Latest News Archive

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

Beacon of hope flares the 45th Youth Day anniversary celebration

01 July 2021 | Story Dikgapane Makhetha | Photo Supplied

This year, the young people of South Africa celebrated 45 years of the annual commemoration of Youth Day. The University of the Free State (UFS) Community Engagement (CE) office on the Qwaqwa Campus has engaged a number of stakeholders in the call to use football as a means of bringing people together, transforming lives, and enthusing communities. Through partnerships, community organisations have great potential to create opportunities for breaking down barriers and inspiring social cohesion, initiating enablement through the development of social projects, and promoting education and health awareness.

On 16 June this year, local community organisations collaborated in the hosting of a soccer event for the youth of Qwaqwa at the FIFA Football for Hope Stadium in Tsheseng. The Agape Foundation for Community Development, Love Life, Right to Care, Youth in Action, Qwaqwa FIFA Project, and the Tsheseng Athletics Club were all stakeholders who diligently joined forces to ensure the successful launch of the tournament. Community development practitioners, who are trainees in the UFS Qwaqwa Department of Community Development, were garbed in departmental branded gear and have cautiously facilitated adherence to COVID-19 protocols. About 250 people, including football fans and participants, attended and enjoyed the entertaining games. Through the partnered recreational project, the Qwaqwa Campus CE office responded to the 2021 Youth Day theme: ‘Growing Youth Employment for an inclusive and transformed society’, by enhancing opportunities for networking among stakeholders. Football is popularly known for promoting transformational social projects in diverse communities across the globe.

News Archive

Second group joins Prestige Scholars Programme

2013-02-22

Some of the new scholars in the programme are seen here with Prof Jackie du Toit. From the left are: Drs Gladys Kigozi (Centre For Health Systems Research & Development), Brian van Soelen (Physics), Charles Haddad (Zoology and Entomology), Prof Du Toit and Tanya Beelders (Computer Science and Informatics).
Photo: Johan Roux
22 February 2013

A second group of 15 young academics is selected to be part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Prestige Scholars Programme (PSP). The first group of 25 scholars joined the programme in 2011 and some of them were placed at partner universities abroad during 2012.

The programme identifies and promotes promising young academics in the university towards becoming full professors with superior research accomplishments.

Prof Jackie du Toit, Academic Co-director of PSP, says: “This highly prestigious cross-disciplinary programme for the next generation of UFS professors in the last two years produced Fulbright scholars; NRF Y1-rated young scholars; NRF Blue Skies and Thuthuka recipients and several National Research Foundation Y2 ratings.

“Scholars on the programme have created partnerships at leading universities in Japan, Europe, the UK and the USA. Within the South African academy, the PSP is a novel approach to the advancement of scholarship and the development of professional scholars. It contributes towards positioning the UFS as an innovator among research universities in this country.”

“This fast-tracking of the next generation of professors involves an intense mentorship programme at the UFS and an international placement with a leading scholar in a top university.”

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