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The management of the University of the Free State (UFS) is deeply concerned about the continued xenophobic and Afrophobic attacks in our country, specifically the actions of, and statements made by groups and individuals. 

The UFS condemns all forms of xenophobic and Afrophobic actions and thinking and expresses its solidarity with the members of the university community hailing from other regions of the African continent and the world. The UFS is committed to promoting diversity, social justice, inclusivity, and transformation and is united in its diversity. As a university community, it cherishes diversity as a catalyst for positive change, innovative research, and cutting-edge teaching and learning. Xenophobic actions, threats, or statements will not be tolerated at the UFS. The UFS is committed to nurturing and entrenching a human-rights culture and advocating human rights, both within the context of the university and beyond.

Xenophobia, Afrophobia, and discrimination jeopardise the process of internationalisation at any university. It limits the international and multicultural exposure of our students, which is important to achieve graduate attributes and to specifically develop students’ international and intercultural competence. The UFS is strategically strengthening its collaborations and partnerships in Africa and beyond. It recognises the positive power of diversifying the knowledge paradigms with which it interacts. International staff members, postdoctoral fellows, and students make a significant contribution to the academic project, scholarship traditions, and intellectual diversity of the university. 

The management of the UFS will do everything in its power to ensure the well-being of all members of its international university community.

Xenophobia is the ‘fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign’ (Merriam-Webster Dictionary), whereas Afrophobia can be understood as the ‘fear and hatred of the cultures and people of Africa’.





News Archive

UFS will increase its volume of quality research
2009-11-25

 
From the left are, seated: Prof. Alice Pell, Vice-Provost: International Relations at Cornell University in the USA and Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS; standing: Prof. Ezekiel Moraka, Vice-Rector: External Relations at the UFS, and Prof. David Wolfe from Cornell University during the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the two institutions.
Photo: Stephen Collett

The University of the Free State (UFS) is taking its research serious and is therefore going to increase its volume of quality research. This includes the production of quality scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences.

This was said by Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, at the launch of the Strategic Academic Cluster initiative of the University on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein last night.

“We are going to produce the kind of research that is associated with scholarships. New models of training, new standards of performance and the introduction of an accelerated Vice-Chancellor’s Prestige Scholars’ Programme are among the initiatives that will be introduced. These are all aimed at boosting our university’s research performance,” said Prof. Jansen.

Another strategy to boost research performance at the UFS is the search for 25 leading professors to be appointed across the disciplines, but especially in the social sciences, education and the humanities. These positions have already been advertised and will be phased in with the goal of achieving equity and excellence in the academic and research profile of the UFS. “We’ve had an overwhelming response to the advertisements from local academics as well as those abroad,” said Prof. Jansen.

Each of the six Cluster Directors gave a short presentation of its aim and focus areas during last night’s dinner. These Clusters will in future direct the University’s research endeavours. It represents a move from a fragmented to a more focused approach to research development at the UFS.

The UFS also signed a memorandum of agreement with Cornell University (USA) last night. The guest speaker, Prof. Alice Pell, Vice-Provost: International Relations at Cornell University and member of the UFS’s International Advisory Board, said that, just as the cluster research teams need representatives from different disciplines, universities need diverse partners to recognise their potential fully. Collaborating with partners with ‘fresh eyes’ that have different cultural perspectives, access to different technologies and partners with different priorities can have important implications in the research and education provided by the UFS and Cornell,” she said.

“The interdisciplinary approach adopted by the UFS in developing the Strategic Academic Clusters seems likely to provide students with the intellectual frameworks and research tools that they need to address the problems in society,” she said.

“The most important issues facing the USA and South Africa are similar, namely how to effect the social transformation that will provide equal opportunities to all of our citizens. South Africa, Brazil, India and the USA share strong commitments to democracy, to overcoming our dark histories of religious and racial discrimination and to sustainable economic development without adverse impacts on our planet. We at Cornell are excited about the opportunity to work with the UFS on all of the clusters, but we are particularly looking forward to learning more about social transformation,” said Prof. Pell.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Deputy Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za  
24 November 2009

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