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19 October 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs
Dr Pieter du Toit
Dr Pieter du Toit, President of the Convocation, recently addressed more than 200 Convocation members at the Annual General Meeting.

What if you knew there was a body whose endeavours sought to be dynamic and engaging, promote excellence, welcome inclusion, and serve its alma mater?

One of the aims of the UFS Convocation – a body of more than 40 000 members – is to pay close attention to and engage on matters pertaining to governance, administration, and academic affairs at the University of the Free State (UFS).

This entity seeks to ensure that the research outputs of the university are communicated in a positive light, and that feedback is provided to ensure that the current academic programmes are adequate to enhance graduate employability. Among their goals is to provide a forum for unemployed graduates to share their skills, expertise, and abilities.

Furthermore, this body attempts to establish dialogue around social issues and ongoing transformation.

 

Fostering a spirit of belonging

According to Dr Pieter du Toit, President of the UFS Convocation, it is important for this structure that it stays relevant to its members and society and that it fosters a spirit of belonging. He recently addressed members on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus at the Annual General Meeting, the first to be held in the past two years. Besides the in-person attendance, the meeting was also attended by more than 200 members via livestream.

Dr Du Toit explained to members – which, according to legislation, include all persons who have obtained a formal qualification from the UFS, as well as all permanent academic staff members that the Convocation strives to promote a positive image of the UFS, advancing and safeguarding its reputation.

Also speaking at the AGM was the UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen. He reflected on the state of the UFS, talking about the past five years to date. He touched on matters pertaining to the core functions of the university, including teaching and learning, research and internationalisation, and engaged scholarship.

As stated in its vision, the UFS strives to be a research-led, student-centred, and regionally engaged university in Bloemfontein, the Free State, South Africa, and the continent.

In the past five years, the UFS’ framework of guidance has been the Integrated Transformation Plan, which endeavoured to emphasise social justice; the UFS Strategic Plan, the focus of which was to enhance the scope of transformation by following a holistic approach; and the Vice-Chancellor’s Strategic projects, aimed at creating a high-performance institution. “To be able to do what you need to do, you have to be at the top of your game,” said Prof Petersen.

In addition, the UFS has also been guided by the University Risk Management Committee and the Institutional Multi-stakeholder Group, which is a safe space that impacts the progression of an inclusive culture of belonging at the UFS.

Prof Petersen also referred to the 2020/2021 period during the COVID-19 pandemic. “There were three imperatives to which the UFS was committed during this period – the health and safety of staff and students, ensuring that no staff member or student was left behind, and successfully completing the 2020/2021 academic year,” stated Prof Petersen.

According to him, the university has engaged in different strategies to ensure that students were not left behind academically, and that committed staff did not overextend themselves. “We have dealt with it in such a way that our success rate for undergraduate studies has improved, which indicates the resilience of our students and the commitment of our staff,” he said.

The UFS is one of the nation's top universities for student success.

 

Optimising our research capacity

Two of the research successes of this year were an increase in research outputs and in the number of postgraduate students. The university is also working towards increasing the number of academic staff with PhDs, as well as its number of postdoctoral fellows. “We are looking at optimising our research capacity,” stated Prof Petersen.

Regarding engaged scholarship, Prof Petersen believes that if you cannot positively impact society through teaching and learning and research, you should ask why you exist as a university.

“We as a university is in a good place and I think you can be very proud of your alma mater,” he said.

For the way forward, the university is working on Vision130 (a strategy spanning over 12 years). “The vision will be quite bold, including goals for 75% of academic staff to have obtained their PhDs, a bigger focus on the postgraduate programme, and to be one of the top-five institutions in the country and one of the top-600 in the world. We will also reduce our student numbers to around 35 000, because we believe this is the number that we should be focusing on,” stated Prof Petersen.

“As members of the Convocation, I ask you to find a place in Vision130, to see how you can contribute to make this university a better institution than it is today,” he added.

Concluding his presentation, Prof Petersen told members of the Convocation, “You are immensely important to us as a university – you are the continuity between the past and the present as well as the future.”

Full-time UFS staff and alumni are welcome to contact the President of the Convocation with suggestions at convocation@ufs.ac.za

 

 

What is the Convocation?

  • It is important for the Convocation that it stays relevant to its members and society and that it fosters a spirit of belonging for alumni by keeping the communication channels with members open.
  • The Convocation strives to promote a positive image of the UFS, advancing and safeguarding its reputation.
  • The Convocation seeks to ensure that the research outputs of the university are communicated in a positive light, and that feedback is provided to ensure that the current academic programmes are adequate to enhance graduate employability.
  • Furthermore, this body attempts to establish dialogue around social issues and ongoing transformation.
  • In addition to promoting the institution's business and community interests, this structure aims to instil respect for the UFS.
  • Its goal is to instil in alumni a sense of responsibility, obligation, and accountability towards the community in general and to their alma mater in particular.

 Who is part of the Convocation?

  • All persons who have obtained a formal qualification from the UFS, as well as all permanent academic staff members.

 How often does the Convocation meet?

  • The Convocation sees to it that members meet at least once every two years.


News Archive

UFS researchers receive awards from the NSTF
2008-06-04

The recipients of the two awards are, from the left: Prof. Jan van der Westhuizen, UFS Department of Chemistry, Dr Susan Bonnet, UFS Department of Chemistry, Prof. Thinus van der Merwe, FARMOVS-PAREXEL, Prof. Maryke Labuschagne, UFS Department of Plant Sciences, and Prof. Ken Swart, FARMOVS-PAREXEL.
Photo: Lacea Loader

  

UFS researchers receive awards from the NSTF   

The University of the Free State (UFS) last week received two prestigious awards from the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) during its tenth gala-awards ceremony held in Kempton Park.

Prof. Maryke Labuschagne from the Department of Plant Sciences at the UFS was the female recipient of the research capacity-development award over the last ten years. She received the award for her successful mentoring of black researchers and students. The award, sponsored by Eskom, includes a prize of R100 000 which will be used for research purposes.  

A team consisting of Prof. Jan van der Westhuizen and Dr Susan Bonnet from the Department of Chemistry at the UFS and Prof. Kenneth Swart and Prof. Thinus van der Merwe from FARMOVS–PAREXEL received the innovation award for an outstanding contribution to science, engineering and technology from either an individual or a team over the last ten years.
 
Prof. Labuschagne, an expert in the field of plant breeding and food security in Africa, received the award for her contribution to the training and development of black students and researchers in this field. Various black students successfully completed their postgraduate studies under her guidance at the UFS during the past ten years, with positive results.

Research by her South African students has led to a firmly entrenched research relationship between the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and the UFS, while research by her local and international students has culminated in no less than 82 publications over the last decade.

It has also led to the establishment of collaboration agreements with universities and research institutes in Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania – among others with the University of Malawi where Prof. Labuschagne and her students are involved in the International Programme in the Chemical Sciences (IPICS) of the Uppsala University in Sweden. The project focuses on the study of genetics and chemistry of tropical roots and tuber crops in Malawi. This has led to collaboration with international research organisations and has generated overseas funding.

The combined team from FARMOVS–PAREXEL and the UFS won an award for the synthesis of drug analogues used as reference products during the analysis of the drug concentration in blood, from existing and new drugs registered nationally and internationally.

The project resulted in capacity building in synthetic organic chemistry, mass spectrometry and chromatography: Five master’s degrees were completed, seven are in progress, and six postgraduate students commenced with Ph.D.’s.

The skills transferred during this project are already being applied to examine the properties of indigenous medicinal plants as part of the recently established UFS novel drugs and bioactive compound cluster.

Applied Biosystems, the Canadian manufacturer of mass spectrometers, donated equipment to the value of more than R10 million for this project. As a result the UFS is one of the few universities in the world that can offer postgraduate training in bioanalytical chemistry.

Prof. Hendrik Swart, head of the Department of Physics at the UFS, and Dr Martin Ntwaeaborwa, senior lecturer at the Department of Physics were finalist in the research- capacity developer and black-researcher categories respectively.
The NSTF awards gives recognition to the outstanding contributions of individuals and groups to science, engineering and technology. This includes all practising scientists, engineers and technologists across the system of innovation, including, for example, teachers and students in mathematics, science and technology. The NSTF represents government, science councils, professional bodies, higher education, business and civil society.

Altogether nine individuals and three organisations were presented with the NSTF Awards trophy by the Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel:  051 401 2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za
4 June 2008

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