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17 September 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Valentino Ndaba
Diversity festival
Staff and students come together in celebration at the International Cultural Diversity Festival.


There are 195 countries in the world and the University of the Free State (UFS) officially has a personal relationship with 24 of them. Be it through exchange inbound or outbound programmes or research collaboration, Kovsies is growing its global footprint.

The 2019 International Cultural Diversity Festival brought a mix of music, dance, and poetry to the Bloemfontein Campus on Friday 13 September 2019. The aim of the festival was to recognise, appreciate and celebrate the diverse cultures represented on all our campuses.

Reeling in and rolling out the best talent pool

As stated in the 2018 Internationalisation Report, “Kovsies currently has about 50 international collaboration agreements, and collaboration with 1 584 institutions,” in terms of research. The plan is to widen researchers’ international networks, with a special focus on the African continent.

Finding strength in diversity

“Diversity within groups at the UFS necessitates that we foster a culture of tolerance and a spirit of mutual acceptance and appreciation at our university,” says Chevon Slambee, Chief Officer at the Office for International Affairs (OIA).

Slambee spoke on behalf of the Vice-Rector: Research and Internationalisation, Prof Corli Witthuhn, and the Director of the OIA, Cornelius Hagenmeier, commending the diversity reflected in our international students and staff community.

She mirrored the views of the Kovsie community at large in calling for an end to division and violence based on “othering”. Referring to the upsurge in violence directed against women and people from other countries that we saw in South Africa last month, Slambee remarked: “We are shocked and speechless in light of these events, which are contrary to the spirit of embracing one another’s humanity, which we believe in and want to promote.”

Content photo International
The International Cultural Diversity was filled with entertainment.

A coming together

The festival theme this year was the Boma which is a traditional space created back in the day where a community would sit around the fire, drumming, singing, dancing and listening to tales told by the elders. The UFS strives to be a similar space – growing the current number of international relationships and immersing the institution in the global village – the African way.

News Archive

UFS receives several awards for communication projects
2014-11-26

Staff from the Department of Communication and Brand Management received five awards at MACE 2014. From the left are: Leonie Bolleurs (Excellence awards for the Internet Broadcast Project and the B Safe safety campaign), Lacea Loader, Director of the Department of Communication and Brand Management, Lelanie de Wet (Excellence award for the #FaceOfFacebook social media campaign and Merit award for the Redesign of the UFS website) and René-Jean van der Berg (Merit award for the No Student Hungry media campaign).
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

The Department of Communication and Brand Management at the University of the Free State (UFS) received several national and international awards for communication campaigns and projects this year.

On international level, an audit of the university’s stakeholders received the Jake Wittmer award for research in communication from the International Association of Business Communicators

(IABC), a merit award in the category communication and research management from the IABC, a 2014 IABC Africa Gold Quill award and a bronze medal from the International Business Association (IBA). Furthermore, the audit was a finalist in the Golden World awards (GWA) of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). The Bult magazine also received a bronze medal from the IBA.

Staff from the department also walked away with five awards at this year’s Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (MACE) Excellence awards, which formed part of the annual MACE congress held at Sun City from 13-15 November 2014. Some 185 communication, marketing and institutional advancement practitioners from across South Africa attended the event.

Lacea Loader, Director of the Department of Communication and Brand Management, says: “The national and international recognition from our peers in higher education, as well as from the industry, is of exceptional value to us and I am delighted that the standard of our projects and campaigns could be benchmarked in this way.”

The UFS received awards from MACE for excellence in:

- Internet Broadcast Project (category: audiovisual)
- #FaceOfFacebook social media campaign (category: social media)
-  B Safe safety campaign (category: integrated campaigns)

Merit awards were presented to:

- Redesign of the UFS website (category: electronic media)
- No Student Hungry media campaign (category: media)

Mace fulfils a leadership role in the Higher Education (HE) and Further Education and Training (FET) sectors within Southern Africa by adding value to practitioners in marketing, communication and advancement through high-quality development programmes, facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, as well as promoting best practices among these professions at member institutions.

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