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09 January 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah
Ntebohiseng Sekhele Read More
Ntebohiseng Sekhele hopes her PhD study will address conservation conflicts that exist between communities and protected areas.
The University of the Free State’s Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) based on the Qwaqwa Campus has recently concluded the process of recruiting candidates for the University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP). Through this programme, two historically disadvantaged South African universities; Universities of the Free State (Qwaqwa Campus) and Venda (UNIVEN) and three universities in the United States will be collaborating on a number of PhD research projects.

“The programme is funded through the US-SA Higher Education Network and will give candidates and their supervisors the opportunity to regularly travel to the USA and spend time at participating US universities where their co-promoters will be based and allow them to collaborate with identified suitable academics based at those institutions,” said Prof Geofrey Mukwada, Associate Professor in Geography and the coordinator of the project.

One of the young academics selected for this is Ntebohiseng Sekhele from the Geography Department. She will be doing her research in collaboration with the Colorado State University.

“I am delighted to be part of this programme and it still feels like a dream. I feel honored to be selected to participate in such a prestigious programme. To be chosen amongst other applicants means the coordinators believe in my potential, and I look forward to working towards my full potential,” said Sekhele, who describes herself as ‘a simple and ambitious village girl from Monontsha in Qwaqwa.’ 

Sekhele’s proposed PhD study will focus on determining strategies and impacts of conservation practices by the local communities. “It will address conservation conflicts that exist between communities and protected areas; different interpretations of sustainability (including indigenous knowledge) and offer recommendations of harmonising the conservation practices with the sustainability of conservation areas. There is a great need to develop management strategies that will simultaneously satisfy conservation and human needs. She will be graduating with an MSc (Environmental Geography) degree in 2019.

Other US universities involved in the UCDP are Appalachian State University (ASU) and University of Montana (UoM).

News Archive

Students’ commitment the focus of architectural exhibition at Free State Arts Festival
2016-07-07

Description: Architectural exhibition Tags: Architectural exhibition

The traveling exhibition of first-year architecture
students of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
University consists of 400 exhibition pieces.
Photo: Supplied

A unique travelling exhibition of over 400 pieces will be hosted by the UFS Department of Architecture from 11-23 July 2016. The exhibition, a project of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) School of Architecture is the first exhibition of its kind on this scale.

First exhibition of its kind

The architect Boban Varghese, the head of the Department of Architecture at NMMU, said that a series of projects furthering academic engagements are being implemented under his leadership. This travelling exhibition of first-year architecture students is one of these.

The NMMU School of Architecture is engaged in addressing architectural education that is appropriate and relevant as it responds to the contextual challenges shaped by local and global issues.

Students’ work received recognition

Besides being recognition of student work, which is normally confined within the walls of the Schools of Architecture, the aim of the travelling exhibition is not only to introduce the work to students of other Architecture Schools and the architecture profession itself, but also to share the discipline of architecture with a wider public. In this sense, the exhibition is an educational and cultural event.

This important aspect is manifested in the generous support of the UFS Department of Architecture in sponsoring the second exhibition during the Free State Arts Festival, as a collaborative project between two Schools of Architecture. A third exhibition of the work is foreseen in Johannesburg during the annual Architecture Students Congress at Wits later this year.

432 pieces part of research programme

The exhibition PALLADIO AND THE MODERN
is the first exhibition of its kind of first-year
architecture students’ work in South Africa.

The exhibition entitled PALLADIO AND THE MODERN shows the first two projects of the first-year students when they have just arrived from school with little experience in architectural drawings and in building architectural models. Their dedicated commitment to the task of producing 288 drawings and 144 models - a total 432 exhibition pieces - forms part of a three-year research programme (2013-2015) in architectural composition conducted by the Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Ernst Struwig, Dr Magda Minguzzi and Jean-Pierre Basson. All the work exhibited is done by hand.

In the exhibition, the 36 villas of the Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), initiate a dialogue with the 36 houses of 20th and 21st international and national architects in their reciprocal theme of exploring the language of architecture.

Visiting hours: Monday to Friday 09:00-16:00
Exhibition closes on 23 July 2016

Sponsors:
Department of Architecture UFS; NMMU; Stauch Vorster Architects; The Matrix Urban Designers and Architects Cc; Adendorff Architects and Interiors Cc; NOH Architects; Thembela Architects (Pty) Ltd; Erik Voight Architects; DMV Architecture, MMK Architects; IMBONO F. J. A. Architects CC; dhk Architects; LYT Architecture; B4 Architects.

 

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