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12 September 2018

What can or should higher education contribute to transformation and development by advancing the human well-being and agency of all students? How would our universities need to change to truly foster human development? 

These are the common questions cutting across the papers which will be presented at the International colloquium on ‘Researching well-being, agency and structural inequalities: comparative perspectives’. The University of the Free State’s (UFS) South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair in higher education and human development research programme led by Prof Melanie Walker will host the colloquium on 19 September 2018 at the Bloemfontein Campus.

The colloquium presents critical scholarship on development and also serves to celebrate the second five-year term of the SARChI Chair. The event has been structured to enable opportunities for early career researchers from the UFS to present their work alongside that of experienced scholars from the UK, US and South Africa, working on human development, development ethics and on education.
 
Date: Wednesday 19 September 2018
Time: 09:00-17:00
Venue: Chancellor’s Room, Centenary Complex, Bloemfontein Campus

Enquiries: Contact Elize Rall at rall.elize@gmail.com or on 076 792 9999 and CC Lucretia Smith at SmithL3@ufs.ac.za or dial 051 401 9856.

Click on the attached documents for the invitation and programme

News Archive

UFS Cardiovascular Research Centre a South African solution to continental crisis
2015-11-30

From left are: Dr Robert Kleinloog, president of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of South Africa, Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof Robert Frater after which the Robert W M Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre was named and Prof Francis Smit, head of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the UFS, at the launch of the new centre.
Photo: Johan Roux

“You don’t have to be in New York or any big city in the world to establish a cardiovascular centre that delivers work of world standards. I’ve learned that extraordinary things are achieved by ordinary people who apply themselves accordingly. This research centre is a South African solution to a continental challenge”.

These were the words of Prof Robert Frater at the opening of the new Robert W M Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of the Free State (UFS) School of Medicine.

The centre, one of only two of the kind in the country, will focus on bioengineering and cardiovascular research. It was opened on Wednesday 18 November 2015 in the Francois Retief Building on the Bloemfontein campus.

The centre is named after Prof Robert W.M Frater in recognition of his vast contribution to the UFS. He is internationally recognised for his outstanding academic, clinical, and scientific contributions to cardiac surgery. Prof Frater has also been actively involved in research activities of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery for the last 10 years. In 2011, he received an honorary doctorate from the UFS.

Under the leadership of Prof Francis Smit, head of Cardiothoracic Surgery, the department has been described as a dynamic unit at the forefront of meeting the different changes in Southern Africa while maintaining an excellent clinical and academic track record.

At the opening, Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, thanked Prof Frater for his presence at, involvement in, and support of the UFS. “I am looking forward to working in collaboration with the department to make this university a research centre of excellence in the continent”, he said.

The centre has existing endeavours already in operation, including Population projects, Clinical studies, and Clinical pathology, to name three. In collaboration with the Central University of Technology, the University of Stellenbosch, and Charite University of Berlin, among numerous others, the centre will be an appropriate help to an African challenge.

Its introduction promises advanced research outcomes with the potential to make the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery a world-class competitor.

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