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22 October 2021 | Story Eugene Seegers | Photo Jolandi Griesel
Dr Arnelle Mostert receives the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for excellence in learning and teaching from the Vice-Rector: Academic, Dr Engela van Staden, at the annual Learning and Teaching Awards ceremony held in Bloemfontein on 13 October 2021.
The annual Learning and Teaching conference was held virtually by the Centre for Teaching and Learning from 13 to 15 September 2021. The conference, with the theme Quality and Innovation for a New Blended Learning Future, culminated in the annual UFS Learning and Teaching Awards, held on the Bloemfontein Campus on 13 October.

Highlights from Learning and Teaching Awards

This year, the Centre for Teaching and Learning recognised various academic staff members in different learning and teaching categories during the annual Learning and Teaching Awards ceremony. The categories included innovation in learning and teaching (curriculum design / assessment / student engagement / technology-enhanced learning and teaching); research in learning and teaching (novice and advanced); as well as the Vice-Chancellor’s Award. The Vice-Chancellor’s Award acknowledges all-round excellence in the field of learning and teaching.

Dr Arnelle Mostert from the Faculty of Health Sciences, who brought home the Vice-Chancellor’s Award, says, “To win this award has been a dream of mine for a very long time. I am so excited and grateful, as this prize is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work. Excellence in teaching and learning, in my eyes, lies in the small acts we do daily: Improving one lecture at a time, one word of encouragement, helping one student understand a concept, and most of all, touching one heart at a time with kindness and compassion. These small acts create a ripple effect in many peoples’ lives, as the students we teach can touch the lives of many others."

Not only have academic staff been rewarded, but the most valued professional award recognised the contribution of academic support professionals towards the advancement of learning and teaching at the institution and acknowledged dedication, innovation, and excellence in the support sphere. 

Gugu Tiroyabone, winner of the Most Valued Professional award, says of this accolade, “For me, this recognition affirms the commitment of the UFS to Goal 1 of its Strategic Plan 2018-2022: To improve student success and well-being. Reflecting on the past 19 months, a changing educational climate, and an evolving learning and teaching landscape, I appreciate how the new challenges have helped us grow as an institution, both as staff and as students. I am extremely thankful to work alongside a resilient team that is committed to holistic student success both inside and outside the classroom.”

For the first time, the Departmental Award for learning and teaching was bestowed on the School of Accounting (Bloemfontein Campus) and the School of Education Studies (Qwaqwa Campus). These two departments have shown great commitment and involvement in improving learning and teaching under the leadership of Prof Frans Prinsloo and Dr Bekithemba Dube.

This year, the best Qwaqwa and the best Bloemfontein conference paper presentations each received an award. The awards were won by Dr Brian Sibanda (CTL, Qwaqwa Campus) for his paper Practicing decoloniality in English Academic Literacies, and Dr Rick de Villiers (The Humanities, Bloemfontein Campus) for his presentation on Close reading at a distance: Making remote learning intimate and intensive.


Highlights from conference

Day 1: The conference was opened by the international keynote speaker, Dr Carl S Moore, Assistant Chief Academic Officer at the University of the District of Columbia, who gave the presentation Access to Learning. This presentation highlighted the role of online and blended learning within the future of higher education.

Day 2: Guest keynote speaker, Dr Noluthando Toni, Director of Teaching Development at Nelson Mandela University, presented Towards re-imagined blended learning and teaching: Heeding student voices and participation to bolster education practices. Dr Toni’s presentation focused on contextualising the new blended learning and teaching environment within South Africa, and shared experiences from her institution during their remote learning and teaching strategy (2020/21).

Day 3: The guest keynote speakers, Dr Adriana Botha (educational psychologist and senior educational consultant: Blackboard) and Dennis Nevels, presented the paper From Conventional to Online Assessment – Rethink and Innovate, in which they focused on providing academic staff with innovative practices and ideas around online assessment.

Throughout the three days, UFS academic and support staff members shared quality learning and teaching projects and innovations through academic papers in different conference tracks.

News Archive

Centre to enhance excellence in agriculture
2008-05-09

 

At the launch of the Centre for Excellence were, from the left, front: Ms Lesego Sejosengoe, Manager: Indigenous Food, Mangaung-University Community Partnership Project (MUCPP), Ms Kefuoe Mohapeloa, Deputy Director: national Department of Agriculture; back: Mr Garfield Whitebooi, Assistant Director: national Department of Agriculture, Dr Wimpie Nell, Director: Centre for Agricultural Management at the UFS, and Mr Petso Mokhatla, from the Centre for Agricultural Management and co-ordinator of the Excellence Model.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

UFS centre to enhance excellence in agriculture

The national Department of Agriculture (DoA) appointed the Centre for Agricultural Management within the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of the Free State (UFS) as the centre of excellence to roll out the excellence model for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME’s) for farmers in the Free State.

The centre was launched this week on the university’s Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

The excellence model, which is used worldwide, was adapted by the Department of Trade and Industry as an SMME Excellence Model. The DoA then adapted it for agricultural purposes.

“The excellence model aims to assist farmers in identifying gaps in business skills. These gaps will be addressed by means of short courses. It will help to close the gap between the 1st and 4th economy,” said Dr Wimpie Nell, Director of the Centre for Agricultural Management at the UFS.

The UFS – as co-ordinator of the SMME Excellence Model – the DoA, the private sector, municipalities, small enterprise development agencies, and non-governmental organisations will be working together to enhance excellence in agricultural businesses in the Free State.

The benefit of the model is that it changes the mindset of emerging farmers to see agriculture as a business and not as a way of living. Dr Nell said: “We also want to create a culture of competitiveness and sustainability amongst emerging farmers.”

“The Free State is the second province where the model has been implemented. Another four provinces will follow later this year. Altogether 23 officers from the DoA, NGO’s and private sector have already been trained as facilitators by the Centre of Excellence at the UFS,” said Dr Nell.

The facilitator training takes place during four contact sessions, which includes farm visits where facilitators get the opportunity to practically apply what they have learnt. On completion of the training facilitators use the excellence model to evaluate farming businesses and identify which skills (such as financial skills, entrepreneurship, etc.) the farmers need.

The co-ordinator from the Centre of Excellence, Mr Petso Mokhatla, will monitor the facilitators by visiting these farmers to establish the effectiveness of the implementation of the model. Facilitators must also report back to the centre on the progress of the farmers. This is an ongoing process where evaluation will be followed up by training and re-evaluation to ensure that successful establishment of emerging farmers has been achieved.

According to Ms Kefuoe Mohapeloa, Deputy Director from the national Department of Agriculture, one of the aims of government is to redistribute five million hectare of land (480 settled people per month) to previously disadvantaged individuals before 2010. The department also wants to increase black entrepreneurship in rural areas by 10% this year, increase food security by utilising scarce resources by 10%, and increase exports by black farmers by 10%.

“To fulfill these objectives it is very important for emerging farmers to get equipped with the necessary business skills. The UFS was a suitable candidate for this partnership because of its presence in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA). With the Jobs for Growth programme, ASGISA is an important extension to the Centre of Excellence and plays a major role in the implementation of the model to improve value-chain management,” said Ms Mohapeloa.

Twenty facilitators will receive training in June and another 20 in October this year. “The more facilitators we can train, the more farmers will benefit from the model,” said Dr Nell.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za  
8 May 2008

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