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15 February 2018
Photo Anja Aucamp
House Veritas show up and show off
The first-years’ athletics evening had arrived. Students were more than eager to get off the ground with the activities as they poured into Pellies Park grouped in their specific residences. The stadium quickly filled and livened up as students sang and cheered in anticipation of the official races.
The event was graced by the likes of Anna Sofia Botha, also known as Tannie Ans, the coach of South African World and Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk.
DB Prinsloo, Director of KovsieSport at the University of the Free State (UFS), and the official announcer for the night, said he was looking forward to witnessing the talent that was about to be unleashed.
“The athletics is one of the highlights on the calendar of the university for the year,” said Prinsloo.
According to him, a total of 15 newly recruited athletes who had won medals at South African junior competitions in 2017 had amalgamated with the UFS. Needless to say, it will be a year of victories.
It was a great success, with houses Vishuis and Sonnedou the overall team winners for the night. Veritas and Legatum were in second and third position in the men’s competition. Arista were placed second for the overall women’s competition, and Marjolein and Wag-'n-Bietjie came in third place. House Harmony, Imperium and Veritas won the spirit cup for the female, co-ed and male teams respectively.
Prestige Scholars Programme invests in promising academics
2015-06-24
Photo: Sonia Small |
Whilst many academics find it challenging to have sustainable funding for specific projects, it is often just as challenging to find relevant exposure and good mentorship programmes to fully prepare academics toward becoming full professors.
Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, designed the Vice-Chancellor’s Prestige Scholars Programme (PSP) specifically targeting newly-completed post-doctoral students who are already members of the academic staff.
The goal is to select the most promising young scholars and to make substantial institutional investment in their development.
To date, the PSP has produced 2 Fulbright scholars; 10 National Research Foundation (NRF) rated scholars; 1 NRF Blue Skies research project and 14 NRF Thuthuka-funded projects. These scholars work with the best academics at leading universities on three continents.
Prof Jackie du Toit, co-director of the programme, explains that while the PSP does not provide funding, it is a great programme to empower scholars by means of assistance towards generating funding from outside sources.
Prof Du Toit co-directs this programme with Proff Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research and Niel Roos from the Department of Africa Studies.
“The PSP bases its approach to funding on the philosophy that young scholars are to be encouraged towards financial independence, based on a viable postdoctoral project that would sustain their scholarship for five to eight years post PhD. We believe that the cachet and long-term sustainability of existing funding programmes such as Fulbright outweighs the short-term benefits of automatic funding from the PSP. We also endeavour to teach young scholars to work cleverly within institutional parameters, rather than leave them floundering once they step off the active PSP.”