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24 August 2021
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Story Amanda Tongha
In a year marked by a global pandemic, the University of the Free State (UFS) has made great strides in research, teaching, and impactful engagement.
Our 2020 journey has seen many staff members providing services to advance public knowledge of COVID-19 for the greater good of South Africa. We have produced top-rated scientists, boasting six SARChI research chairs and three A-rated scholars in our world-class workforce. Our various initiatives to ensure student success continue to bear fruit, with current and former students making their mark in the world. One such example is Qinisani Qwabe, a PhD student in the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Development and Extension, who was selected in the education category of the Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans. He was also chosen to represent South Africa at a BRICS conference in Russia.
You can read these and other facts and figures in ‘Our 2020 Journey’ publication.
Click on image to download the document

Vice-Chancellor to receive prestigious lifetime achievement award in the United States
2013-05-23
23 May 2013

- Acceptance Speech
The University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to announce that yet another major international award will be bestowed on the Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Jonathan Jansen.
On 3 June 2013 the Education Africa Lifetime Achievement Award for Africa will be added to the multiple international and local achievements and awards Prof Jansen has received over the past months.
He will receive the award at a gala dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City, United States. The glamorous event is hosted in collaboration between Education Africa and Brand South Africa. Prof Jansen will join an illustrious list of recipients, including Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Richard Branson and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
“I am deeply humbled by this award which I dedicate to the great teachers of our country, who under difficult conditions make our schools work for children of the poor; they are the real heroes of education," says Prof Jansen.
The Education Africa Lifetime Achievement Award for Africa is a highly regarded recognition on the world stage, awarded to individuals who focus the attention of the global community on the obstacles some of the poorest African nations face.
“He is a pioneering South African educator who is successfully transforming what was once a bastion of apartheid-era segregation and ideology into one of his country’s most inclusive and dynamic institutions of higher learning,” the organisers said in a statement.
As an extra honour to the UFS, one of its Council Members will also receive an award together with Prof Jansen at the ceremony in New York City next month. Ndaba Ntsele, also the Executive Chairman of Pamodzi Gold Limited and President of the South African Black Business Council, will receive the Education Africa Allegiance Award. This award is given to persons for their ‘steadfast support of the organisation [Education Africa] over many years.”
Prof Jansen’s other recent international awards and honours include the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance from the University of California in the US and membership of the Laureate Chapter of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honour Society in Education.
For more information on these as well as the other awards Prof Jansen has recently received, click here.