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UFS wins big at 2019 IABC and MACE awards ceremonies

12 December 2019 | Story Amanda Tongha | Photo MACE

MACE read more — Staff members from the Department of Communication and Marketing celebrating their MACE Excellence Awards.

The Department of Communication and Marketing again received national and international recognition for its communication and awareness campaigns this year.

On 28 November 2019, the department made a big splash at the national Marketing, Advancement, and Communication in Education (MACE) 2019 Excellence Awards, winning multiple awards for its work in communication and marketing. Scooping up five awards, the department earned accolades for the communication campaign on the MT Steyn statue review process, the Kovsie App, and awareness campaigns for gender-based violence and the Kovsies Multilingual Mokete.

This comes on top of the two awards the department won at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Africa Silver Quill Awards during an awards ceremony presented in Centurion, Gauteng, on 16 October 2019. During this event, the department was also acknowledged with an Excellence Award for the Kovsie App communication campaign and a Merit Award for the communication campaign on the MT Steyn statue review process.

Celebrating the best in marketing, advancement, and communication

Hosted annually, the MACE Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate the excellence of specialists and practitioners in marketing, advancement, and communication in the higher-education sector. MACE plays a vital role in adding value to practitioners through high-quality development programmes, facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, as well as promoting best practices among these professions at member institutions.

At the 2018 MACE Excellence Awards, the Department of Communication and Marketing received the prestigious Severus Cerff Award, presented to a higher-education institution that consistently excels in the fields of marketing and communication. The department also brought back six other awards, including three gold awards, which are awarded to the highest-scoring entries in the 30 categories evaluated. These ranged from brand-building campaigns to print publications; website to social media, assessed by marketing and communication professionals in the higher-education and private sectors.

Continuing its winning streak at the 2019 MACE Excellence Awards held in Port Elizabeth from 27 to 28 November 2019, the Department of Communication and Marketing was singled out for keeping stakeholders informed on the MT Steyn statue review process. For this, the department received the prestigious Business Issue Special Award, presented to an entry that successfully addressed a critical business issue.

Student Recruitment content

Staff members from the Department of Student Recruitment Services celebrating their MACE Excellence Awards

Being recognised nationally and internationally

Adding to the UFS tally, the Department of Student Recruitment Services was also recognised at the 2019 MACE Excellence Awards for its communication campaigns to market the university. The department won three awards, one gold (for the School Anthem – Petunia Secondary School campaign) and two bronze awards for the Light the fire – Grade 9 school subject choice intervention and Re-engineering of the UFS Undergraduate Prospectus 2020 campaigns, bringing the number of UFS MACE Excellence Awards for this year to eight.

Lacea Loader, Director: Communication and Marketing, who accepted the Business Issue Special Award on behalf of the University of the Free State (UFS), says the recognition affirms the role the department plays in building and promoting the UFS brand.

“I am immensely proud of the national and international recognition the Department of Communication and Marketing received for its work this year. Being recognised by our peers for quality and innovative work is most rewarding and it demonstrates the dedication and commitment of a highly innovative and creative team.”

The awards won by the Department of Communication and Marketing included three gold awards for the communication campaign on the MT Steyn statue review process, Gender-based violence Awareness Campaign, and Kovsies Multilingual Mokete Communication Campaign; a silver award for the KovsieApp Communication Campaign; and the Business Issue Special Award for the Communication Campaign on the MT Steyn statue review process.

- A record number of 202 entries from 15 institutions were evaluated in the 2019 MACE Excellence Awards.

News Archive

Another boost for sport at the UFS

2005-10-13

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has officially appointed Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd, which has former Springbok rugby captain Morné du Plessis as managing director, to manage its Centre for Exercise and Sport Science Services (CESSS) on the Bloemfontein campus.

According to Prof Teuns Verschoor, Vice-Rector: Academic Operations, the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is another step in the implementation of the UFS’s wide-ranging sport strategy to improve sport facilities and elevate formerly marginalized sports such as soccer, hockey, netball, tennis etc.

Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is the manager of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and coordinates and manages the national basketball high-performance programme of SA Basketball, as well as the Boxing Academy on behalf of Boxing South Africa.

“It is also actively involved with the sports plans of several tertiary institutions like that of the University of Johannesburg and the University of Stellenbosch,” said Prof Verschoor.

“Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was also appointed by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation to manage the allocation of sports codes to high-performance centres and to oversee the allocation of monies received from the National Lottery to these centres – this includes the CESSS at the UFS,” Prof Verschoor added.

In unfolding its national sports plan, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has already identified the UFS-based CESSS as the high-performance testing centre for the national basketball teams whilst the national boxing teams are also earmarked to be trained at the UFS.

“We are glad to be associated with a company of this stature and look forward to work with them in the further development of sports at the UFS,” said Prof Verschoor.

According to Prof Verschoor, the CESSS will act as a centralised body that is responsible for the coordination and management of joint initiatives between professional service providers, research projects and KovsieSport.

“The centre will also coordinate and manage joint initiatives between various academic programmes in different academic subject fields such as sports medicine, bio kinetics, physiotherapy, dietetics, etc. ,” said Prof Verschoor.

These initiatives will help the UFS to become a centre and catalyst of sports development, to become internationally recognised in the field of exercise and sports science research and to become a centre for high quality sports performance enhancement.

Some of the objectives of the CESSS are:

To provide sports science services like to athletes, students, the general public and other stakeholders including certain national sport teams.
To provide the necessary teaching and training facilities and internship opportunities for UFS students in sports related fields of study will also be provided by the centre like human movement science.
To present skills-transfer programmes directed at the broader community like development of skills in various sporting codes.
To continue and extend the current chronic risk reversal programmes presented by the Department of Human Movement Science such as obesity management, cardiac rehabilitation and other lifestyle related conditions.

The centre was founded in 2003 and was until now managed by Dr Louis Holtzhausen, from Kovsie Health and a consultant, Dr Gary Vorster.

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed today by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The manager of the centre appointed by Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is Mr Charles Store, an alumnus of the UFS, previously employed at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town and by the SANDF at 3 Military Hospital, Bloemfontein.

Media release
Issued by: Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
072-207-8334
12 October 2005

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