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08 June 2020 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Sonia Small
Prof Francis Petersen is one of the leaders in a prestigious international panel for a COVID-19 webinar involving Uganda, the Netherlands, and Morocco.

 

Webinar details
Date: Wednesday, 10 June 2020
Time: 13:00 South African time (14:00 East African Standard Time)

Webinar link: https://www.ruforum.org/introductory-note-webinar-1
To participate register here

University leaders from Africa and beyond will take part in a Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) webinar on Wednesday, 10 June, to look at universities’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State, will be one of four panellists who will be the main speakers of the day. He is the only panellist from South Africa. 

Prof Petersen will participate alongside university leaders such as Prof Arthur Mol, Rector Magnificus of Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, Mr Hicham el Habti, Secretary General at the Mohammed VI Polytechnique University (UM6P) in Morocco, as well as Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, Vice-Chancellor of the Makerere University in Uganda. 

Getting together with other university leaders from the continent and abroad, speakers will share insights from their respective countries in dealing with the pandemic. The webinar takes place on 10 June 2020 at 13:00 South African time (14:00 East African Standard Time)

RUFORUM is a consortium of 46 universities in Eastern, Central, Western, and Southern Africa mandated to oversee graduate training and networks of specialisation in the countries and universities where it works. 

What is the webinar about?
The RUFORUM webinar titled ‘Learning from a crisis: University leaders’ response to the COVID-19 Pandemic', aims to tackle issues such as the immediate needs of universities, including staff realignment, dealing with the digital divide in the student community, institutional finance for operations and innovations in a changing landscape, and international students in a crisis moment. 

This webinar provides a great opportunity to galvanise collective responses from university leaders on this pandemic. It brings together universities from within and outside Africa on lessons learnt in confronting the immediate challenges and how they are resetting for a long-term perspective in the ‘new normal’. Interactions during this webinar will hopefully lead to a consensus on strengthening collective response and how universities can leverage one another in terms of the best practices and resources.  

The impact of the Coronavirus on higher learning institutions 
Given the devastation caused by COVID-19 across the world since its outbreak in China in December 2019, the impact has been felt in all spheres of the economy and global operations. Universities have also seen significant interruptions, including the UFS. Recently, RUFORUM conducted a study on the readiness of African universities to respond to COVID-19 and other natural disasters. This was meant to determine the level of preparedness of our institutions in facing this global pandemic and how to move forward as a continent while preserving the quality of the higher education that we deliver.  

The webinar will build on those findings and project a way forward in this unchartered territory of diminished financial resources, personal and academic challenges for staff, students, and institutional systems, the urgent need for improved infrastructure to respond to the demand for blended learning as well as remote learning approaches, and the limited mobility of students, academic and other staff, among others. Addressing these issues resulted in collaborations such as those initiated by RUFORUM.




News Archive

Wayde, Karla crowned as KovsieSport’s best
2015-10-21

 

The pride of KovsieSport. From the left, are: Ox Nche
(UFS Junior Sportman of the Year), Karla Mostert
(Senior Sportswoman of the Year), Wayde van Niekerk
(Senior Sportsman of the Year), and Brett Walraven
(on behalf of his sister, Nicole Walraven – Junior Sportswoman of the Year).
Photo: Hannes Naude

The journey does not belong to him alone, but to everyone at KovsieSport.

These were the words of University of the Free State’s (UFS) Wayde van Niekerk, after being named as KovsieSport’s Senior Sportsman of the Year on Wednesday 21 October 2015.

The South African sports star walked away with the award for the third consecutive year, while the Protea netball defender, Karla Mostert, was crowned Senior Sportswoman for the first time.

The Junior Bok, Ox Nche, and the Protea hockey player, Nicole Walraven, were named as Junior Sportsman and Junior Sportswoman of the Year respectively.

Nche represented South Africa’s U20 rugby team this year at the Junior World Championships, played for the Shimlas, and was named the UFS Rugby Club’s best junior player.

Walraven made her debut for South Africa in 2015. She was crowned jointly as the best player at the Provincial U21 tournament, and was also Hockey South Africa’s U21 Player of the Year.

Van Niekerk won gold in the 400 metres at the World Championships in Beijing, becoming only the fourth athlete in history to run the 400 m in less than 44 seconds, and the 200 metres in less than 20 seconds.

“This is precious, and something I will cherish as an athlete: being part of KovsieSport,” he said.

“I arrived at the UFS as a high school boy, started as a junior, and was accepted immediately.”

“I really appreciate everybody who played such a huge part in my life.”

Mostert was named as Player of the Series in the Brutal Fruit series, as well as the Varsity series this year. She was also a star for the Proteas at the World Cup.

“This (the award) is definitely a good way to end my time at Kovsies. This is something one is trying to achieve for years, so it really is a highlight.”

She said it was difficult to describe how much KovsieSport is doing for its athletes, and this was the reason why the UFS achieves so many successes in sport.


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