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Qwaqwa Campus hosts research seminar

21 October 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Tshepo Moeketsi

Qwaqwa research research — Mamokete Mokhatla (SRC: International Students Council), Pulane Xaba (Assistant: Afromontane Research Unit), Dr Hagenmeier, Morena Ntsane Mopeli, Prof Pearl Sithole, Chief Mlati, Kanego Mogotsi (Internationalisation: Qwaqwa Campus), and Prof Joseph Francis.

Communities are beginning to wonder if universities exist for themselves or for their communities. This is the view shared by Prof Pearl Sithole, Campus Vice-Principal: Academic and Research, during the opening of the two-day Travelling Seminar that was recently hosted on the Qwaqwa Campus.

Research in communities

“This event is well-placed, considering what many communities are currently going through. We must ask ourselves what we are doing with and for our communities. We must be careful to not only reap data from them, but to be scientific in a way that accommodates our communities and allows the African and indigenous agenda into the world of science,” she added.

Providing background to the concept of homestays, the Director: Institute for Rural Development at the University of Venda, Prof Joseph Francis, acknowledged the role played by communities in research.

“This seminar seeks to develop a testable framework for homestays; a concept enabling postgraduate students to be placed with rural families while conducting research in the area. It is also aimed at giving birth to a vibrant, community-based rural and regional development network connecting grassroots communities, business, government, and non-governmental stakeholders,” he said.

“We do not only train students for local deployment and within national borders. It is important to produce an ‘all-weather’ graduate who stands out wherever they are. Graduates must ask themselves, ‘what in me stands out among the rest?’ As a student and researcher, never see yourself as being confined to the space where you are,” he added.

Students as ambassadors

Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director: Office of International Affairs at the University of the Free State, said for internationalisation to work, it has to be inclusive and create student ambassadors. “As this seminar will show, our networks of stakeholder communities go beyond the national confines and borders. We must strive, through this project, to create ambassadors of the university, of communities, of the broader South Africa and Africa,” he said.

Participants in the seminar were academics and postgraduate students from both the Universities of the Free State and Venda. Also present were community and traditional leaders from Qwaqwa and the Vhembe District in Limpopo.

News Archive

UFS staff to get a minimum of 4,71 percent salary increase

2005-11-25

The University of the Free State (UFS) management and trade unions have agreed on a minimum of 4,71 percent salary increase for 2006 as well as a once-off non-pensionable bonus of R1200 payable in December 2005.

The agreement was signed today by representatives of the UFS management and the trade unions, UVPERSU and NEHAWU, in Bloemfontein.

Prof Niel Viljoen, Chief Director: Operations at the UFS and chairperson of the UFS Council’s representatives, and Prof Johan Grobbelaar, chairperson of the joint Union Forum, said: “The bonus is payable in December 2005 in recognition of the role that staff played during the year to promote the UFS as a university of excellence.”

He said the intention is to pass the maximum benefit possible on to staff without exceeding the limits of financial sustainability of the institution.
For this reason the negotiating parties reaffirmed their commitment to the Multiple-year Income-related Remuneration Improvement Model used as a framework for negotiations.

Proff Viljoen and Prof Grobbelaar said one of the factors that influence the model and therefore the negotiations is the level of subsidy the UFS receives from the government.

“As the state subsidy level is unfortunately not yet known, remuneration could vary several percentage points between a window of 4,71 and 5,5 percent. Should the state subsidy be such that the increase would fall outside this window then the parties will renegotiate.”

Proff Viljoen and Prof Grobbelaar said the R1200 bonus is payable to staff members who were in the employ of the UFS on UFS conditions of service on 21 November 2005 and who assumed duties before 1 October 2005. There are however some exceptions.

The agreement signed today also provides for restructuring funds of R752 000 to address partial backlogs in support services, including an increase in the medical allowance of 640 staff members.

The implementation date for the salary adjustment is 1 January 2006, but could be implemented on a later date due to logistical arrangements.

Proff Viljoen and Prof Grobbelaar said the UFS and unions could reach an agreement despite the declining phase in income and the generally more difficult financial environment in which universities operate.

Prof Grobbelaar said salary negotiations are never easy, but the model is an important tool. The model made it possible to tie up salary negotiations for November 2006. “This is unique for any higher education institution.”

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
24 November 2005

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