Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
10 December 2018 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
UFS CMD team at the MACE Awards
The team from the UFS which attended the Mace Excellence Awards function in Cape Town this year, are from the left: Rulanzen Martin, Valentino Ndaba, Lacea Loader, Lelanie de Wet, Maria Venter; back: Zama Feni, Vivek Daya and Eugene Seegers.

The Department of Communication and Marketing won seven awards during the 2018 Excellence Awards presented by the National Association of Marketing, Advancement, and Communication in Education (MACE), which took place in Cape Town on 29 November 2018. It is the third consecutive year the department has brought home seven and more awards for its work in communication and marketing.

Lacea Loader, Director: Communication and Marketing at the University if the Free State (UFS) says: “Being recognised by our peers for quality and innovative work is most rewarding. This year, 172 entries were received from 12 institutions across the country. Although the competition was tough the UFS also received the Severus Cerff Award, one of three special awards. This award is made to the institution with the highest success ratio and for consistent excellence.” Loader serves on the MACE Board of Directors as Excellence Awards Coordinator.

Promoting best practices

MACE plays a vital role in adding value to practitioners in marketing, advancement and communication through high-quality development programmes, facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, as well as promoting best practices among these professions at member institutions.

The awards ceremony is part of the MACE Annual National Congress, which took place from 27-29 November 2018 at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town. The MACE Congress is a platform on which experts from the fields of marketing, advancement, and communication share experiences and best practices.

This year’s programme included speakers such Thabang Chiloane (executive head of Nedbank’s Group Public Affairs), Dr Marina Joubert (senior science communication researcher at CREST), Karyn Strybos (Marketing Manager at Everlytic), Bruce Dube (Managing Director of Nine80 Digital Media) and Brendan Cooper (head of New Media’s internal communications division).

Recognising hard work and innovation

Lelanie de Wet, Manager: Digital Communication received the Platinum award in the Division Campaigns with her entry for the Website Re-launch Awareness campaign. The Platinum award is bestowed on the best entry in a specific division.

The Digital Communication Unit in the Department of Communication and Marketing walked away with four more awards. De Wet also received a Gold award in the Design for Digital Media category for her work on the KovsieLife student web design.

Moeketsi Mogotsi received a Gold award in the category Design for Visual Media for his entry: UFS Women’s Month Billboard.

Barend Nagel, who joined the department this year, received a Gold Award for his photographs for the Africa Month Awareness campaign in the category Photography: Feature and Documentary. Nagel also received a Bronze award in the category Videography Skills, for his video entry: UFS Exam Hack.

In the Unit: Internal and Media Communication, Valentino Ndaba brought home a Bronze Medal for her entry of the BSafe Take Action campaign which was entered in the Issue Management Campaigns category.

IABC Gold Quill Merit Award

The Department of Communication and Marketing earlier this year also received an International Gold Quill Merit Award for the Website Re-launch Awareness campaign.

“The fact that we were also again acknowledged by the International Assocation for Business Communicators  is also commendable. "I am immensely proud of the national and international recognition my team received this year,” said Loader.

News Archive

Postgraduates’ new Kovsies home
2013-05-10

 
Some of the guests attending the launch, included from left: Prof Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic, Dr Henriette van den Berg, Director: Postgraduate School and Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research.
10 May 2013
Photo: Johan Roux

Postgraduate students and their academic 'parents' at the University of the Free State (UFS) now have a dedicated physical, emotional and electronic space to provide for their specialised needs in order to further promote research excellence at the UFS.

The university's Postgraduate School was launched in May 2011, but ventured further in the quest to fulfil and expand its mandate with new initiatives. These different aspects of the school were launched on Wednesday 8 May 2013 in the CR Swart Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus. The postgraduate strategy, postgraduate prospectus, the website and the headquarters of the Postgraduate School in the Johannes Brill Building were all unveiled and launched.

Prof Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic, who was a major driving force behind the formation of the Postgraduate School, during her address at the opening emphasised the multifaceted and unique relationships which often exist between students and supervisors.

Prof Hay, who has a distinguished academic background in postgraduate teaching, made plain her expectations for the Postgraduate School. She said it aims to "create an intellectual space for postgraduate students and supervisors" in order to produce world-class intellectuals at this university.

She said the school will empower both students who often don't know what to expect from supervision, as well as supervisors who often lack supervision skills. Through this it will be possible to create healthy, productive relationships between the distinct pairs in often misunderstood, unbalanced and intricate interactions.

Dr Henriette van den Berg, Director of the Postgraduate School, introduced the strategic plan of the school and emphasised the great strides that have already been made and what still needs to be done at the UFS in terms of postgraduate teaching. According to her, the Postgraduate School aims towards "holistic development of postgraduate students with transferable skills," through a multi-level and institution-wide approach at the university.

"Our aim is to develop a one-step service for postgraduate students, involving all the different stakeholders," she said.

The new Postgraduate School website was also showcased during the event. Reachable through a number of avenues on the main website, the site offers a digital version of the Johannes Brill Building. Brimming with features catering specifically for local, international, current and prospective students, the website provides crucial information.

The Johannes Brill Building's refurbished interior, with staff offices, seminar rooms and social spaces, were also showcased to UFS' staff and students. The initial phase of the Supervisors' Wall of Fame was also unveiled. According to Dr van den Berg , the wall will after completion bestow much-deserved praise on a hand-picked group of 60 supervisors who have respectively been responsible for more than 300 and more than 500 successful PhD and master's candidates over the past decade.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept