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14 June 2019 | Story Eloise Calitz
University Consortium Launch
From left: Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, University of the Free State; Prof Pagollang Motloba, Chairperson of the Universities Consortium Steering Committee (Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University); Ms Montseng Margaret Ts’Iu, MEC, Department of Health in the Free State Province; and Mr Dan Mosia, Project Management Unit, Wits Health Consortium and member of the UFS Council.
Access to health care is important to all South Africans. Improved delivery of health-care services and employment of health-care graduates is one of the key priorities of the Universities Consortium. To achieve this, the National Department of Health (NDoH) – through a closed bid – invited universities with health-science faculties to bid for the testing of contracting mechanisms in the public health-care sector.

The bid brought six universities together to form the Universities Consortium. Through a collaborative approach, they will implement the newly developed service-delivery model.  Within the next three years, the consortium aims to impact the communities they serve in a positive way by providing much needed health-care services across the nine provinces.

The Universities Consortium comprises:

• University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
• Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University
• University of Fort Hare
• University of Pretoria
• Nelson Mandela University
• University of the Free State

The launch

The launch of the consortium was held on 6 June 2019 in the Centenary Complex at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. This provided an opportunity for fruitful engagements with representatives from the consortium. The launch was attended by the MEC of Health in  the Free State Province, Ms Montseng Margaret Ts’lu, who welcomed the commitment of the universities in the consortium and thanked them for lending a helping hand to make sure that government succeed in providing these health services.

Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, said the role of the university is to educate, train, and do continuous research to keep up to date with developments in various disciplines in order to enable positive change in the quality of life in our society. "Our knowledge should be used to impact our communities," Prof Petersen said. He further stated that it would be important that the ideas generated would provide much needed access to health care for all South Africans.

 The purpose of the Universities Consortium

1. The Universities Consortium will support national health delivery by assisting in the employment of graduates providing services while they complete their statutory internships/community service period.  
2. The consortium will also provide administrative and technical support to the NDoH. 
3. Universities will train professionals in accredited facilities.
4. The Universities Consortium proposed an operating model that will ensure the placement of health professionals in academic primary-care complexes.  
5. To align with the objectives of the NHI Bill 2018, the model envisages the academic primary-care complex as a contracting unit to promote sustainable, equitable, appropriate, efficient, and effective public funding for the purchasing of health-care services.
6. Wits Health Consortium (WHC), a wholly owned company of the University of the Witwatersrand, will support the Universities Consortium with key project management, financial, and administrative support for the duration of the project.

One of the key drivers of success for the Universities Consortium is collaboration and the effective implementation of this model. In the long term, the model will have a significant impact on health-care service delivery and job creation in this sector.

WATCH: NHI Universities Consortium Launch

News Archive

Council votes on appointment of senior staff
2004-11-18

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) today voted on the filling of three senior vacancies, including one post at Dean level and two at the level of Vice-Dean.

The Council voted as follows:

Dr Natie Luyt will be offered the post of Dean: Student Affairs Prof Engela Pretorius will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities Dr Choice Makhetha will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Student Affairs

“There are special challenges for the UFS in the short and medium term regarding transformation of our residences, and a certain combination of management qualities and skills is desirable. As a result of the diversity of the UFS’s student community it is therefore important to us to follow a team approach to deal with the challenges. With the combination of Drs Luyt and Makhetha, I believe we will be able to manage student affairs effectively and skillfully,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

“It is wonderful that we are able to celebrate the outcome of this process that has brought forward such excellent candidates who reflect our country’s diversity. It shows that we can achieve the goals of quality and diversity at the same time,” says Prof Fourie.

Prof Pretorius obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) from the UFS, except for the Certificate in Gender Policy Management (cum laude) which she obtained in 2000 from WITS. She joined the Department of Sociology at UFS in 1980 and has headed the Department since 2001. She acted as Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities since July 2004. She has some thirty publications to her credit, published both nationally and internationally and has delivered 20 national and international papers. She is a member of the South African Sociological Association and is a member of the Council of the association and of the Editorial Board of Society in Transition, the society’s journal. She is also a member of the South African Academy for Science and Art and the Federation of African Women Educationalists in South Africa (FAWESA). Project involvement includes the Australian Women’s Executive Development Programme and the project Executive Development of Senior Women in South African Higher Education Institutions. She is also an NRF panelist.

Dr Luyt obtained his qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) at the UFS and started his career at the same institution in 1980 as lecturer in Political Science. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1983 and appointed as Director: Student Affairs in 1997. He has been acting as Dean: Student Affairs since 2003. Dr Luyt completed several work-related training courses, among others a course in ethnic and multiculturality at the Swiss Institute for Federalism and a course in conflict management at the South Tyrolean Economic and Social Institute.

Dr Makheta also obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons), MA in Political Science and Ph D in Political Science) at the UFS and started working as a student assistant in Political Science at the same institution in 1999. She was promoted to junior assistant in 2000, coordinator and facilitator of Political Science in 2001, assistant/acting Director: Student Affairs in 2001 and acting Director: Student Affairs in 2003. Dr Makhetha is currently a Senior Political Analyst at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The UFS Council also approved the promotion of nine professors to the rank of senior professor. They are Proff Louise Cilliers (Department English and Classical Languages), Dap Louw (Department of Psychology), Philip Nel (Department Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice), Dirk van den Berg (Department of History of Art and Visual Culture Studies) Dingie van Rensburg (Director: Centre for Health Systems Research and Develoment), Andries Raath (Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law), James du Preez (Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology), Johan Grobbelaar (Department of Plant Sciences) and Louis Scott (Department of Plant Sciences).

This is the first group ever of senior professors at the UFS. The post level was created to provide better career and earnings opportunities for high quality academics and to increase the attractiveness of an academic career to young people.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
 

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