Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
26 January 2018

RAG has a new
name and format:
ACT—
Active, Civic, Teaching.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is ready to kick off the new year with a bang. Get ready to celebrate the start of university with a cause. RAG, as you know it, has a new name and format: ACT—Active, Civic, Teaching.

You get further if you pull in the same direction, rather than various good-intentioned movements on different routes. In a collective effort, four exciting programmes will take flight, which are listed below:



  1. Schools project for first-year students: mentored by senior students, groups of first-year students will be assigned to, and participate in local school projects. Students will learn to solve problems and work together in small groups as they collaborate on a specific community project involving primary or secondary schools in the Mangaung region.

  2. Community gardens: This project will help individual student communities to begin and maintain their own vegetable gardens in order to address food insecurity within their own environment.

  3. Eco-vehicle project for senior students: The aim of the eco-vehicle project is to create an interdisciplinary experience. Undergraduate senior students from a Student Life College (SLC) can work together to build an eco-vehicle from waste material. The track day, along with creative pit stops, will take place on 16 February 2018, preceding the Community celebration of 17 February 2018.

  4. Community celebration: To foster good relationships between the UFS and the community, we aim to host an annual celebration that will be open to the broader Mangaung community. The celebrations will kick off on the morning of 17 February 2018 with a business relay and a showcase of the eco-vehicles. The festive day will conclude with an evening music concert.

Keep checking the UFS website for updates about more ACT activities during the month of February.

News Archive

Springboks choose Kovsies' sports facilities
2010-09-02

The Springbok team boasts five former Kovsies. From the left, front, are: Flip van der Merwe, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, and Gurthro Steenkamp. At the back, from the left, are: Jannie du Plessis, C.J. van der Linde and Juan Smith.
Photo: Gerhard Louw

Over the years the University of the Free State (UFS) has already produced 67 Springbok and 22 Springbok Sevens players. Therefore it comes as no surprise that the Springboks have chosen the UFS’s sports facilities in preparation for their match against Australia this coming Saturday. They will tackle Australia at the Free State Vodacom Park at 17:00. Five former Kovsies are included in this team. They are Flip van der Merwe, Gurthro Steenkamp, Jannie du Plessis, C.J. van der Linde and Juan Smith.

Kovsies have been providing quality rugby for many decades already. During the 2009 rugby season the UFS rugby club produced 12 players for national teams and 73 players for provincial teams (all age groups). This does not include all the former Kovsies. According to Mr Rockey le Roux from KovsieSport at the UFS, there is currently not one South African Super 14 team that does not include a Kovsie or former Kovsie.

The UFS is also equipped to produce top rugby players. Shimla Park is the main field of Shimla rugby, where all the Shimla games are played. Some of the Varsity Cup games are also played on this field. Boom Prinsloo, the Shimla player named as the 2010 player of the Varsity Cup tournament, is included in the current Springbok Sevens practice team. Shimla Park boasts 1 000-lux lights, which let this field comply with international standards.

There are four more rugby fields that are used for residence rugby. Currently 26 rugby teams of the university's residences and three provincial teams practise on the fields.

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