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Monique Tangah – this year’s winner of UFS ‘3MT’

21 October 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Supplied

Monique Tangah_web read more — Monique Tangah (Economic and Management Sciences Faculty) won the PhD category of UFS Institutional Three-Minute Thesis competition hosted by the Postgraduate School.

Monique Tangah, a postgraduate student from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), will represent the university on 13 November 2020 at the National Three-Minute Thesis, also known as the ‘3MT’, competition after she won the UFS competition.

The UFS Postgraduate School hosted its Institutional 3MT on 9 October 2020 and winners chosen from each faculty competed against each other for the UFS Three-Minute Thesis title. Tangah, with her thesis titled, Cameroonian women’s empowerment through higher education: An African-feminist and Capability Approach Analysis, emerged victorious from a total of 20 students who are registered for their PhD and master's degrees. Tensions were high as the participants brought their research products of a very high standard forward in the virtual competition.

Willard Morgan, a student in the Faculty of Education, won the category for the Master’s Degree students with his title, Ideological representations of entrepreneurship in high school economic and management sciences textbooks.

The Three-Minute Thesis competition is an annual competition held at 200 universities across 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 their specific research area.

Universities need to focus on the generation of new knowledge to solve critical problems in the country, continent and globally. The Three-Minute Thesis competition aims to achieve this by encouraging the increase of research output produced by master’s and PhD students.

Winners and runners-up of the UFS competition for 2020 are:

For the PhD category

Winner: Monique Tangah (Economic and Management Sciences Faculty)

1st runner-up: Tamson Foster (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty)

2nd runner-up: Monique Basson (Humanities)

For the Master’s category

Winner: Willard Morgan (Education)

1st runner-up: Kyla Dooley (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty)

2nd runner-up: Bonolo Makhalemele (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty)

The National Three-Minute thesis will be hosted virtually on 13 November 2020. PhD finalists from South African universities will compete for the 3MT SA title. Whose research thesis will stand the test of time? Join to find out.

Date: 13 November 2020

Time: 10:00-13:00

Link: https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/405aa3ff84f54eec81557131b6bc2bfd

For more information, email Reabetswe Mabine at mabiner@ufs.ac.za

Willard Morgan (Education) was the winner of Master's category of this year’s UFS Institutional Three-Minute Thesis competition hosted by the Postgraduate School.

Bonolo Makhalemele (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty) was the second runner-up

Monique Basson (Humanities) was the second runner-up in the PhD category.

Tamson Foster (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty) was the first runner-up.

Kyla Dooley (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty) was the first runner-up.

News Archive

Darwin lecture focuses on the genetic foundation of evolution

2009-05-22

The Department of Genetics at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently made their contribution to the story of life and survival by presenting two lectures on The genetic foundation of evolution. Prof. Johan Spies, Head of the Department of Genetics at the UFS discussed the variation that was created by mutations and how this variation was enhanced by re-combination. He also pointed out that these methods contributed relatively little to the gene pool of a species and that the expansion of the gene pool primarily took place by means of chromosome evolution. The latter also contributed to the creation of isolation mechanisms to prevent hybridism. He further emphasised the multitude of deviations of mendelian heredity, which contributed to more variation within a species.

Prof. Paul Grobler, Associate Professor from this department, next pointed out how natural selection played a role to form new species. He used various examples to indicate how the process took its course, for example, lactose intolerance. He also reported out that the man on the street mostly believed that Darwin with his theory of the survival of the fittest meant that the physically strongest species would survive. It was more a case of the one that could reproduce the fastest and the most, that would survive, he stated.

Present at the occasion were, from left front: Ms Letecia Jonker, student, Prof. Grobler, Ms Paula Spies, lecturer at the Department of Genetics and Ms Zurika Odendaal, junior lecturer at the Department of Genetics; back: Prof. Spies.
Photo: Stephen Collett

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