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11 October 2018 | Story UFS | Photo Zama Feni
UFS launch student business incubator project
Rector and Vice-Chancellor Francis Peterson cutting the ribbon as the office of Student Business Incubator Project was officially opened last Friday.
The University of Free State has recently launched a Student Business Incubator Project that will provide impetus to students with business ideas.

The initiative, which is under the management of the Directorate for Research and Development (DRD) was conceived a few years ago with objective of untapping the entrepreneurial potential of students. 

And it was on Friday last week that all the energy and efforts that were directed towards the planning of this project culminated into the official launch and opening of the offices where the students will conduct their business operations.

Generate new business ideas

Delivering a brief address at the launch, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen encouraged students to generate new business ideas that would make them job creators at the end of the day. 

“As a university, we should disseminate our output to society through research, education and technology transfer. The Incubator Project is a good initiative and I would like to see it growing so that more students can benefit from a facility such as this,” he said. 
Professor Petersen encouraged the student innovators to engage society so that they can make quality of life better through new knowledge.

“You must continue to incubate ideas and develop them,” he said adding that one of the great things that a university is measured about is the employability of its graduates.

Business ideas awarded 
On the previous day, DRD hosted a pitching competition for the business ideas that students were invited to submit.

Assistant Research Officer and Project Manager, Ayanda Makhanya said they were excited about the outcome of their call to students as they received an overall total of 60 ideas.

“We screened all the inputs and came up with 14 ideas. We will now be working with these students to provide the necessary support,” she said.

The winner in the pitching competition was an LLB student Mannini Setai whose idea was the production of eco-friendly bricks.

The office are located near the UFS Sasol Library and has computers and a big flat screen.

News Archive

UFS pays tribute to Nadine Gordimer
2014-07-15

 
Nadine Gordimer
Photo: Jullian Edelstein
The staff and students of the University of the Free State (UFS) are greatly saddened by the news of Nadine Gordimer’s passing. We extend our deepest condolences and heart-felt sympathy to Ms Gordimer’s family, friends and loved ones.

Nadine Gordimer – renowned South African author, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature – passed away on Sunday evening, 13 July 2014 at the age of 90.

The university community had the great privilege of Ms Gordimer delivering the Inaugural Reconciliation Lecture on our Bloemfontein Campus on 7 November 2012. Lauded as one of the literary world’s most powerful voices against apartheid, Ms Gordimer hailed the university for doing things differently from what has been done in the past.

In reference to the transformation underway at the university, Ms Gordimer observed in the Annual Reconciliation Lecture that “The University of the Free State has begun a national culture in so many ways.”

The legacy of Nadine Gordimer will forever remain in the memory of the UFS, its staff and students.


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