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10 October 2018 | Story UFS | Photo Leonie Bolleurs
Two from Kovsies win Agricultural Student of the Year competition
The competition was an opportunity to force yourself out of your comfort zone and to benchmark yourself against students from other universities. Chéri-Lynn Steyn is pictured here with Mario van den Heever, winner of the Animal Science category of the competition.
This year, two Kovsies won the Old Mutual and Plaas Media Agricultural Student of the Year titles. Chéri-Lynn  Steyn was named the best Agricultural Economics student, and Mario van den Heever was the best Animal Science student. 

Chéri-Lynn  is currently doing her final year of BScAgric in Animal Science and Agricultural Economics. After obtaining her master’s degree, she would like to write modelling programmes for livestock, either for feeding pens or grazing systems. “This is something which fascinates me,” said Cheri-Lynn.

On obtaining his master’s, Mario (currently a final-year student) would like to follow the entrepreneurial route. After winning the competition, he believes that his chosen study field was the right career for him.

The main objective of the competition was to encourage students to pursue careers in an agricultural field. Students are therefore motivated to critically reflect on the major issues within the agricultural sector.

Strong competition

Students from the agricultural faculties of the University of the Free State, the University of Pretoria, Stellenbosch University, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal participated in the competition. 

Among others, they had to submit an essay of 5 000 words on a prescribed topic. Following this, a semi-final was held at each university during which the students had to present their essays and the best student in each of the subject fields for that particular university was chosen. The students competed in the categories Agricultural Economics, Animal Science, and Crop Production. 

Great opportunity for benchmarking

In Agricultural Economics – the category in which Chéri-Lynn  was named the winner – the topic of land expropriation without compensation was investigated, and the question was put whether South Africa would derive any socio-economic benefit from the proposed expropriation.

In Animal Science – which was won by Mario – students had to investigate the South African meat classification system. The question which was asked was whether the current system could be reformed to meet the needs of modern meat consumers in terms of meat quality and whether an international grading system should be adopted.

The Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the UFS, Dr Frikkie Maré, said he was very proud of the students. Both of them are currently research assistants in the department.

“The UFS prepares its students very well for the workplace. There are many opportunities to get exposure in the industry; we have almost every week someone from a well-known company to talk to us as students, or even a course, a congress or a farmer’s day that we have to attend,” said Chéri-Lynn .

News Archive

SRC elections: A first for UFS main campus
2005-08-14

Students on the main campus of the of the University of the Free State (UFS) will this week for the first time vote for the Student Representative Council (SRC) using two voting systems: proportional representation (PR) and first-past-the-post. 

According to the Vice-Rector, Student Affairs, Dr Ezekiel Moraka, this year’s elections are a milestone for the UFS as it will be the first time that the main campus SRC will be elected according to the amended SRC constitution, which was approved by the UFS Council in June 2005.

“It is also a major breakthrough for student governance and transformation of the UFS main campus and constitutes a legitimate basis for the democratic participation of all students at the UFS main campus in the governance of the university,” said Dr Moraka.

The amended constitution of the main campus SRC determines that nine of the 18 SRC members must be elected by means of proportional representation and nine on the basis of an individual, first-past-the-post election.
 
According to Dr Moraka, the introduction of the proportional representation system follows earlier calls by some student formations, notably Sasco and the ANC Youth League, for such a system to be introduced at the UFS main campus in Bloemfontein.

The new main campus SRC constitution is the result of consensus reached during a lengthy negotiation process involving diverse student formations such as Sasco, the ANC Youth League, the Young Communist League, the ACDP, HEREXVII, KovsieAlliance, as well as the democratically elected SRC members of the main campus.

“Independent persons such as Mr Jack Klaas and Mr Kobus van Loggerenberg, a former SRC President, facilitated the negotiation process,” said Dr Moraka.

Students on the main campus in Bloemfontein will vote for a new SRC on Monday 15 August 2005.

SRC elections will also take place on the other two campuses of the UFS, which have their own SRC structures.

Students on the UFS-Vista campus in Bloemfontein will vote for a new SRC on Monday 15 August 2005 and Tuesday 16 August 2005.

At the Qwaqwa campus of the UFS, students will vote for a new SRC on Friday 26 August 2005.

The election processes on all three campuses will be closely monitored by independent electoral bodies. 

After the three campuses have elected their respective SRCs a central SRC will be constituted.  The central SRC will have 12 members made up of delegates of the three campus SRCs, including the presidents of these three SRCs. The main campus will have five representatives, the Qwaqwa campus will have four representatives and the Vista campus will have three representatives.

Main campus voting schedule:
Monday 15 August 2005 from 07:00-21:00.  Ten voting stations will be set up across the campus.  The results will be announced on Tuesday 16 August 2005.

Vista campus voting schedule:
Monday 15 August 2005 and Tuesday 16 August 2005 from 09:00-18:00 in the administration building.  The results will be announced on Wednesday 17 August 2005.
 
Qwaqwa campus voting schedule:
Friday 26 August 2005 from 09:00-18:00 in the Senate Hall.  If there is no objection to the final results, it will be announced on the same day.


Media release

Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel:  (051) 401-2584
   Cell:  083 645 2454
   E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

14 August 2005
 

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