Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
11 January 2021
|
Story André Damons
|
Photo Supplied
Dr Ralph Clark
The Afromontane Research Unit (ARU), the flagship research group of the University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus, has recently been granted R8,4 million to establish a Risk and Vulnerability Science Centre programme.
The Risk and Vulnerability Science Centre (RVSC) programme was established by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) as part of the Global Change Research Plan for South Africa and is funded by the DSI through the National Research Foundation (NRF). The RVSC will focus on the need to generate and disseminate knowledge about risk and vulnerability on global change challenges faced by local policy makers/ governance structures and communities in South Africa.
Invited to participate
Dr Ralph Clark, Director of the ARU, says the UFS, together with the University of Zululand and the Sol Plaatje University, has been invited to participate in Phase 2 of the RVSC programme. Dr Clark was approached by the DSI (on referral from the South African Environmental Observation Network – SAEON) in February 2020 regarding the potential for establishing a RVSC at the UFS Qwaqwa campus.
Subsequent interactions were held between the UFS and DSI, and in March 2020, the UFS formally accepted the DSI invitation. It has since been agreed that the RVSC: UFS will be hosted as a RVSC under the ARU umbrella, with dedicated personnel embedded at the UFS in this regard (internal processes and reporting) but reporting directly to the NRF regarding the RVSC.
Interest and support welcomed
Dr Clark welcomed this interest and support from the DSI-NRF, saying that the funds will further assist the UFS in growing its excellent and growing research portfolio and building more research capacity on this traditionally undergraduate-focused campus. “The RVSC will contribute to much-needed solutions in an area marked by major sustainability challenges and will assist in moving Phuthaditjhaba away from its negative apartheid history towards becoming a sustainable African mountain city,” says Dr Clark.
Commonwealth research publication on teacher qualifications launched
2010-03-15
|
At the launch were, from the left: Mr Samuel Isaacs, CEO: SAQA; Dr Louis van der Westhuizen, Quality Assurance Manager: Planning Unit, UFS; Dr Roli Degazon-Johnson, Education Advisor: Commonwealth Secretariat, United Kingdom; Prof. Jansen; Ms Simoné de Cormarmond, Chairperson: Commonwealth Foundation, and Dr Keevy.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs |
The 5th Annual Commonwealth Teacher Research Symposium, which is taking place at the University of the Free State (UFS) this week, was formally opened with the launch of the Commonwealth publication, A Fair Trade For Teachers, at the Willows Restaurant just outside Bloemfontein.
The publication, co-authored by Prof. Jonathan Jansen, the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, and Dr James Keevy, Director of International Liaison at the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), offers a rich one-stop resource point for a wide range of data that policy makers in the participating Commonwealth nations can tap in to formulate or improve policies that deal with teacher qualifications.
The aim is to develop a pan-Commonwealth teacher qualifications comparability table to provide the basis for pathways for the recognition of qualifications of teachers when they move across borders.
This research report is located within the cross-section of two current discourses: one being the international migration of highly skilled labour, specifically teachers, and the other being the cross-border provisioning of education and training.
The research is limited to primary and secondary teacher qualifications offered within 35 Commonwealth countries. |