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22 February 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin
Politcal Sciene read more
From left; Prof Virgil Hawkins, Prof Jakkie Cilliers from the Institute for Security Studies, Prof Hussein Solomon, Prof Heidi Hudson, Prof Francis Petersen, and Prof Theo Neethling, head of the Department Political Studies and Governance.
If you attended the two-day workshop hosted by our Department of Political Sciences and Governance, you would understand how the South African higher education and political landscapes will be defined and transformed during this important election year.

Hosted for the ninth year in collaboration with the Osaka School for International Public Policy and the Southern African Center for Collaboration on Peace and Security Studies, the workshop brought together the cream of international and national political and security studies experts in the country. Prof Virgil Hawkins from the Osaka School for International Public Policy was the honorary guest.

Theme resonates with current issues
 
“The theme of the workshop ‘South Africa and Africa: Between Promise and Peril’ is fascinating. Between those is a sense of the in-betweens, the intermediate. This is basically where we found ourselves,” said Prof Heidi Hudson during her opening remarks at the worshop.  

Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, spoke about the future of South African universities. “#RhodesMustFall and the subsequent #FeesMustFall movements were a crossroads which determined the path of higher education,” Prof Petersen said. This intervention reshaped higher education. Coupled with that was the announcement of subsidised free higher education for the poor and working class.

Service delivery and national elections

Dr Sethulego Matebesi from the UFS reflected on service-delivery protests. “Looking at key trends of service delivery, I have identified eight key trends since the eruption of service delivery protests in 2004.” Some of these trends include; the frequency of protests, geographic distribution, violent nature, the government’s response to these protests and new emerging trends of schools being held as a bargaining power.

“In each election year there seems to be a high prevalence of service-delivery protests,” he said.

Roland Henwood from the University of Pretoria spoke about the importance of the upcoming May elections and whether they will change anything for the country. “We have to be realistic about the expectations that surround the elections,” he said. There will not be any significant changes. “It is projected that the ANC will again win with a 50% majority. The results of the local elections of 2016 should not be referenced as different issues were at play then,” he said.

The workshop took place on 11 and 12 February 2019 on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus. 

News Archive

Music lecturer’s innovative app is a first in South Africa
2014-07-24

Dr Frelét de Villiers, lecturer at the Odeion School of Music (OSM) at the University of the Free State (UFS), is in the process of developing an innovative interactive mobile music application – Notes&Fun.

Notes&Fun is being designed to assist aspirant pianists. It will support beginners with notation and rhythmic patterns.

The app will display single notes, phrases or rhythmical patterns on the phone or tablet and then apply the built-in microphone to measure the frequency of the notes played on the piano itself. It will indicate whether you’ve played correctly, or if you have made a mistake, the correct note will be displayed. Notes&Fun consists of multiple levels, each with a practise and test mode that gradually increases in difficulty and complexity. As opposed to existing apps, Notes&Fun is conceptualised with immediate pitch detection and is applied with a real (acoustic) piano.

For the pilot phase of this initiative, the developing company Maxxor in Cape Town will create a demo app which can be downloaded for testing purposes and general feedback. Once the developing company and innovator are satisfied with the first phase, the product will be marketed vigorously on social media. The initial app will be free, but subsequent levels will need to be purchased. The developers will start a Facebook page where users of the app can add their latest scores and compete with other users. Initially the app will only be available on the Google Play Store due to the fact that more people own Android devices than Apple products. Once the product has proven to be financially viable, the developers will adapt it for the Mac App Store as well.

“The beauty of this app is that music has a universal language, so it can be marketed internationally and I am privileged to have the institutional support from the UFS Technology Unit regarding the judicial process and developing process of the product,” Dr De Villiers said.

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