Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
01 September 2020
|
Story Dr Nitha Ramnath
|
Photo Supplied
The UFS’ Devina Harry was accepted into the Kader Asmal Fellowship Programme.
The UFS’ own Devina Harry is set to travel to Ireland in September 2020 to begin a year-long Fellowship Programme for a Master of Business. As one of 20 students selected from the African continent, Devina was recently accepted into the Kader Asmal Fellowship Programme, which affords her the opportunity to study in Ireland during the 2020/21 academic year.
A research assistant in the Department of Business Management, Devina holds an Honours in Marketing. “I am very grateful to be awarded this scholarship and excited about this new journey,” says Devina, who is scheduled to begin the programme in October 2020. “I hope to come back to South Africa and contribute to my field of study,” she says.
Devina went through a rigorous application process and had to meet the criteria for selection, one of which is having a minimum average grade point of 75% for her honours.
Prof Brownhilder Nene, Head of Department: Business Management, gave Devina some words of encouragement: “You will never know how far you can go unless you try. Thank you, Devina, for stepping out of your comfort zone and getting this scholarship.”
The Kader Asmal Fellowship Programme is a South African strand of a broader Ireland-Africa Fellows Programme managed by the
Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It was set up in 2012 in honour of the late
Professor Kader Asmal, and is a fully-funded scholarship opportunity for those who want to develop skills and knowledge to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in South Africa.
UFS Rector takes three months sabbatical leave
2008-05-05
The Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof. Frederick Fourie, has announced that he will be taking three months sabbatical leave as from Thursday, 8 May 2008.
Prof. Fourie recently made the request for sabbatical leave to the Chairperson of the UFS Council, Judge Faan Hancke. The request was approved given the fact that Prof. Fourie has occupied a number of demanding top-management posts for almost nine years, during which time he had to manage a number of major changes at the UFS.
According to Prof. Fourie, he originally wanted to go on sabbatical leave in the second half of 2007 before the start of his second term as rector, but it was not possible at that stage.
He was last on sabbatical in 1996 before he became Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences in 1997 and Vice-Rector: Academic Operations in 1999.
He could not take his next five-yearly leave because in the post of vice-rector he was tasked with leading the financial-turnaround strategy for the UFS from the year 2000 and had to act as rector when the previous rector, Prof. Stef Coetzee, was on sick leave. Since being inaugurated as rector in 2003, there was also no opportunity to take leave as a result of the many key projects and urgent initiatives.
The Vice-Rector: Academic Operations and vice-chairperson of the Senate, Prof. Teuns Verschoor, will be the acting rector. Management processes and decision-making will continue as normal under the leadership of the acting rector together with the Executive Committee of the Executive Management (Exco) and the Executive Management. This applies to the decision about the future of the Reitz Residence as well as the continuing implementation of the policy on diversity in student residences.
According to Judge Hancke it was important that Prof. Fourie took sabbatical leave in the light of the long period he has been at the forefront of very demanding changes. There are many challenges that still lie ahead.
During his leave Prof. Fourie will be involved with the Higher Education South Africa (HESA) investigation into diversity and racism on campuses, with research and a national conference on institutional culture, as well as the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) benchmarking project and its conference in Australia at the end of August 2008.