Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
13 August 2020 | Story Andre Damons
Follow these three easy steps to enter the Three-Minute Thesis Competition. Will you be this year’s winner?

 

The Three-Minute Thesis Competition, also known as the ‘3MT’, is an annual competition held at 200 universities around the world. It is open to PhD and master’s students, and challenges participants to present their research in just 180 seconds – in a way that is understood by an audience with no background in the research area. 


The UFS Postgraduate School was the first to bring the ‘Three-Minute Thesis’ (3MT) competition to Africa. The Three-Minute Thesis competition originates from the University of Queensland, Australia, and has now become an annual event at the UFS.

The competition aims to help participants develop presentation, research, and academic communication skills, as well as to support the development of research students’ ability to effectively explain their work. 
Although our country is in the midst of a pandemic, the annual competition continues. This year’s Three-Minute Thesis competition will be hosted online at
- The competition will first be hosted at the faculty level; faculty entries close at 14 August 2020

- Winners at faculty level will compete against each other at the Institutional level on 9 October 2020 and will stand a chance at winning these awesome cash prizes

UFS INSTITUTIONAL PRIZES FOR 2020 ARE:

Position Prizes 2020
Master’s winner R6 000
Master’s 1st runner-up R4 000
Master’s 2nd runner-up R2 000
PhD winner  R8 000
PhD 1st runner-up R6 000
PhD 2nd runner-up R4 000

 

Institutional winners will compete against other universities at the national level on 6 November 2020.


News Archive

Quantity Surveying celebrates many firsts
2014-10-20

 

From the left are: Pierre Oosthuizen, Prof Kajimo-Shakantu and Dr Stephan Ramabodu
Photo: Ifa Tshishonge



The Department of Quantity Surveying at the University of the Free State (UFS) has much to be proud of. With Prof Kahilu Kajimo-Shakantu as Head of the Department of Quantity Surveying, the department is celebrating several firsts.

For the first time, the department has four academics with PhDs. This includes Prof Kajimo-Shakantu, Dr Stephan Ramabodu, Dr Timothy Froise and Dr Benita Zulch. It is also the first time that this department is managed by a woman.

Furthermore, the Department of Quantity Surveying has performed very well at this year’s national Quantity Surveying Conference held in Pretoria, where they walked away with four of the seven awards.

The awards were:

•    Best presenter: Pierre Oosthuizen (lecturer)
•    Most innovative presenter: Pierre Oosthuizen (lecturer)
•    Best paper on engineering projects: Prof Kahilu Kajimo-Shakantu
•    Best academic paper: T Monyane (postgraduate student) and Dr Stephan Ramabodu (lecturer)

The South African Council for the Quantity Surveying Profession (SACQSP) also presented two prestigious life achievement awards. One of these were bestowed upon Prof Basie Verster from the UFS for his contribution to quantity surveying since the 1970s.

The university is especially proud of Dr Stephen Ramabodu, lecturer in the Department of Quantity Surveying, who completed his PhD this year. This makes of him the highest qualified quantity surveyor in the department and one of only a few holders of a quantity surveying PhD in the country. Dr Ramabodu is also registered with the South African Council for Quantity Surveying Professionals.

Prof Kajimo-Shakantu said the following of Dr Ramabodu. “Since 2002, Stephan was appointed as a lecturer in a programme called Grow Your Own Timber at the UFS. Later on, he went to Cape Town to gain some commercial experience, where he worked for Davis Langdon in 2005. In 2008, he returned to the Free State, where he established Ramabodu & Associates. Later on in the same year, he returned to the UFS as a lecturer to complete all the remaining milestones of the Grow Your Own Timber programme.

“The university looks forward to Stephen’s increased responsibilities and contributions, not only in teaching and learning, but also in research, mentoring and community engagement.”


We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept