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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

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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