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18 January 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Prof Andries Stulting
Prof Andries Stulting, who obtained an MBA at the age of 73, believes it is a great privilege to be able to be useful in your home, community, and workplace and to add value to your own life and to the lives of other people around you in an effort to grow and to keep your mind active.
Prepare, act, adapt, and conquer. The MBA qualification that Prof Andries Stulting, former Head of the DDepartment of Ophthalmology at the University of the Free State (UFS), obtained from the university at the age of 73, taught him about the importance of these four aspects in the marketplace. 

Bridging the gap

Although an ophthalmologist of note who has changed the lives of hundreds of patients over the years, working as the Hospital Clinical Manager at a private healthcare facility in the Northern Cape reminded Prof Stulting that he had a gap in his knowledge of finance, economics, and budgets. He took this position as Hospital Clinical Manager after his retirement from a career of 31 years at the UFS. 

“I was capable of solving the clinical problems of the private practitioners working in the hospital. But when management had budget meetings or discussions on making the hospital more profitable, I was at a loss of words and completely out of my depth,” he explains. 

Prof Stulting says he enjoyed the MBA course. “I enjoyed being a student again and to work with a younger generation of people who accepted me as part of their group. Although it was a challenge for me to learn how to work online, how to submit assignments online, and how to listen to the endless Zoom conversations, I learned a lot about modern technology from my younger classmates.”  

He believes the MBA is a huge commitment, and his advice to prospective MBA candidates is to start within yourself. “Ask yourself if you are prepared to balance your current job and your part-time studies for the next two years of your life; to stretch your boundaries beyond what is known to you, and to leave your comfort zone; for your mind to be stretched; and do you have a supporting family or group of friends?” 

A defining moment

Besides the day-to-day classes, operations, and research, Prof Stulting trained 47 ophthalmologists during his career at the UFS, served in several management positions, including as member of the Executive Committee of Senate and acting head of the School of Medicine, was named Bloemfonteiner of the Year in 1996, and received an Honorary Degree from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. 


But where did it all start?

He recalls that while doing his two-year internship after qualifying as a medical doctor in 1973, he gave the anaesthesia for a corneal transplant operation at the Military Hospital in Pretoria. “For the first time in my life I was exposed to an eye operation! I was so intrigued by the micro-surgery being performed through an operating microscope that I almost forgot to wake the patient up after the operation! That was one of the defining moments in my life,” he says. 

Making a difference

Prof Stulting says he still takes pleasure in seeing people with eye problems. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was strange for him at first to work with ‘masked people’. “However, one of the good things about the pandemic was that we, as eye-care practitioners, have learned to listen better to our patients and customers and to spend more time with the patient than before the outbreak.”

He strongly believes that it is a great privilege to be able to be useful in your home, community, and workplace and to add value to your own life and to the lives of other people around you in an effort to grow and to keep your mind active.

Reading and the near future

Acquiring an MBA is not the end of the story of his career in academia. Prof Stulting is already looking forward to doing a PhD degree on leadership in the health-care environment, while he still wants to continue practising in what he calls the queen of specialities, namely ophthalmology.  

And when he is not studying or enabling more people to experience the wonder of sight, he loves to read – both fiction and nonfiction. Some of the last books he has read include Thinking the Future by Clem Sunter and Mitch Ilbury (unfinished), Mercy (David Baldacci), Viral (Robin Cook), Over My Dead Body (Jeffrey Archer), and The Midnight Lock (Jeffery Deaver). “I also enjoy motivational books by Robin Sharma, John Maxwell, and Ken Blanchard,” he adds. 


News Archive

Researchers international leaders in satellite tracking in the wildlife environment
2015-05-29

 

Ground-breaking research has attracted international media attention to Francois Deacon, lecturer and researcher in the Department Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences at the UFS, and Prof Nico Smit, from the same department. They are the first researchers in the world to equip giraffes with GPS collars, and to conduct research on this initiative. Recently, they have been joined by Hennie Butler from the Department of Zoology as well as Free State Nature Conservation to further this research.

“Satellite tracking is proving to be extremely valuable in the wildlife environment. The unit is based on a mobile global two-way communication platform, utilising two-way data satellite communication, complete with GPS systems.

“It allows us to track animals day and night, while we monitor their movements remotely from the computer. These systems make possible the efficient control and monitoring of wildlife in all weather conditions and in near-to-real time. We can even communicate with the animals, calling up their positions or changing the tracking schedules.

“The satellite collar allows us to use the extremely accurate data to conduct research with the best technology available. The volume of data received allows us to publish the data in scientific journals and research-related articles.  

“Scientific institutions and the public sector have both shown great interest in satellite tracking, which opens up new ground for scientific research for this university. Data management can be done, using Africa Wildlife Tracking (AWT) equipment where we can access our data personally, store it, and make visual presentations. The AWT system and software architecture provide the researcher with asset tracking, GPS location reports, geo-fencing, highly-detailed custom mapping, history reports and playback, polling on demand, history plotting on maps, and a range of reporting types and functions,” Francois said.

Data can be analysed to determine home range, dispersal, or habitat preference for any specific species.

Francois has been involved in multiple research projects over the last 12 years on wildlife species and domesticated animals, including the collaring of species such as Black-backed Jackal, Caracal, African Wild Dog, Hyena, Lion, Cheetah, Cattle, Kudu, Giraffe, and Black Rhino: “Giraffe definitely being the most challenging of all,” he said.

In 2010, he started working on his PhD, entitled The spatial ecology, habitat preferences and diet selection of giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa) in the Kalahari region of South Africa.

 

Since then, his work has resulted not only in more research work (supervising four Masters students) but also in a number of national and international projects. These include work in the:

  • Kalahari region (e.g. Khamab Nature Reserve and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park)
  • Kuruman region (Collared 18 cattle to identify spatial patterns in relation to the qualities of vegetation and soil-types available. This project took place in collaboration with Born University in Germany)
  • Woodland Hills Wildlife Estate and Kolomella Iron Ore – ecological monitoring
  • A number of Free State nature reserves (e.g. Distribution of herbivores (kudu and giraffe) and predators (camera traps)

Francois is also involved with species breeding programmes and management (giraffe, buffalo, sable, roan, and rhino) in Korrannaberg, Rustenburg, Hertzogville, Douglas, and Bethlehem as well as animal and ecological monitoring in Kolomella and Beesthoek iron ore.

Besides the collaring of giraffes, Francois and his colleagues are involved in national projects, where they collect milk from lactating giraffes and DNA material, blood samples, and ecto/endo parasites from giraffes in Southern Africa.

With international projects, Francois is working to collect DNA material for the classification of the nine sub-species of giraffe in Africa. He is also involved in projects focusing on the spatial ecology and adaptation of giraffe in Uganda (Murchison Falls), and to save the last 30 giraffe in the DRC- Garamba National Park.

This project has attracted a good deal of international interest. In June 2014, a US film crew (freelancing for Discovery Channel) filmed a documentary on Francois’ research (trailer of documentary). Early in 2015, a second crew, filming for National Geographic, also visited Francois to document his work.

 

More information about Francois’ work is available at the GCF website. 

Read Francois Deacon's PhD abstract

Direct enquiries to news@ufs.ac.za.

 

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