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22 July 2020 | Story Dr Cinde Greyling & Ilze Bakkes | Photo Sonia du Doit
The team from Student Recruitment Services.

Where do our students come from? For most people, the word “university” signifies eager learning minds, some mischief, exams, graduations, and an environment where a lot of growing up takes place. Those who attended, treasure fond memories of varsity time. And university staff often state that one of their greatest rewards is seeing their students succeed. But how do the students get there?

Students are central

Students are the core business of the University of the Free State. No students, no university. Easy as that. Not only do students pay class fees, but they also contribute to the subsidies received. External funding and third-stream income are also, to a large extent, dependent on a university’s student profile. Nobody wants to invest in or partner with an institution who cannot produce good quality graduates. Sufficient students, and enough good quality students are crucial to not only let the UFS survive, but thrive.

The magic of marketing

The type of students that we need, do not simply appear in the registration lines each year. They are intentionally sourced through strategic and consistent marketing efforts. The pool of top achievers is small, and we compete with 27 other public higher-education institution in South-Africa, and several private universities and college to attract students. Besides the rife competition, our local education landscape is dynamic and influenced by various drivers of change. To achieve the required student intake and student quality, we employ marketing, public relations, and strategic positioning. 

The team behind the tactics

The UFS is fortunate to have an exceptionally strong and experienced marketing team headed by Nomonde Mbadi. She also leads the team of twelve active school marketers who are each assigned to target schools in different regions. Our teams cover South-Africa, as well as some international regions and also encourages post graduate studies. Ilze Bakkes is responsible for integrated marketing, and Linda Greyling heads the promotions and project team. We also boast a separate centre, Kovsies2BConnect where three agents are geared to distribute programme and campus information to both internal and external stakeholders. Data is important and as such we have a newly established unit that is responsible for making sense of the data for strategic decisions.

Setting our aim straight

Our entire approach pivots around our target audience – which is not as straight forward as you may think. Prospective students’ choices are influenced by numerous factors, including their parents, guardians, family members, friends, teachers, mentors, current students, graduates, alumni, and the list goes on. That is over and above their own academic achievements, interests, skills, and socio-economic status. With thorough research and looking at the data from all angles, we navigate our way through this maze of influencers to ensure that our message and call to action hits the spot – or, rather, all the spots!


Targeting with three tiers

The foundation of our strategy is an integration between the AIDA model, and the three-tier engagement model. The AIDA model guides our efforts to create awareness about the UFS, spark an interest from our target audience, create a desire, and ultimately leading to action when they apply and register. The three-tiers begin with targeted mass marketing including advertisements, school visits, and social media campaigns. That is supported by the differentiated marketing of tier-2 aimed at selected schools, parents, and learners. And finally, tier-3 marketing is very strategic and focussed on top achievers. 

All our marketing and recruiting efforts are carefully planned and executed. We do not leave anything to chance and follow a detailed plot of activities and actions pre-planned for each year. Some of the activities are selected based on previous success, and others are opted for due to platform changes and new or developing target audience preferences. These are some of the actions we take: 

Presentations: Selected members of our team are either invited to, or initiate UFS presentations at schools or at career exhibitions. This if often complemented by a branded booth with information hand-outs and possible one-on-one discussions. 

E-communication: We are in continuous communication with school principals and Life Orientations teachers in order to share information and needs. Designated social media pages are also used to create awareness and share information among prospective students and their peers. And mass and personal SMS’s are distributed via methodically created databases. 

In person events: We partake in numerous special events, including the Top Achiever function, parents’ evenings and workshops, breakfast with the Rector, and exclusive engagements with schools. Such events are valuable in terms of information sharing and creating brand awareness. It also gives attendees the opportunity to discuss their needs or concerns. A big favourite is always the UFS Open Day. 

Incentives: Although we do enjoy spoiling stakeholders with branded UFS apparel, it is definitely not an uncontrolled mass handout – we are very selective in our distributions. An effective motivator is rewarding school achievements, and our recently launched Red Box Society seems to have the desired effect. This incentive includes exclusive offers and vouchers to top achievers. Our more familiar Matriculant of the Year competition continuous to attract strong entrants, and our Star of Stars competition offers disadvantaged Grade 12 learners the chance to showcase their excellence. 

The Student Recruitment Services’ team is dynamic, fun, informed, and focussed. We are often complimented on our “vibe” which indicates where our passion lies – we love what we do. Student recruitment, however, needs the support of the entire institution. We need to deliver what we sell. Word-of-mouth is stronger than ever, thanks to social media. People’s lived experience of a brand overshadows any other recruitment initiative. If we want to increase our popularity among the top achieving students, we need to ensure that the UFS lived experience is aligned to our projected brand image. Student recruitment and service delivery is forever engaged in a dance, one wrong step can ruin the show… or the ensemble can recover gracefully if each member puts in the effort to recover from the mistake. Let us support one another when we miss a beat!

You may be wondering – but what about COVID-19? How will we do all our visits and open days? Does that mean we will not have enough students next year? Not at all. The Student Recruitment Services’ team has you covered. Do you want to know what we have been up to…? We will release an article about our COVID-19 tactics soon – so stay informed by checking the UFS official platforms regularly. Remember to wear a mask, wash your hands, maintain physical, and stay safe. 

News Archive

Boyden Observatory turns 120
2009-05-13

 

At the celebration of the 120th year of existence of the UFS's Boyden Observatory are, from the left: Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS, Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic Planning at the UFS, Mr Ian Heyns from AngloGold Ashanti and his wife, Cheryl, and Prof. François Retief, former rector of the UFS and patron of the Friends of Boyden.
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

The Boyden Observatory, one of the oldest observatories in the Southern Hemisphere and a prominent beacon in Bloemfontein, recently celebrated its 120th year of existence.

This milestone was celebrated by staff, students, other dignitaries of the University of the Free State (UFS) and special guests at the observatory last week.

“The observatory provides the Free State with a unique scientific, educational and tourist facility. No other city in South Africa, and few in the world, has a public observatory with telescopes the size and quality of those at Boyden,” said Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.

The observatory, boasting the third-largest optical telescope in South Africa, has a long and illustrious history. It was established on a temporary site on Mount Harvard near the small town of Chosica, Peru in 1889. Later it was moved to Arequipa in Peru where important astronomical observations were made from 1891 to 1926. “However, due to unstable weather patterns and observing conditions, it was decided to move the Boyden Station to another site somewhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, maybe South Africa,” said Prof. Van Schalkwyk.

South Africa's excellent climatic conditions were fairly well known and in 1927 the instruments were shipped and the Boyden Station was set up next to Maselspoort near Bloemfontein. Observations began in September 1927 and in 1933 the new site was officially completed, including the 60 inch (1.5 m) telescope, which was then the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. This telescope was recently refurbished to a modern research instrument.

The observatory has various other telescopes and one of them, the 13" refractor telescope, which was sent to Arequipa in 1891 and later to Bloemfontein, is still in an excellent condition. Another important telescope is the Watcher Robotic Telescope of the University College Dublin, which conducts many successful observations of gamma ray bursts.

“In the first few decades of the twentieth century, the Boyden Observatory contributed considerably to our understanding of the secrets of the universe at large. The period luminosity relationship of the Cepheid variable stars was, for example, discovered from observations obtained at Boyden. This relationship is one of the cornerstones of modern astrophysics. It is currently used to make estimates of the size and age of the universe from observations of the Hubble Space Telescope,” said Prof. Van Schalkwyk.

“The Boyden Observatory contributed to the university’s astrophysics research group being able to produce the first M.Sc. degrees associated with the National Space Science Programme (NASSAP) in the country and the Boyden Science Centre plays an important role in science and technology awareness of learners, teachers and the general public,” said Prof. Van Schalkwyk.

The Boyden Science Centre has also formed strong relationships with various institutions, including the South African Agency for the Advancement of Science and Technology (SAASTA) and the Department of Science and Technology. The centre has already conducted many different projects for the Department of Science and Technology, including National Science Week projects, as well as National Astronomy Month projects. It also serves as one of the hosts of SAASTA’s annual Astronomy Quiz.

Media Release:
Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za
13 May 2009
 

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