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26 August 2022 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Supplied
Katleho Nkosi
Katleho Nkosi’s design, which won him second place in the national design competition during the Student Entrepreneurship Week 2022.

Katleho Nkosi, a fourth-year Education student at the University of the Free State (UFS), obtained second place in a national design competition hosted virtually by Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE). 

The national design competition formed part of the launch of the Student Entrepreneurship Week 2022, which took place at the University of Venda on 18 August 2022. As such, students from many of the universities in the country, including Nkosi, took part in designing a poster that would be used to advertise the event. 

Nkosi is delighted and excited about this accomplishment. “This win was really surprising and unbelievable for me, because obtaining the second-place position means that my work is good,” said Nkosi.

The participants were allowed to conceptualise and submit their final product between 28 June and 15 July 2022. “I had no experience in this space, I only designed content for fun, and I participated in this competition because I was motivated by a friend,” Nkosi highlighted. 

Click to view document  Click here to view poster in full size.


The motivation behind the design

Since the Student Entrepreneurship Week was held at the University of Venda, Nkosi used the vibrancy and colourfulness of Venda as inspiration for his design. “When I was designing the poster, the only thing on my mind was making sure that I put something together that was related to Venda,” he explained. In addition, the theme for the Entrepreneurship Week was ‘Move to Market’, and Nkosi asserts that he tried to integrate the theme with Venda, and this is how the design came about.

The outcome of the competition and future plans

Although Nkosi did not win the competition, he did receive a cash prize for being among the top three. Furthermore, given his accomplishment, Nkosi would like to take part in many more design competitions moving forward. “Now that I have realised that I have the potential to win, I think I can take this as a career path in the future,” he said. Nkosi is also looking at merging his love of teaching with his newfound love for design. “I’m going to try and find the connection between design and education, because I really love to teach, so I could perhaps become a design teacher,” Nkosi expressed

News Archive

Department of Architecture receives unconditional validation
2017-09-08

Description: Arch SACAP  Tags: National and International validation, South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP), Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) 

In the 2017 validation portfolio was the
dissertation: Revealing the Invisible
by Laura-Anne Fox.
Photo: Supplied



Earlier this year the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State (UFS) received unconditional validation nationally from the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP) and internationally from the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA). SACAP aspires towards people-centred architecture for South Africa.

Register as professionals in the industry
The broad aim of the validation session is to safeguard standards in architectural education and for professional registration. 

According to Jako Olivier, Programme Director of the Department of Architecture at UFS, unconditional validation sanctions that the three professional-oriented degrees are aligned with national and international education standards. The degrees, BArch, BArch Hons and MArch (Professional), then also meet the prescribed national standards of registration compatible with international standards. 

Department proud of calibre students
The validation is effective for five years; from 2017 to 2022. 

The department is proud of the calibre of students they guide towards employment in the architectural field. Graduates from the department find employment at leading architectural firms nationally and internationally.  

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