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05 November 2020 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah
Prof Geofrey Mukwada says funding from the US Embassy and Consulates in South Africa will reinforce the ARU mandate.

The University of the Free State (UFS) will further strengthen its ties with the Appalachian State University in the next two academic years through a mountain-to-mountain research project funded by the US Embassy and Consulates in South Africa.

The R8 million project between the UFS and the US institution will cover the two master’s degree programmes in underdeveloped niche areas, meteorological weather stations, leadership capacity building for black women in academia, and doctoral research projects. Qwaqwa Campus departments that will be involved are Physics, Geography, Community Development, and the ARU.

Talking about this collaboration, the project leader, Prof Geofrey Mukwada, said it would bring together researchers from both the UFS and Appalachian State University and enable them to work together to develop what is currently an underdeveloped research niche, i.e. mountain studies. 

“This project will reinforce the mandate of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU). It will provide the basis for a long-term development agenda through training and infrastructure development. For instance, the project will fund the implementation of two master’s degree programmes – the MSc in Mountain Environments and the MA in Community Development – which are long-term projects,” he said. 

“It will also support innovation in climate change research. Through this project, it will be possible to receive climate data from weather stations that are situated in distant, isolated, and generally inaccessible locations without travelling to those locations. We will be able to understand how the climate of the region is changing and assist in developing adaptation measures and decisions that are applicable to agriculture, water, tourism, environment, and other sectors. This will enhance the capacity of the ARU to contribute to the development of research in mountain environments,” he added. 

There will be a virtual launch of the project on Tuesday 10 November 2020 at 15:00 (CAT).

News Archive

UFS represented at the 3rd IBSA academic seminar in Brazil
2008-09-26

 

Prof. ‘Mabokang Monnapula-Mapesela and Prof. Lucius Botes from the University of the Free State (UFS) recently presented academic papers in their respective fields during the 3rd India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) academic seminar held in Florianópolis, Brazil. They were part of 12 academics chosen to represent Higher Education institutions in South Africa, facilitated by the International Office and the Directorate Research Development.

Prof. Monnapula-Mapesela’s paper titled "Macro-politics of higher education in contexts of periphery: Policy dynamics at macro-, meso- and micro-levels" was under the theme of higher education and society, access and massification and deepening quality. "Service delivery protests in South Africa: a Challenge to human security and social cohesion" was the title of Prof Botes’s paper which was aligned to the theme social transformation and social cohesion.

IBSA is a trilateral, developmental initiative between India, Brazil and South Africa aimed at promoting South-South cooperation and exchange programmes.

Photo: Stephen Collett

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