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2021 Kovsie ACT Eco-Vehicle race: Join the virtual fun!

07 May 2021 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Johan Roux

echo vehcile — The Kovsie ACT programme encourages the evolution of UFS students to form internationally competitive graduates who embody sustainable energy knowledge and skills to contribute to the development of the global environment.

Be a part of the evolution and livestream this year’s University of the Free State (UFS) Kovsie ACT Eco-vehicle race on 15 May 2021.

What’s in it for you? Get exposed to an informative but exciting event that will assess the technology and logic behind sustainable energy sources and how this will influence the future global society.

According to Karen Scheepers, Head of the University of the Free State (UFS) Kovsie Act office, the quest for sustainable resources remains one of the top-five challenges facing the global population of today. This challenge – together with issues pertaining to food insecurity, water, waste and toxins, and the widening gap between rich and poor – poses new questions to the kind of graduates that universities produce, she added. She further highlighted the importance of innovative critical thinking that responds to day-to-day issues experienced by society in a global context.

Therefore, the UFS has initiated an eco-vehicle project to help students develop the necessary graduate attributes to specifically address issues of sustainable resources. The aim of the eco-vehicle project is to implement, within the context of a higher education institution, a new innovative skills development solution to the challenge of sustainable resources, and to evaluate the efficacy and impact of this programme in a rigorous way.

Through this programme, senior undergraduate students worked together in teams through a mediated learning programme to build scale-model electric vehicles and mini solar charging stations – powered by solar energy (or batteries charged through solar energy). This experience will steer them towards finding solutions and creating awareness around 21st century issues, and adapting to the development of technology and globalisation, essentially producing an interdisciplinary experience for UFS students.

Kovsie ACT eco-vehicle skills programme

According to the Kovsie ACT team, the eco-vehicle skills programme helps students understand how their decisions and actions affect the environment, and further implores them to build on their knowledge and skills in order to address and combat complex environmental issues, while taking sufficient action to maintain its healthy state and secure it for the future.

The skills development programme culminates in a race-day event where sustainable energy skills are put to the test.

A certificate endorsed by the UFS and donor partner merSETA will be issued to students who have participated and who have been successfully trained and developed in the eco-vehicle skills programme, giving them a head start to the working world.

For more information about the Kovsie ACT eco-vehicle skills programme, email ACT at ACT@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

UFS to award honorary doctorate to Maria Ramos

2004-12-08

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) recently approved the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Ms Maria Ramos, Group Chief Executive of Transnet in April 2005. A total of five honorary doctorandi will be honored.

The other doctorandi are Proff Jan Groenewald (D Sc (hc)), Jaap Durand (D Phil (hc)), Sampie Terreblanche (C Dom (hc)) and Anthon Heyns (MD (hc)).

Me Ramos will receive an honorary doctorate in Economics (P hD (Economics) (hc)) for the large contribution she made to the establishment of a prudent fiscal and macro-economic policy in South Africa and hence, to the restoration of the financial credibility of the country in the eyes of domestic and foreign investors. Ms Ramos was the Director General of the National Treasury from 1996-2003.

She obtained the MSc-degree in Economics in 1992 from the University of London and was awarded a British Council Scholarship (Helen Suzman award) in the same year and in 1991. During the early nineties she was among others project leader of the ANC’s Macro-economic Research Group and also a member of the team that negotiated chapters on finance in the interim Constitution of South Africa. She was a research associate at the Centre for the Study of the South African Economy and International Finance at the London School of Economics and also lectured at the Universities of South Africa and the Witwatersrand.

“It is a great privilege for us to honor Ms Ramos and the other doctorandi in their different fields of expertise. This once again serves as an example of the UFS’s policy to give recognition to people who excel and make a difference,” said Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

Prof Jan Groenewald will receive an honorary doctorate for his life-long commitment to the establishment and development of Agricultural Economics as a subject field in South Africa and in Africa and his various contributions to the UFS. During his career, Prof Groenewald received various awards among others in 1998 when he received the Stals Prize for Economics from the South African Academy for Science and Art and in 1990 when he received an honorary medal from the South African Society for Agricultural Economics.

Prof Jaap Durand will receive an honorary doctorate in Philosophy for his pioneering work on various fields in the South African society. He obtained his Masters degree in Philosophy from the UFS and contributed to almost 60 articles and collections. Prof Durand has a colourful career as academic manager: from professor in Systematic Theology and dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of the Western Cape to Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the same university. He was the ombudsman of the University of Stellenbosch from 2002-2003.

Prof Sampie Terreblanche will receive an honorary doctorate in Economics for the important role he played, and is still playing, to keep the debate about and the need for socio-economic and socio-political reform in South Africa going. Prof Terreblanche started his career as a lecturer at the UFS. In 1992 the Stals Prize for Economics was awarded to him by the South African Academy for Science and Art. Prof Terreblanche was also a founding member of ASSET, an organisation addressing the problems of poverty, inequality and social injustice in South Africa.

Prof Anthon Heyns, Chief Executive Officer of the South African National Blood Service, will receive an honorary doctorate in Medicine. Prof Heyns is a well-known international researcher in Hematology and recently received a Centenary Medal from the UFS for his strong role and national prominence as expert and leading figure in establishing and developing Hematology at the UFS. He was the first head of the UFS’s Department of Hematology and is also co-editor of the only Afrikaans hand book of Hematology. He serves among others as a council member and member of the executive management of the South African Medical Research Council. On the international front he serves on at least five committees of the World Health Organisation based in Geneve, Switzerland. He has two honorary appointments as professor respectively at the UFS and University of the Witwatersrand.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
8 December 2004

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