Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
26 January 2019
|
Story Lacea Loader
![]()
The executive management of the University of the Free State (UFS) has noted with concern the disconcerting effects of the current political and economic crisis and instability in Zimbabwe – specifically with regard to the effect it has on its students from Zimbabwe.
“As part of a coordinated support effort driven by the UFS Office for International Affairs we have invited Zimbabwean students to communicate their individual challenges regarding finance, travel, and special examinations to us.
We have received various reports about problems with delayed visas and have appealed to the Department of Home Affairs to consider concessions for our affected Zimbabwean students,” says Mr Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director of the university’s Office for International Affairs.
Arrangements are being made on a case-by-case basis for students who were unable to register before the closing date. Students who have reported travel challenges are also being contacted individually to consider possible support.
“As an institution committed to the furtherance of social justice – not only on our campuses, but also in the wider Southern African region – the UFS wants to encourage our affected students not to abandon their all-important education plans in the light of the turmoil and obstacles they are currently facing. As a university community, our heartfelt sympathy goes to our Zimbabwean students and their families during these trying times,” says Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor.
Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Marketing)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27 51 444 6393
Invitation to International Cardiothoracic congress
2011-06-01
Our Faculty of Health Sciences is pleased to announce the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgeons Academy (EACTS) and Hannes Meyer Cardiothoracic Surgery Registrar Symposium, which will be taking place on our Bloemfontein Campus from 3 to 5 June 2011.
The congress first started in 2004 as the Hannes Meyer Registrar Congress, which was jointly hosted by the UFS and the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of South Africa. This event was hosted on our Bloemfontein Campus annually, except in 2009, when the University of Cape Town was the host.
The focus of this year’s symposium is new techniques in perfusion and surgery, with specific emphasis on research methodology, inflammatory lung disease and cardiac surgery in children and adults, which can be performed without the aid of a heart-lung machine in developing countries.
Prof. Francis Smit, Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences, says EACTS identified the UFS as the Sub-Saharan training unit they will support in terms of training. The first of these symposiums was accordingly hosted in 2010.
This year’s symposium will be attended by approximately 70 delegates from cardiothoracic units from across South Africa and 10 doctors from 6 African countries, as well as 30 perfusion technologists.
“We are fulfilling a leadership role in Africa and South Africa with this course,” says Prof. Smit.
Several international visitors will be present, like Prof. Paul Sergeant and Prof. Marko Turina, two previous EACTS presidents and Prof. Charles Yankah, a Ghanaian Cardiothoracic Surgeon from the Charite Medical University in Berlin. The current president of the European Board of Cardiovascular Perfusion (EBCP), Mr Frank Merkle, will also be one of three international speakers delivering lectures on perfusion technology.
You are invited to attend the conference on the following dates:
Date: 3 - 5 June 2011
Time: 09:00
Venue: Faculty of Health Sciences in the Francois Retief Building on our Bloemfontein Campus