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04 December 2018 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Stephen Collet
Regional confrence read more
From the left: Prof Henk de Jager, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Central University of Technology; Prof Yunus Ballim, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Sol Plaatje University; Mrs Dipiloane Phutsisi, Principal of Motheo TVET College; Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Student Affairs and Community Engagement at the UFS; Prof Nicky Morgan, Coordinator of HERDIC, and Mr Mr Brian Madalane, Principal of the Northern Cape Urban TVET.
Five post-school education institutions in the central inland region have established an initiative to collaborate in a number of focus areas to the benefit of communities in the region.
 
Established during an inaugural meeting in Bloemfontein on 14 November 2018, the Higher Education Regional Development Initiative of Central South Africa (HERDIC - SA) will collaborate in a manner that delivers operational and academic benefits to each institution, increase benefits to communities in the region, and responds to the need for high-level learning opportunities in South Africa. The collaboration with critical stakeholders in support of development in the region, as expressed in the partnership of teaching, learning, research, and engaged scholarship aspirations and the pursuit of mutually beneficial synergies and benefits of scale in critical support structures, was highlighted.

During the inaugural meeting, it was unanimously agreed that working together for enhanced access to higher education, staff development, and student welfare initiatives, as well as regional collaborations with the wider public sector and business, could have a transformative effect on the capacity and sustainability of the communities in the central inland region. The five institutions that form part of the initiative are: Motheo TVET College (Bloemfontein); Northern Cape Urban TVET College (Kimberley); Sol Plaatje University (SPU) (Kimberley); University of the Free State (UFS) (Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses); and the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) (Bloemfontein and Welkom).
 
During the meeting, the importance of collaboration between higher-education institutions and colleges of technical and vocational education training in creating synergies and leveraging joint capabilities to enhance development, was highlighted. The focus areas that HERDIC – SA will work on, include operational efficiencies (including shared services), articulation between the institutions (including teaching and learning), research and innovation, community engagement (including marketing and communication), and staff development.
 
The operational model will consist of task teams for each of the focus areas, consisting of representatives from each member institution. The task teams will report to a steering committee. It is envisaged that HERDIC – SA will be operational by March 2019.


News Archive

Regional winner designing her way to Architectural Student of the Year Award
2016-03-09

Description: Corobrik award Tags: Corobrik award

Musa Shangase, Corobrik Commercial and Marketing Director, and Nilene van Niekerk.

For 29 years, Corobrik has been celebrating the most outstanding architectural talent in South Africa. This year, Nilene van Niekerk – a master’s graduate of the University of the Free State (UFS) Department of Architecture – features as one of the regional winners.

Deciding on a dissertation topic, Nilene contemplated how she could use architecture as a tool to address a non-architectural contemporary problem specific to post-apartheid democratic South Africa. Her answer was born from her passion for freedom of speech. “Freedom of speech and the intimidation of journalists by the controversial Secrecy Bill were at the forefront these past few years,” Nilene says. “Although freedom of expression are generally protected practices in South Africa’s constitution, the persistent role of the government to protect state information is a substantial threat to citizens’ constitutional right of freedom of expression.”

This resulted in Nilene’s dissertation topic, Freedom of Expression Forum. This architectural concept envision a building, in the vicinity of Constitutional Hill, that symbolises protest against the Secrecy Bill. The building will provide “protection to journalists and become a pivotal point where classified information can be sent and archived. It will also establish a public space that encourages communication – all in the name of fostering the right of freedom of expression within this human rights precinct,” Nilene says.

Nilene will now go on to compete for the national title at the Corobrik Student Architect of the Year Awards in Johannesburg in May 2016.

“The project also rethinks the idea of sustainability as it focuses on how to contribute to a sustainable political future in South Africa. I believe that we as architects, especially in a third world country, should think beyond the normative boundaries of sustainability,” Nilene says.

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