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

Deaf Awareness Month empowers the hearing impaired
2015-09-21

There are more sign languages in the world than spoken languages. About 600 000 deaf South Africans have the South African Sign Language (SASL) as their first language. There are about 40 schools for the deaf in South Africa. 90% of all deaf children are born to hearing parents. Only about 30% of speech is visible on the lips.

How many of these fundamental facts did you know?

Deaf Awareness Month serves to educate hearing communities about issues that the deaf population face on a daily basis, as well as to honour the history and culture of people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. For the past 70 years, the University of the Free State (UFS) has dedicated September to hosting events around the topic of hearing impairment.

The theme of ‘With South African Sign Language rights, our children can!’

This year’s theme had learners from Bartimea School for the Deaf and Blind, hearing impaired UFS students, and Prof Jonathan Jansen engaged in a conversation around empowerment at a picnic held on Monday 7 September 2015 at the Red Square on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Through a sign language interpreter, Matshela, a grade 12 learner, explained that he felt empowered by the efforts the university has made to embrace and empower individuals with disabilities. He then revealed his intentions of pursuing Information Technology or Social Work studies at Kovsies.

Clifford Machete, a first-year Administration student at the university, stated how sign language interpreters gave him an ‘I can’ attitude when he first arrived at university.  “As a deaf person, I see that I am able to learn with the help of sign language interpreters. There is accessibility at the university, and I am so proud to be a student here and part of Deaf Awareness Month.”

Susan Lombaard, Lecturer and Acting Chairperson at the Department of South African Sign Language, believes that Deaf Awareness Month is about promoting human dignity.

“We want to show the world that deaf people can do everything, and that their language is as strong and important as any spoken language.”

For more information regarding Deaf Awareness Month activities, contact the South African Sign Language Department on 051 401 2251.

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