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Digital Scholarship Centre (DSC) assists researchers in navigating digital landscape

01 November 2021 | Story André Damons

The recently established Digital Scholarship Centre (DSC) at the University of the Free State (UFS) is playing a pivotal role in contributing to the development of a collaborative research culture at the university – from cross-faculty and international collaboration to support and administrative services for research.

The DSC was established after an investigation by the Library and Information Services (LIS) to determine the need for digital scholarship support in order to help escalate research output and quality and to support the institutional strategic aim of being a research-led university. The investigation clearly revealed that digital scholarship services would have a significant impact on the UFS' strategic purposes.

Cornelle Scheltema-Van Wyk, Manager of the DSC, says the centre is there to help increase research output, research visibility and impact, and ultimately, the reputation of the university as a research-led institution. “And we do this within the digital scholarship environment (which exists because of digital technology, the internet, and open scholarship), providing researchers with support to use digital methods to enhance their work,” says Scheltema-Van Wyk.

A pilot project for the DSC was run last year by a work group consisting of representatives from LIS, the Directorate of Research Development (DRD), and ICT Services. An acting manager was appointed, and a web presence was created for the DSC.

Assistance for researchers

It was clear from the investigation that the research community at the university needed help navigating the digital landscape, determining what services and support systems exist, and how to find, access, and use them. The investigation revealed that researchers are looking for

a one-stop shop for research support;
increased awareness of services at the university;
information, guidance, and training for researchers to enable them to discover, request, and use research support services and digital technologies;
creating a strong online presence, while also providing a physical hub with equipment that many researchers cannot afford, as well as a ‘haven’ with an ‘inspiring atmosphere’ to do research when offices become too distracting due to administrative tasks and students;
assistance with creating and using collaborative online environments for collaborative research projects;
assistance with the open science environment, specifically with regard to open access publishing, funding for open access publishing, and open methods in research; and
support for research data management, specifically the development of a research data policy and a data repository at the university.

The centre, which has its roots in the digital, open, and networked environment, also helps to maximise the effectiveness of scarce and limited resources by minimising duplication, not only in research practice with the help of research data management, for example, but also at support level with knowledge of the institutional research environment and where resources can be shared. DSC works to maintain awareness of all relevant resources and can assist with connection and coordination. It also provides information, guidance, training, support services for digital scholarship as well as technology and software, consultation, spaces, and referrals to services such as high-performance computing.

According to Scheltema-Van Wyk, the benefit of digital scholarship services with a main hub to act as coordinator and consolidator is that the hub has a wider view of the research environment at the institution throughout the research cycle. This includes the planning stages of a research project where a researcher needs to acquire equipment, to data collection and analysis in a digital world, to the preservation of research, and publication in a new scholarly communication environment.

The pilot projects

The UFS has a good foundation of capabilities when it comes to existing research support services for digital scholarship and has developed these capabilities over the past ten years. This includes the High-Performance Computing unit in ICT Services, innovation support by the DRD via KovsieInnovation, and digitisation, digital collections infrastructure, electronic publishing, and repository services at LIS. These support services are very successful from a production standpoint, but the success of visibility and engagement with these services at the institution is more varied.

“The pilot projects illustrated the benefits of the DSC, where researchers were able to contact the centre with questions ranging from how to install research software on their computers, the process of acquiring mobile applications for research purposes (the DSC liaised with Finance to create a process), to setting up online academic seminars and getting third-party applications to work with university resources,” says Scheltema-Van Wyk.

The knowledge gained from these service requests has already provided the DSC with a broader knowledge of the research environment at the university and allowed recommendations for collaboration and the sharing of resources and expertise in the community.

The DSC uses a hub-and-spoke service model. This model includes a strong central node that links to many other resources. Knowledge, expertise, staff, and services are embedded in academic departments, interdisciplinary units (for example, the newly established Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures), libraries and other service points around the university, which are connected and coordinated through this central node.

The advantage of this model is that it allows growth to take place organically. Services and expertise develop where needed, rather than researchers depending on a centralised unit that may lack the resources to meet ever-evolving digital scholarship needs. Distributed knowledge and skills, however, make it difficult to identify where to go for specific services, training, and assistance. The DSC as a central hub combats the confusion this may cause, linking to the various spokes at the institution.

Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research and Internationalisation, says the DSC is at the forefront of providing support to our world-leading researchers on the latest developments in the digital research arena. We are committed to continuing our cutting-edge support and novel approaches to developing the UFS as a research-led university.

News Archive

A new dawn for student governance

2011-09-02

Our SRC presidents: Richard Chemaly (Bloemfontein Campus) and Bongani Ncgaca (Qwaqwa Campus)
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

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The successful and peaceful completion of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Student Representative (SRC) elections 2011 herals a new dawn for student governance with the announcement of the results today (1 September 2011).

The SRC elections at the Qwaqwa Campus were completed on 25 August 2011, while the elections at our Bloemfontein Campus took place on 29 and 30 August 2011.

“A new dawn heralds a new day when Richard Chemaly, the son of Lebanese immigrants becomes President of an SRC, as elected by students from all racial backgrounds and from across the student body at large. A new day has arrived when candidates could have won voter support across racial lines; a new day is here when all SRC members are now recognised leaders on the basis of academic accountability,” the Dean of Student Affairs, Mr Rudi Buys, says.

A new dawn has arrived; firstly, insofar as student elections for the choice of student leaders at the UFS now proceed according to a non-racial and a non-party political basis.

Not only did the SRC elections at both the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses achieve its required quorum, with 31% (4 729 votes) and 50% (2 112 votes) voter turnout, respectively, but the SRC elected by students at the Bloemfontein Campus is 55% black and 45% white, and 60% female and 40% male. The numbers of votes gained by successful candidates also indicate that voters from all racial backgrounds have voted for their candidates of choice.

Secondly, a new dawn has arrived insofar as student governance occupied by only some student groups claiming to speak on behalf of all students has made way for direct voting for candidates by the broad student body and the threefold increase of student governance structures on campus.

Not only did all students at our Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses (a total of 15 173 and 4 257, respectively) have the opportunity to participate in voting directly, but nine additional Student Councils were established at our Bloemfontein Campus that each holds an ex officio seat on the SRC and allows for student governance in all the major student sectors of the student body, such as for postgraduate students, international students and all categories of student associations.

The various councils now established include the Student Academic Affairs Council, the Student Associations Council, the Postgraduate Student Council, the International Student Council, the Student Media Council, the Residences Student Council, the Commuter Student Council and the Rag Community Service Fundraising and Service Councils. In addition, all faculties also introduced student representative structures at departmental and faculty level in 2011 to ensure student participation in faculty management and governance.

The SRC members at the Bloemfontein Campus are:

Elective portfolios:
President: Mr Richard Chemaly
Vice-President: Mr Lefata David Maklein
Secretary: Ms Matshepo Ramokgadi
Treasurer: Mr Werner Pretorius
Arts & Culture: Ms Alta Grobelaar
Accessibility & Student Support: Mr William Clayton
First-generation Students: Ms Petre du Plessis
Media, Marketing & Liaison: Ms Biejanka Calitz
Sport: Mr Bonolo Thebe
Student Development & Environmental Affairs: Ms Busisiwe Madikizela
Transformation: Ms Qaqamba Mhlauli

Ex officio portfolios:
Dialogue & Ex officio: Associations Student Council: Mr Anesu Ruswa
Academic Affairs & Ex officio: Academic Affairs Student Council: Mr Jean Vermaas
Residence Affairs & Ex officio: Campus Residences Student Council: Ms Mpho Mokaleng
City student Affairs & Ex officio: Commuter Student Council: Ms Annemieke Plekker
Postgraduate Affairs & Ex officio: Postgraduate Student Council: Ms Glancina Mokone
International Affairs & Ex officio: International Student Council: Mr Pitso Ramokoatsi
Student Media Affairs & Ex officio: Student Media Council: Ms Nicole Heyns
RAG Community Service & Ex officio: RAG Fundraising Council: Ms Iselma Parker
RAG Community Service & Ex officio: RAG Community Service Council: Ms Motheo Pooe

In the Qwaqwa elections, SASCO achieved 36,84% of the vote, with SADESMO, PASMA and NASMO each achieving 29,73% and 18,56% and 12,74%, respectively .

Mr Bongani Ncgaca was elected as the President of the SRC at our Qwaqwa Campus, while the names of the SRC members at the campus will be announced on 7 September 2011.

The Central SRC will be established on 8 September 2011 by a joint sitting of the two SRCs.

The successful completion of the SRC elections at the Bloemfontein Campus follows a yearlong review process of student governance by a Broad Student Transformation Forum (BSTF) that consists of 59 delegations from student organisations and residences. The BSTF adopted independent candidacy for elective portfolios and additional student councils to provide ex officio seats on the SRC as the template for student governance, following the consideration of a series of benchmarking reports on student governance nationally and internationally.

The UFS Council adopted the new SRC Constitution, as drafted and submitted by the BSTF, on 3 June 2011.

Media Release
1 September 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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