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28 November 2022 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Anja Aucamp
Prof Melanie Walker
Prof Melanie Walker is one of two NRF A1-rated scholars at the UFS.

The Higher Education and Human Development (HEHD) research group under the leadership of Prof Melanie Walker has grown to become a pocket of academic excellence and innovation at the UFS. “The group’s research positions universities (if ‘reimagined’) as potentially powerful sites for achieving human development by challenging the status quo and entrenched interests and inequalities,” Prof Walker notes. 

HEHD researchers draw substantially on the capability approach, which offers a contribution to higher education in South Africa, primarily because it derives from a normative framework that places human flourishing as its primary goal, chiming with the country’s transformation goals.

Prof Walker is an internationally acclaimed researcher and academic and one of three A-rated National Research Foundation (NRF) scholars at the UFS. In 2021, she was elected as the first president of the international Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) from the Global South. Back then, Prof Walker said the UFS already had a strong research presence within the HDCA, and her group was known for its work in African higher education. The HDCA brings together academics who generate ideas and research on human development.

The research group, which was founded by Prof Walker, is an embodiment of the quality and of the impact elements of the institutional narrative of the UFS. The HEHD is now happily based in the Centre for Development Support within the UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

Top-tier research outputs from HEHD

The outputs of the HEHD research group have a far-reaching impact, given the nature of its national and international affiliated researchers, students, and collaborators. Members of the group have published 19 peer-reviewed books since 2013, and since 2016, the HEHD has graduated 20 PhDs whose research focuses on diverse aspects of higher education and capabilities across the sub- Saharan region. A range of international examiners in the USA, the UK and Europe attest to the quality of the HEHD’s doctoral graduates.

“I am immensely proud of the quality of the research and collective ethos of our graduate students and our researchers and, as importantly, the substantive focus on human development and social justice in and through higher education in Africa,” Prof Walker says. “As Professor Tristan McCowan and others have noted, this group is quite unique internationally,” she continues.

Projects and research collaborations

The numerous institutional and national and international research collaborations are also testament to the interdisciplinarity of Prof Walker’s academic approach. Various recent and current projects attest to this, for example, the recently completed Miratho project on inclusive higher education learning outcomes for low-income rural youth with Birmingham and Nottingham.

Some of the the book titles that have been published by HEHD members past and present, on display on the wall in the Benito Khotseng Building on the Bloemfontein Campus. (Photo: Anja Aucamp) 


A further current example is the project under the Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF) with Bristol and Rhodes led by Dr Mikateko Mathebula, and a new edited book underway with Alejandra Boni and Diana Velasco (Spain) on higher education and reparative futures.

 
Furthermore, national collaborations such as the project with colleagues in the Centre for Development Support at the UFS and the University of Pretoria, which will be investigating the sustainable (ecologically and socially), developmental South African university and justice facing university futures from a variety of stakeholder 
perspectives.

This research project is informed by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, because achieving them cannot be done without the contributions of higher education institutions.

It is thus evident that under the leadership of Prof Walker, the HEHD research group is now established as one of the finest research groups at the UFS and contributes actively to the research and academic excellence at the university.

News Archive

UFS registration process is proceeding well
2011-01-11

Ms Belinda Venter and her daughter, Stacey Venter, second year student in Consumer Sciences, registering online with the help of Donovan Nell, student assistant and currently a third-year student in Computer Sciences at the UFS.
- Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

The university implemented an online registrations process for senior students this year. “We are one of the first universities in the country where students can do the entire registration process online themselves. The advantage of this new turn in the registration process at the university is that students can register from the comfort of their homes or even from any place in the world,” says Prof. Niel Viljoen, Vice-Rector: Operations at the UFS.

Senior students who experienced problems during the registration programme from 1 November 2010 to 4 January 2011, have the opportunity to, within a programme, address these problems as from 5-12 January 2011. During this period UFS staff members will be available to assist students to register electronically.

However, senior students can still register online after 12 January until 28 January 2011.

The registration process of first-time entering first-year students is also proceeding well. Although a large number of applications for late registration have been received, it can be handled without difficulty.

First-year students are welcomed by Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, on Friday, 14 January and Saturday 15 January 2011 at 09:00 in the Callie Human Centre.

From 17- 21 January 2011, first-year students will receive academic advice at the Callie Human Centre, where after they will be referred for self-registration. These processes will take place according to the scheduled timetable, which appears in the Kovsie Guide. The Kovsie Guide was sent to first-year students, and is also available on the UFS webpage (www.ufs.ac.za/register2011).

The registration process for the Qwaqwa Campus is from 17-21 January 2011 for first-time entering first-year students and from 17-28 January 2011 for senior students.

According to personnel at the registration help desk, the following problems are reported the most frequently:

  • Forgotten or expired passwords: Students are requested to contact 051 401 2442 to report this problem.
  • Outstanding registration fees, which lead to the specific student’s account being blocked: Students are requested to contact 051 401 2806 for help in this regard.
  • If information regarding module codes is required, the relevant faculty can be visited for academic advice.


Classes on the Main and Qwaqwa Campuses will start on Monday, 24 January 2011.

 

Media Release
11 January 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051  401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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