievement and submit it.

The events included in the Virtual Run are –

  • Walk: 5 kilometres
  • Run: 5, 10 and 15 kilometres
  • Cycling: 65 kilometres
  • Aerobics
  • Boot Camp
  • Chess
  • Gynmastics
  • Jerusalema Dance Challenge

We’ve read through all the available details for this campaign (see the links below) and there doesn’t seem to be much information about certain events and how participants can complete them. Running for 10 kilometres is rather straightforward but what do you do for chess? We have to assume that they’ve left this deliberately open for people to complete as they please.

Unisa Virtual Run handy links: 

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement