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Building closer ties with industry to achieve student success

15 March 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin

IAC members — The IAC from left; Dr Ivor Zwane, Reneë Beck, Gus Silber, Luhlumelo Toyana, Dr Adri van der Merwe, Nick Efstathiou, Avela Ntsongelwa, Prof Colin Chasi, HOD Communication Department, Alzane Narrain, Nomvo Bam and Dr Gustav Puth.

Building ties with industry experts provides greater prospects for bursaries, prizes for top students, as well as informal internships. This is why the Department of Communication Science at the University of the Free State (UFS) took the bold and commendable step of soliciting the expertise of an Industry Advisory Council (IAC).

“As a department we believe it is important to stay in touch with the industry to ensure that we, and the work we do, stays relevant in order to increase the chances of making our students preferred candidates in the workplace,” said Dr Adri van der Merwe, lecturer at the department.

The advisory panel consisted of Reneë Beck, founder and CEO of Pink Lemon; Nick Efstathiou, newly appointed CEO of Central Media Group; DDr Ivor Zwane, chairman of the board for Small to Medium Enterprise Development; education journalist Gus Silber; journalist Alzane Narrain; Dr Gustav Puth, Academic Director of Post-Graduate Executive Education at Monash South Africa; photographer Luhlumelo Toyana; Avela Ntsongelwa,master's student and Nomvo Bam.

The initiative also created a platform for the students to engage with IAC members. The Department hosted the IAC on 6 March 2019 on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus.

Advice to assist in improving curriculum

“The IAC members’ feedback will influence our curriculum, both in the short term when we begin to shift emphasis on certain matters, as well as in the longer term when we replace or expand on specific modules,” Van der Merwe said.

The advice given by IAC members will be taken very seriously. “We have captured all their input on video, and will now, in preparation for our strategic planning session later this year, analyse and prioritise the actions we need to implement their proposals.” she said. The students are also represented on the IAC in order to hear and take into consideration what the students have to say about how the curriculum can be improved to prepare them more effectively for the workplace.

The department plan on hosting the IAC yearly.

Elbie Lombard, lecturer in the Department and Lihlumelo Toyana

Nick Efstathiou listening to Dr Ivor Zwane (right)

Students listening to the panel talk about trends in Communication Industry

Prof Colin Chasi, HOD of the Department Communication Science with Gus Silber

The IAC members during Q&A session with students

Alzane Narrain with Dr Adri van Der Merwe and Prof Francis Petersen

Students from the Department Communication Science

Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor with Dr Adri Van Der Merwe and Avela Ntsongelwa

News Archive

Oxford professor unlocks secrets of DNA

2017-03-31

From left are: Dr Cristian Capelli, Associate Professor
of Human Evolution at Oxford University;
Dr Karen Ehlers, Senior Lecturer and Prof Paul Grobler,
both from the Department of Genetics at the UFS.
Photo: Siobhan Canavan

Many people are interested to know more about their history and origins, and with the help of genetics, it is possible to provide more information about one’s roots.

During a lecture at the Department of Genetics at the University of the Free State (UFS), Dr Cristian Capelli, Associate Professor of Human Evolution at Oxford University in the UK, addressed staff members and students on the history of our species.

Reconstructing the history of human population
With his research, titled: People on the move: population structure and gene-flow in Southern Africa, Dr Capelli looks at reconstructing the history of human populations, focusing mainly on how the different human populations are related, as well as how they exchange genes.

He said this research could be of great significance to the medical field too. “Knowing what the genetic make-up of individuals is, can give us some information about their susceptibility to diseases, or how they would react to a given medicine. Therefore, this knowledge can be used to inform health-related policies.”

Combining individual histories of multiple people
To understand this research more clearly, Dr Capelli explained it in terms of DNA and how every individual receives half of their DNA from their mother and half from their father just as their parents had received theirs from their parents. And so it goes from generation after generation. Each individual stores a part of their ancestors’ DNA which makes up the individual genetic history of each person.

“If we combine these individual histories by looking at the DNA of multiple people, we can identify the occurrences that are shared across individuals and therefore reconstruct the history of a population, and in the same way on a larger scale, the history of our own species, homo sapiens.

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