Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
05 April 2022 | Story Lacea Loader
Qwaqwa Campus

The preliminary finding of the urgent investigation into the fire on the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) on the evening of Monday 4 April 2022, indicates that the two buildings were intentionally set alight. This was established by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the university’s Protection Services this morning.

Since the outbreak of the fire, one person – who is a registered student – has been arrested by SAPS, and a process is underway to identify more suspects. The UFS will institute the necessary disciplinary action against suspects who are registered students. Similarly, criminal charges will also be instituted.

The buildings, which housed the clinic and a computer laboratory, were almost completely destroyed, with damage to both buildings estimated at R35 million.

The university management condemns the destructive behaviour of the students and condemns criminal behaviour such as this in the strongest terms. “The Qwaqwa Campus, as well as the entire university community, are shocked by this devastating and irresponsible act – especially after the campus experienced violent protest action this year, which significantly affected the academic programme,” said Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

The academic programme on the Qwaqwa Campus continues, mostly online for this week, and students will be informed by their faculties about the revised schedule, as well as arrangements regarding tests and assessments scheduled for this week on the campus.

The campus remains open; the university's Protection Services is on high alert and is monitoring the situation on campus closely.

It is alleged that students were unhappy about the payment of allowances they are due to receive from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in April 2022. To alleviate this, the UFS has so far this year offered students allowances for food and books amounting to more than R71 million, while they are waiting for their NSFAS subsidies to be released. 


Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Marketing)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za


News Archive

Workshop on common animal breeding problems
2007-05-23

The University of the Free State (UFS), in conjunction with the University of Stellenbosch (US) and the Institute for Animal Production, recently hosted Dr Arthur Gilmour, well-known biometrician from New South Wales, Australia. Dr Gilmour presented a two-day workshop at the UFS on the application of Arthur's Restricted Maximum Likelihood (ASREML) to common animal breeding problems. ASREML is a software programme suitable for among others the estimation of genetic and environmental variances and co-variances in animal breeding and is the preferred software package for animal breeding experimentation. The workshop was attended by post-graduate students and researchers in animal breeding from different universities. At the workshop were, from the left: Dr Gilmour, Ms Puleng Matebesi (M.Sc. student at the UFS), Prof. Japie van Wyk (Divisional Head of Animal Breeding at the UFS Department of Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences and one of the organisers of the workshop), Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS) and Prof. Frikkie Neser (Lecturer at the UFS Animal Breeding Division).
Photo: Stephen Collett
 

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