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01 October 2019
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Story Xolisa Mnukwa
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Photo Xolisa Mnukwa
From the left; Gift Taku, 2019 Doty winner; Reabetswe Mabine, Doty Coordinator Tshepo Zweni, first runner-up and Jacobeth Selinga, second runner-up
The votes have been tallied, and after much deliberation, the UFS is proud to announce Gift Taku as the winner of the 2019 KovsieGear Designer of the Year (DOTY) Competition!
Tshepo Zwane and Jacobeth Selinga won second and third place respectively, with innovative designs that complied with the assessment requirements, based on originality of the design, adherence to the brand guidelines, creativity, and other criteria.
Gift’s design triumphed with 845 votes on the UFS KovsieLife webpage, as well as in the presentation in front of a judging panel.
Since 2016, KovsieGear has been discovering local (UFS staff and students) graphic designers and giving them a platform to showcase their work through DOTY, which runs annually. The aim of the competition is to support local talent by giving entrants an opportunity to come up with creative designs that are unique to the university and which will be used on limited-edition apparel in the store, as well as getting featured in the KovsieGear catalogue.
The competition has since fashioned the best clothing-logo designs the university has ever seen and continues to motivate and empower students to make positive contributions to the Kovsie campus culture and brand.
For more information about DOTY contact Reabetswe Mabine at MabineR@ufs.ac.za
The winning design by Gift Taku:
#Women'sMonth: PSP provides scholarly support system for Prof Wilson-Strydom
2017-08-17
Prof Merridy Wilson-Strydom loves asking questions and
therefore has a strong focus on research.
She also enjoys supervising PhD students.
Photo: Sonia Small
Publishing her first book and receiving a rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF) are career highlights for Prof Merridy Wilson-Strydom. As an emerging scholar, the Prestige Scholars Programme (PSP) of the University of the Free State (UFS) played an important role in reaching these goals.
According to the Associate Professor in the Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development, the PSP provided an important scholarly support system, both through the coordinators and the other researchers who are part of the programme.
Writing retreats made book possible
“I found the support and advice provided during the process of applying for funding and rating really helpful,” she says about receiving a NRF C2 rating, based on her work over the past eight years.
She compliments the PSP writing retreats, which “provided a wonderful space for writing and it was during the writing retreats that I did a lot of the writing for my book that was published by Routledge in 2015.” Her book, University Access and Success: Capabilities, Diversity and Social Justice, moving back into academia from institutional research, working closely with undergraduate students as research participants, and postgraduate supervision, are all highlights of her work.
Her book makes a valuable contribution to higher education literature related to access and transition to universities. But, contrary to the mainstream approaches to access which rely on school performance and admissions tests, she poses the issue of social justice at the centre of the analysis.
Student project produces E-book
Another project headed by her and funded by the NRF Thuthuka Programme, was a study to understand the lives of 40 undergraduate students (on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus) who attended township high schools. The study had a particular focus on identifying institutional practices that either enable or constrain students’ capabilities for success in undergraduate study.
One of the outputs was the writing of an E-book called In our own words: Perspectives on being a student. It was written by 30 undergraduate students and the purpose was to provide a platform for students to tell their own stories about life as a student.