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27 March 2018 Photo Thabo Kessah
Afromontane Research Unit welcomes new Director
Newly-appointed Afromontane Research Unit Director, Dr Vincent Clark.
The newly-appointed Director of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) on the Qwaqwa Campus, Dr Vincent Clark, is a true believer in risk-taking as a way of improving one’s life.

“Taking risks grows one’s confidence and experience, and at the right time the right door will open,” he asserts.

Dr Clark has his foundation in Geography and Botany; in 1998, he graduated with a BSc degree majoring in these two subjects, and he also has an Honours degree (1999) in Geography and Environmental Management; both degrees were obtained at the University of Johannesburg (the then Rand Afrikaans University).
 
“Then in 2010, I graduated with a PhD in Phytogeography at Rhodes University.  My PhD was followed up by several postdoctoral fellowships from Rhodes University and one at the University of Zürich between 2010 and 2016. I was privileged to become a lead academic in Professor Nigel Barker’s Great Escarpment Biodiversity Research Programme,” said Dr Clark, who is currently enjoying a good read of John Hunt’s The Ascent of Everest and Spiritual Leadership by Henry and Richard Blackaby.

He envisions the ARU as the continental leader in African mountain research, with an immediate focus on the sustainable development of the Maloti-Drakensberg.
 
“My immediate plans for the ARU team are to grow a strong network of between 60 odd researchers and postgraduates, and to connect them with the regional mountain-research community. Short-term plans include fostering stronger ARU links with the Swiss mountain-research community, encouraging the Japan collaboration, and an ARU-hosted Regional Mountain Conference.”

 “Longer-term plans are to develop the ARU into the leading African mountain-research group and for the ARU to become a leading South-based agent informing the global mountain-research arena,” he added.

Dr Clark has very strong words for the academia. “Academia must always guard against becoming a community of ‘yes men’ for external political or social agendas. As academics, we have a duty to discover and present the truth, regardless of how unpopular that might be. We are in serious danger of losing our academic mandate when we simply become a rubber stamp for untested politically-correct assumptions and agendas. If we ever needed bold academics to expose the plethora of ‘Emperors New Clothing’ currently on parade, it’s today.”

This family man and father of a one-year old son, loves the outdoor life. His hobbies include birding, hiking, swimming, surfing, and reading Louis L’Amour and Hammond Innes.

News Archive

UFS hosts simulation workshop
2012-12-03

Photo: Renè-Jean van der Berg
3 December 2012

The University of the Free State’s School of Nursing, in partnership with the Drexel University’s College of Nursing & Health Profession in Philadelphia in the USA, are hosting a simulation workshop at the Bloemfontein Campus from Monday 26 November – Friday 30 November 2012. The presenters include Prof. Leland Rockstraw, Dr Linda Wilson, Ms Carol Okupniak and Mr John Cornele. These knowledgeable simulation experts run a successful simulation facility for  health-care profession students. Prof. Leland Rockstraw and Dr Linda Wilson have recently published a book on simulation; Ms Carol Okupniak writes a regular column in a journal, Clinical Simulation in Nursing and Mr John Cornele is well known in the USA for presenting exciting workshops on medical moulage. Moulage refers to “medical make-up”

Drexel University has offered this very popular workshop in simulation repeatedly since August 2010 at the Philadelphia Campus. This week’s workshop is the 1st international event and the first simulation training in South Africa. Funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies made it possible for the School of Nursing at the University of the Free State to host the workshop. Participants are educators from different health-care professions from higher educational institutions from most of the provinces in South Africa and from Botswana. The workshop will cover a comprehensive theoretical background of simulation in health professions, best practices and provide an opportunity for hands-on experience in human patient simulation (HPS) and standardized patient (SP). This will be a first for South Africa. Participants will gain insight in learning strategies to promote a clinically safe learning environment and promote adult experiential learning behaviours. 

During this workshop, participants will make use of the new high-fidelity technology in the Authentic Learning facility at the UFS’ School of Nursing.

According to Prof. Yvonne Botma from the UFS School of Nursing, this workshop will equip the health-care profession’s educators with skills to assist their students in linking theory and practice. Simulation will enable students in health care to provide safe patient care with confidence.
 

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