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28 August 2019 | Story Zama Feni | Photo Charl Devenish
3MT
From the left: University of the Free State (UFS) students, Chantelle van der Bijl (Master’s Category) and Keafon Jumbam (PhD Category) emerged victorious at the annual institutional Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition held on Friday, 23 August 2019.
Two University of the Free State (UFS) students, Keafon Jumbam (PhD) and Chantelle van der Bijl (master’s), emerged victorious at the annual institutional Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition held on the Bloemfontein Campus on Friday, 23 August 2019.

The 3MT is a research-communication competition which was developed by the University of Queensland (UQ), whereby PhD students are given three minutes to present a compelling oration on their thesis and its significance. 

Winning students

Jumbam, who is a student in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, cleaned the table in the PhD category, which had six contestants from various faculties. She walked away with a cash prize of R14 000.
She presented a thesis titled: Social, ecological and personality factors influencing bat-eared fox foraging behaviour.
Asked about the secret to her victory, Jumbam said: “You must ensure that you publish your work, because that gives a person a competitive edge, globally.”
In the Master’s Category, Chantelle van der Bijl grabbed the first spot, beating four other contestants in this category, winning an amount of R10 000.  Her thesis title was: Doctor Mothers: Infant feeding intentions and behaviours.
“I am excited to have won this. I am very grateful for the support I got from my family and faculty staff,” said Van der Bijl.

Idea behind the 3MT

The 3MT challenges students to consolidate their ideas and research discoveries in order to be presented concisely to a non-specialist audience. The 3MT was designed to develop skills that will give students an important career advantage once they complete their studies. 
The competition was originally reserved for PhD students, but the UFS Postgraduate School decided to include master’s students so as to prepare them in case they wanted to do their PhDs after their studies. 
The UFS winner in the Master’s Category (Van der Bijl) will not represent the university in the national final 3MT competition on 25 October 2019, but the 1st runner-up in the PhD category (Lourens Strauss) – as per the rules of the competition.

Nothing but research for better future
Giving a word of encouragement to the contestants on the importance of research, the Senior Director for Research Development, Dr Glen Taylor, said: “When our generation of practitioners and leaders (students) engage in research with its deliberate process and requirements for critical thinking skills, they become better students and are best prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the future. Research is an opportunity to make a difference; it is open to everyone and thrives on a diversity of approaches and perspectives.”

Taylor said universities have to be vital sources of new knowledge and innovative thinking, providers of skilled personnel, attractors of international talent and business investment into a region, agents of social justice and mobility, and contributors to social and cultural vitality.


News Archive

Our Abe Bailey scholars are packing for the UK
2011-08-16

 

Nida Jooste and Ryan Lamb
Photo: Earl Coetzee

Academic excellence and strong leadership has become synonymous with our university, as our two Rhodes scholars for 2011, and the recent announcement of our two Abe Bailey scholars from the UFS have shown.

Nida Jooste and Ryan Lamb are two of the proud recipients of Abe Bailey Travel Bursaries and will be heading off to the United Kingdom on 26 August 2011, to visit several universities in England and Scotland. These two were chosen from hundreds of UFS applicants and will join Abe Bailey bursary holders from the rest of the country.

Both students are academic achievers, but also excel in other fields. This is what set them apart from the rest of the applicants for the bursaries.

Ryan (23), a Medical Physics honours student at our Faculty of Health Sciences, received the Senate Medal for the best bachelor’s degree student at the UFS. He was one of a hundred students at the Brightest Young Minds Summit this year and was one of the 2008 delegates to the World Youth Forum, hosted by the International Association for Poetry and Solidarity in Italy.

This young man is the founder of a group called Poets Anonymous, which provides a platform where poets, artists and dancers in Bloemfontein can express themselves.

Nida (21) is a very familiar face on our Bloemfontein Campus, as she served as the Deputy Chairperson of the Interim Student Council for the past year.

This fourth-year LL.B. student says she has known about the Abe Bailey bursary since her first year, but had to wait to apply, since the scholarship is only open to final-year students and junior lecturers. She applied last year, but did not even make it to the short list for candidates.

“I realise now that I was not involved enough then. Luckily I became much more involved in campus activities during the past year and also improved my academic performance greatly,” she says.

Nida and Ryan both hope to use the opportunity to learn new approaches to solving problems. Ryan says he is looking forward to the opportunity to network with other bursary holders and to share experiences with them, before returning to the UFS to implement what he had learned.

Nida says she also hopes to see how universities in First-World Countries operate, in order to apply that knowledge when she returns to the UFS.

 

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