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01 August 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Maryke Venter
UFS No student Hungry concert
Attending the first Winter Warmer Indoor Concert, hosted by the Faculty of Health Sciences, were, from the left: Prof Hanneke Brits, Dorah Klaas from UFS Institutional Advancement, Dr Nicholas Pearce, and Mantwa Makhakhe, Senior Financial Planner and Director at Sanlam.

“Don’t worry about a thing,
‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right
Singin’: “Don’t worry about a thing
‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right!”

An extract from the lyrics of Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, performed by Dr Nicholas Pearce, Head of the Department of Surgery at the University of the Free State (UFS), and Prof Hanneke Brits, Associate Professor in the UFS Department of Family Medicine, singing along with the staff and students from the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences and the audience. This performance was one of the highlights during the first Winter Warmer Picnic Concert presented by the Faculty of Health Sciences. 

The faculty, besides displaying the talent of its medical students, the Free State Youth Wind Ensemble, the UFS Choir, and nationally renowned Lucy Sehloho, aimed to create a fun evening for staff, students, and the Bloemfontein community in order to raise awareness for hungry students. 

About students for students

It is a function about students for students, remarked Prof Prakash Naidoo, Vice-Rector: Operations, who opened the event. According to him, millions of people worldwide go hungry every day. “At the UFS, there are also many students who are not able to afford basic food stuffs. Often, essentials are not covered by student bursaries, leaving students hungry and struggling to perform at the academic level expected,” he said. 

To enter the Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus where the concert was hosted, members of the audience could donate non-perishable food, sanitary items, or blankets. The 800 food parcels collected at the event will be distributed by the No Student Hungry programme

Besides students, staff members and their families who attended the concert and donated towards the NSH, the Life Rosepark Hospital and Sanlam also made financial contributions towards the programme. 

Community coming together for a good cause

The idea to host the concert and to see lecturers in the faculty perform, stemmed from the CANSA shavathon held earlier this year when more than R10 000 was raised for people suffering from cancer and other related illnesses. Dr Pearce indicated that, should students reach the R10 000 mark, he and Prof Brits would perform Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds. The original idea of one performance evolved into a two-hour concert, seeing members of the Bloemfontein community coming together for a good cause. 

“Due to your contribution, many students will not go hungry,” said Dr Pearce, thanking everyone who attended the concert and donated to the NSH programme.

• Should you also like to make a difference in someone’s life and make a cash donation to the No Student Hungry programme, please scan the QR code and follow the instructions. Your contribution can go a long way in making a difference in someone’s life. 

News Archive

HEMIS training ‘shares insights across institutions’, says Prof Petersen
2017-08-22

 Description: HEMIS training ‘shares insights across institutions’ Tags: HEMIS training ‘shares insights across institutions’

UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor Prof Francis Petersen
presents the welcoming address at the 2017 HEMIS Institute
in Bloemfontein.
Photo: Eugene Seegers

Higher education institutions such as universities need information and accurate data to make critically important management decisions. Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), expressed these sentiments during his introduction at the 2017 HEMIS Institute recently held in Bloemfontein.

Reporting a critical part of HE practice
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) uses its Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) to manage and verify performance data from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) regarding four crucial datasets, namely students, staff, space, and postdoctoral information and research fellows. HEMIS data is collected for quality control, funding, and planning purposes, in particular for steering the system and for monitoring the sector. This data must then be audited, since it is used for subsidy allocations to HEIs.

“Institutional reporting on aspects of what we do as public universities is a critical part of practice in Higher Education,” said Prof Petersen. He added, “Whether about insourcing statistics, … student accommodation, or transformation and indicators within that domain, it’s really all about accurate data with which informed, evidence-based decisions can be made. This HEMIS Institute 2017 ultimately enables us to share insights across institutions, which can grow and strengthen the sector as a whole.”

‘It’s about accurate data with
which informed decisions can
be made’—Prof Francis Petersen

Public and private HEIs attend training alongside government reps
The Institutional Information Systems Unit of the Directorate for Institutional Research and Academic Planning (DIRAP) hosted and presented the Southern African Association for Institutional Research (SAAIR) HEMIS Foundations workshop and the annual HEMIS Institute in Bloemfontein. These training opportunities were attended by university data managers and representatives from 26 public and private HEIs, as well as representatives from the Council on Higher Education (CHE), DHET, and the Namibian National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). The Foundations workshop was designed to assist those new to the platform to be better acquainted with this data management tool, while the two-day Institute was structured to answer complex questions and address issues around the use of the relevant reporting structures and software.

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