Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
11 January 2021 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied
Vincent Clarke
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.

News Archive

UFS professors invited to address the UN
2011-10-21

This month two senior professors from our university will give talks abroad at the offices of the United Nations (UN). Prof. Andre Keet, Director of the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice, has been invited by the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to attend the ninth working session of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action in Geneva, Switzerland from 23-27 October 2011.

Prof. Kwandiwe Kondlo, head of our Centre for Africa Studies, will attend a high-powered UN Global Expert Meeting on Political Economy for Development in Egypt from 28-29 October 2011. The meeting will look into the reconstruction of Egypt and Prof. Kondlo will address the meeting on applying political analysis to policy and programming regional perspectives.

In Geneva Prof. Keet will deliver a presentation on the role of education in combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, focusing on the role of National Human Rights and Higher Education Institutions.

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