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New Era dawns on Qwaqwa Campus

05 September 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah

New Era Editorial Team — New Era editorial team comprising the Editor-in-Chief, Prudence Mkhari, flanked by editors, Mosia Rasekwane (left) and Monti Mosebi (right).

Qwaqwa Campus has a new student newsletter. According to the Editor-in-Chief, Prudence Mkhari, New Era aims to project content that is written from a student’s perspective.

“We want students to easily relate to the content as opposed to being written by a staff member. It focuses on student-life events and the university as a whole. The content ranges from student life to university events and milestones. In essence, it is the voice of the students and the watchdog of the campus,” says Prudence.

She says response to the newspaper has been good, considering that they have had only two issues plus an SRC election special that carried candidates’ manifestos. “We are constantly being asked when the next issue is coming out. A lot of students have even come forth with stories that they would like us to cover in the next issue,” she added.

Some of the comments about the very first edition includes this one by Rosie Senoko, final-year BA student: “Congratulations on your publication. One would swear that you have written many pieces, not aware it was your first! All the best to you and your team.” A BSocSci final-year student, Sibonginkosi Ngcongwane, wrote: “Great job! Well done!”
It has not been an entirely smooth sailing process for the paper. “There is still room for improvement in terms of writing and editing, because almost no-one on the team has writing experience. So, additional training is still required. Meeting deadlines is also another area that needs major improvement,” says Prudence.

The team comprises 14 students who write a variety of pieces, from news to sports and from opinion to lifestyle, while some provide technical support such as editing and photography.

Going forward, the plan is to digitise the newspaper and make it accessible to a broader online market. To advertise, send an email to newera@ufs4life.ac.za

News Archive

UFS finances are fundamentally sound

2007-12-01

The finances of the University of the Free State (UFS) remain fundamentally sound and a higher than expected surplus of about R26 million was achieved in the 2007 budget.

This announcement was made last week during the last meeting of the UFS Council by Prof. Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor.

“Up to now, we could finance the considerable investments in the infrastructure from discretionary funds, in spite of the fact that Council granted us permission during 2005/06 to take up a loan of R50 million for this purpose,” said Prof. Fourie.

The higher than expected surplus of about R26 million will be used among other things for the financing of infrastructure in order to further postpone the taking up of a loan.

In support of the drive to reposition the UFS nationally as a university that is successfully integrating excellence and diversity, R5 million will be made available from the surplus for this purpose.

The Council also approved the following allocations for 2008 for the key strategic pillars of a good practice budget for the university:

Information sources: R21,1 million
IT infrastructure: R3,5 million
Replacing expensive equipment: R7,05 million
Research: R18,1 million
Capital expenditure: R28,2 million
Maintenance capital assets: R18,2 million
Reserves: R6,3 million
Personal computers for the computer laboratory: R3,5 million

For the Qwaqwa Campus R2,5 million has been set aside for these issues.

In terms of strategic priorities R8 million was allocated for the academic clusters, R2 million for equitability, diversity and redress and R6 million for equity.

The projected income for 2008 will be R849 million, while the projected expenditure, excluding transfers, will be R694 million.

“Council further approved that discretionary strategic funds be largely voted to the further upgrading of the physical infrastructure, especially the Chemistry Building, the computer laboratory building, examination venues and the Joolkol,” said Prof. Fourie.

According to Prof. Fourie, funds have been reserved for the development of the academic clusters, as well as the continuation and acceleration of the transformation programme of the UFS.

“We have also managed to revise the conditions of employment of contract appointments and align it with the latest labour practices. The phasing in of the fringe benefits of this specific group of staff members will commence in 2008,” said Prof. Fourie.

Given the dependence of the income of the UFS on student numbers, a task team was formed last year to investigate the continued financial sustainability of the UFS. The core of this task team’s recommendations is:

to increase the third income stream by using the academic clusters as the main strategy; and to apply strategies such as the recruitment and extension of the postgraduate and foreign student corps, increase the income from donations and fundraising, etc.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za
30 November 2007

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