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24 January 2019 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Sonia Small
Dr Engela van Staden
Dr Engela van Staden started as Vice-Rector: Academic on 1 January 2019.
The Executive Committee of the Council (on behalf of Council) of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the appointment of Dr Engela van Staden as Vice-Rector: Academic during a meeting held on 5 December 2018. She started on 1 January 2019 as Vice-Rector: Academic (designate) and will take up the position from 1 February 2019 as Vice-Rector:  Academic. Prof Hendri Kroukamp, who acted in the position of Vice-Rector: Academic, will resume his portfolio as Dean: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences on 1 February 2019. 

“Dr Van Staden has an immense knowledge of the higher-education system, governance, planning, and policy frameworks within the sector, and of enrolment planning and management, and will provide leadership within this domain. She has been in senior management positions at faculty, institutional, and national level for a period of 20 years and is one of the experts in academic-programme development and curriculum design in the country. I look forward to working with her and welcoming her to the university,” says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.
 
Dr Van Staden holds a DPhil in Education from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg). She was Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching, Learning and Community Engagement at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University. Prior to this she was, among others, Chief Director: University Academic Planning and Management Support at the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) from 2009 to 2017, Director: Strategic Management Support at Tshwane University of Technology from 2004 to 2009, Dean: Faculty of Education and Director: Strategic Planning at the then Technikon Northern Gauteng from 1996 to 2003. 
 
Her responsibilities at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University included teaching and learning, quality assurance, strategic and academic planning, technology and education innovation, planning and reporting for and on earmarked and development grants, curriculum reviews, infrastructure planning, blended learning, and the redesign of the university’s business model.
 
In the portfolio of Chief Director: University Academic Planning and Management Support at the DHET, she was responsible for, among others, the national enrolment targets of 2013 and 2019, and institutional performance targets aligned to the Minister’s performance targets, the management and approval of all national programme applications, the development of the distance policy for universities / open learning strategy, the monitoring of universities under administration, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budget allocations to universities, the planning and establishing of new universities in Mpumalanga and Northern Cape with specific reference to the academic programmes and governance and policy environment, and the establishment of the Central Application System (CAS) and Service and Clearing House Mechanism (CACH), which includes a project management office, business architecture and the formulation of proposals towards the governance and management of such a function.
 
She has supervised master’s and doctoral students, authored and co-authored a number of academic articles, compiled a vast array of technical reports, and participated in a wide variety of national and international projects in South Africa and abroad.

News Archive

Kovsies perform well at South African Netball Championships
2010-04-30

 
Kovsies in the Free State u.19 and u.21 teams who performed excellently at the recent South African Netball Championships. Here are, from the left: Fikile Mkhuzangwe, best defender, Monique Lemon, best centre court, Anja Opperman, best goal shooter and Karla Mostert, overall best player at the South African Netball Championships.
Photo: Gerhard Louw
 Karla Mostert, a student at the University of the Free State (UFS), was named as the best player of the tournament at the recent South African Netball Championships that was held in Richards Bay.

At the tournament top players in each position were also identified. The best goal shooter was a Kovsie Anja Opperman. Other Kovsies included the following: Monique Lemon was named as the best centre-court player and Fikile Mkhuzangwe as the best goal keeper.

The Free State’s u.19 and u.21 netball teams that participated in the tournament entirely comprised of Kovsies. Ms Burta de Kock, Assistant Director at the UFS’s KovieSport, is very proud of the Kovsies netball players’ achievements.

Not only did they reach four of the top positions, but they also won each of the ten matches in the round robin, which took them through to the finals. Both teams brought gold home in the finals when Free State u.19 beat Gauteng East 35-25 and Free State u.21 beat North-West South 37-23.

The Kovsies students performed even better when Fikile Mkhuzangwe, Carmen Swanepoel, Ane Botha, Lauren-Lee Christians, Monique Lemon and Nieke Loubser were named amongst the top 20 players in the u.19 age group. In the U/21 age group, four of the 20 top players were Kovsies, namely Anja Opperman, Anja Zandberg, Karla Mostert and Mari-lise Linde.

“Three of our players also qualified as national umpires: Lizahn Zimmerman (Netball SA, C grading), Mari-Lise Linde (Netball SA, C-plus grading) and Johanet Coetzer (Netball SA, C+ grading),” says Ms De Kock.

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