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New levels of understanding emerge when seemingly unrelated fields of interest intersect

25 November 2020 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath

Interdisciplinarity in Action

Lunchtime learning webinar on

The Intersection between Science and Visual Arts

In this webinar, Prof Willem Boshoff and Prof Louis Scott, both from the University of the Free State, will discuss the intersection between science and the visual arts. The webinar will explore how new levels of understanding may emerge when seemingly unrelated fields of interest intersect, supported by the ideas we may find in the endless diversity of nature.

This webinar is part of a series of three webinars on Interdisciplinarity presented from November to December 2020 via Microsoft Teams for a duration of 45 minutes each. The webinar topics in the series explore the intersection between Neuroscience and Music, between Science and Entrepreneurship, and between Science and Visual Arts.

Date: Tuesday 8 December 2020

Topic: The intersection between science and visual arts

Time: 13:00-13:45 (SAST)

RSVP: Alicia Pienaar, pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za by 7 December 2020

Platform: Microsoft Teams

Introduction and welcome

Prof Corli Witthuhn – Vice-Rector: Research at the University of the Free State

Presenters

Prof Willem Boshoff

Willem Boshoff is a Senior Professor in Fine Arts at the University of the Free State. As a conceptual artist, he engages primarily with language. Notably, his works have included the writing of several themed dictionaries, most often made accessible to a broad audience in the form of large art installations. His broad interdisciplinary interests, including the fields of botany, music, and lexicography, have over the years led to the development of a digital research archive, which he recently donated to the University of the Free State. Prof Boshoff’s work is exhibited extensively, both locally and abroad, and has been included in major private collections and museums. Recently, he became the first South African artist to be awarded an A2 rating by the National Research Foundation (NRF).

Prof Louis Scott

Prof Louis Scott is a retired professor and mentor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the UFS, with an interest in visual arts. He studies fossil pollen in natural lake, cave, swamp, and fossil dung deposits. He attempts to reconstruct our heritage associated with African prehistory through environmental history, including natural long-term processes of change. Prof Scott is widely published in this field, serves on the editorial boards of international journals, and has a B-rating with the National Research Foundation.

News Archive

Fasset continues to fuel academic excellence at the UFS

2017-12-15

Programme Director: School of Accounting, Prof Hentie van Wyk, and
Dean: Economic and Management Sciences, Prof Hendri Kroukamp
excited about the unveiling of the Finance and Accounting Services
Sector Education and Training Authority (Fasset)
plaque at the School of Accounting.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

The School of Accounting on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) held an unveiling ceremony for a Finance and Accounting Services Sector Education and Training Authority (Fasset) plaque. The plaque was unveiled by UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, and Fasset CEO, Lesego Lebuso. This was in honour of Fasset’s partnership with the UFS and its contribution towards driving academic excellence through its Intrabas projects over the past few years.

Funding for teaching and learning initiatives
These projects support the development of black student enrolment and performance in Accounting Studies. During the previous year, Fasset gave the UFS R54 million in funding to support teaching and learning initiatives for 960 black Accounting students. These students were enrolled for BAcc, BCom(Acc), BAcc(Hons)/PGDipCA, and BCom(Hons in Acc)/PGDipGA studies. In the same year, a celebratory ceremony was held at the South Campus for 125 Fasset-funded students to celebrate their academic excellence.

Prof Hentie van Wyk, Programme Director: School of Accounting, said, “FASSET funding will give the Centre for Accounting (as it was then called) an opportunity to strengthen our current student-centred teaching model”. This seemed like a prophecy, because at the beginning of 2017, the class of 2016 BAccHons students achieved a 96% pass rate in the 2017 Initial Test of Competence (ITC) examinations of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).

Millions contributed towards accounting degrees
In 2017, Fasset sponsored 114 students on the Bloemfontein Campus with full bursaries amounting to more than R20 million through the Intrabas bursary fund for degree qualifications in BAccHons, BComHons (Acc), BAcc, BComAcc and BComAcc Extended programmes, as well as the tutorial programme managed by the School of Accountancy. On the Qwaqwa Campus, Fasset has given more than R7 million worth of funding.

James Veitch, Senior Officer: School of Accounting, said, “A decision was made to rather fund less students so that they could be assisted with greater effect, and students who did not qualify for the bursaries, would still be assisted through the support programme.”

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