Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS amends the retirement age for all staff members to 65

10 December 2021 | Story Lacea Loader

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the retirement age of all staff members to 65 this week.

“The current retirement age for staff members of the UFS is 65 years for those appointed prior to 1 June 1998, and 60 years for those appointed after 1 June 1998. The Council’s decision to amend the retirement age to 65 comes after an extensive benchmarking process involving the university’s two labour unions, NEHAWU and UVPERSU, which requested that the retirement age of all staff members be adjusted to 65,” said Prof Francis Petesen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor.

This amendment brings the university in line with other universities and will assist in overcoming a negative impact on the recruitment and attraction of high-calibre academic and specialist staff.

Parallel to the amendment of the retirement age in the Conditions of Services, the university is also adapting the allocation of vacation leave. “We are currently facing a challenge in terms of the provision of the staff leave liability, which has a major financial implication for the UFS. In consultation with stakeholder unions the accumulation of vacation leave has been adjusted to a maximum of five days per year,” said Prof Petersen.

The new retirement age to 65 and the adjusted accumulated vacation leave days will be affected from 1 January 2022. Staff who are set to retire on 31 December 2021 may opt to continue to the age 65. This amendment will not apply to staff that may have already retired.

Adjusted vacation as from 1 January 2022:

Academic staff:

Current number of vacation days: 42

Approved Leave Days

Number of vacation days: 30

Additional research leave days: 12 (non-cumulative and expires at the end of each calendar year)

Support staff:

Deputy Director and higher levels

Peromnes Level: 1 – 6

Current number of leave vacation days: 36

Approved number of vacation days: 30

Assistant Director to Officer

Peromnes Level: 7 – 14

Current number of leave vacation days: 30 - 28

Approved number of vacation days: 28

Service Workers

Peromnes Level: 15 - 18

Current number of leave vacation days: 24

Approved number of vacation days: 24

News Archive

Postgraduate School Student Council reaches out to child-headed households

2012-12-03

Members of the Postgraduate School Student Council and some of the children who benefited from their outreach programme
3 December 2012

Our Postgraduate School Student Council, in collaboration with the Postgraduate School Directorate, undertook a community project in 2012, focused on making a difference in the lives of children burdened with supporting themselves without proper parental guidance. The council worked with Child Welfare Bloemfontein and five child-headed households were identified in the greater Mangaung area.

To ensure the success of the project, the council helped to get sponsorships to assist with raising funds and the reception of donations. The council, with the broader postgraduate community, also sought donations from the university community and the public at large. The result was astounding and 12 children were presented with food items, toiletries as well as school uniforms and stationery to the value of R14 500.

An additional R2 000 was donated to Child Welfare for related projects that will benefit other households. This initiative was made possible by the generous support of the UFS-RAG office and the Thakaneng Bridge branches of Friendly Supermarket and Van Schaik Bookstore, Lesedi FM and Kovsie FM, as well as some private donors.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept