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Prof Francis Petersen addresses the National Press Club

29 May 2019 | Story Elize Davids

Prof Petersen at National Press Club — Prof Petersen with members of the Press Club’s National Executive. From the left are: Reynold Thakuli, SANPARKS; Willem van de Putte, Saturday Star; Ntando Makhubu, Pretoria News (Chairperson) Jos Charle, Pretoria News and Lisa Dewberry, Freelance Communications Specialist.

The South African National Press Club recently hosted the University of the Free State’s Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, at a gathering of national media representatives and communication specialists in Pretoria. Following a recent, widely publicised opinion article about the importance of the youth vote, Prof Petersen reflected on the period following the national elections of 8 May 2019, sharing his insights from a higher-education perspective.

“The role of the modern university has shifted”, said Prof Petersen, as he outlined five things the UFS was actively pursuing through its Strategic Plan and Integrated Transformation Plan.

New Knowledge

The UFS will develop a new knowledge (research) industry. For South Africa to yield economic growth, it must support the growth of small and medium enterprise. The institution has an active role to play in yielding this new knowledge as reflected in its recent launch of the Agribusiness Transformation Programme with Standard Bank; Applying our knowledge in the Natural and Agricultural Sciences and Business; we will equip and empower 25 black commercial farmers in addressing food insecurity. The annual Thought-Leadership Series during the Vrystaat Arts Festival in July 2019 will also address economic growth, entrepreneurship, and employment.

Practical Application

“Once we have trained people for the economy and have delivered research, we must ensure that our knowledge is appropriately disseminated technical academic papers need to be converted to something useful, appropriate, and practically applicable”, he said.

Public Discourse

Creating a platform to address controversial issues in our society is what defines the UFS as a thought leader. As demonstrated by the recent Gangster State Book Discussion by author Pieter-Louis Myburgh hosted by the Business School, the institution continues to demonstrate its’ commitment to intellectually engage society through public discourse.

Projects

The institution actively pursues interesting projects that will shift the thinking of general society, government and industry. “These address our response to transformation, informs strategic planning, and shapes our values as we create a new university citizenship – a transformed society of inclusivity and belonging,” he said.

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Department of Political Studies and Governance involved in regional seminar on peace and security in Southern Africa

2012-09-26

Attending the Lusaka seminar was from the left: Prof. Hussein Solomon; Prof. Virgil Hawkins from Osaka University and main organiser of the seminar; and Prof. Theo Neethling.
26 September 2012

Two staff members from the Department of Political Studies and Governance, Prof. Hussein Solomon and Prof. Theo Neethling, were recently invited by the Osaka University in Japan to participate in a regional seminar in Lusaka, Zambia, on multinational peacekeeping and peace enforcement in Southern Africa.

The seminar was organised by the Southern African Centre for Collaboration on Peace and Security funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Prof. Solomon presented a paper on the establishment of the Southern African contingent of the African Union’s African Standby Force, while Prof. Neethling presented his paper on United Nations peacekeeping operations in the war-ravaged eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The participation of Prof. Solomon, Senior Professor, and Prof. Neethling, Head of the Department of Political Studies and Governance, comes from a cooperation agreement between Osaka University’s School for International Public Policy (OSIPP) and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Free State. The agreement covers issues like joint collaboration projects, the exchange of staff and senior students and joint conferences. One of the key joint areas lay in the Southern African Centre for Peace and Security Studies, a consortium of several Southern African universities with Osaka University and the University of the Free State as its key pillars.

Other universities include the University of Zambia, Zambian Open University, University of Dar es Salaam, Mozambique-Tanzania Centre for Foreign Relations. Academics from other universities in the region, like Nzuzu University in Malawi, University of Botswana, University of South Africa, Stellenbosch University, University of Zimbabwe, are all in the network.

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