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15 September 2022 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo UFS Photo Gallery
UFS Qwaqwa Campus
The UFS Qwaqwa Campus.
Recent global happenings have challenged communities and humanity’s capability to solve immediate and major problems. Science has been one of the spaces in which the communities have looked for solutions regarding real threats to lives related to climate change, wars, as well as social and health pandemics. The Qwaqwa Campus will be showcasing Qwaqwa Campus research and scholarship at this year’s research conference, a two-day event which will be held in person, on 29-30 September 2022 at the Senate Hall on campus.

‘Scholarship, Innovation and Science: how can research be used as a tool for the betterment of society?’

Under this theme, the conference will be a space for intellectual debate and the processing of scholarship in innovation, said Prof Pearl Sithole, Vice-Principal: Academic and Research. “Some of the societal challenges have been urgent and pressing, yet some are slow dilemmas shattering the hope of generations for a better future. This conference will present the products of ‘disciplinary and scholarly crafts’, but it also seeks to explore whether science does (or should) have a strategic direction, and perhaps this is what the concept of innovation should entail. It will ponder on whether in the age-old binary between exploratory research and praxis there is a defeating taming of the entrepreneurial edge for the expanse of science in Africa,” she said.

Prof Sithole said the campus would also be launching its research strategy for 2022 to 2026.

Guest speakers include:

• Prof Percy Hlangothi is an Associate Professor of Physical and Polymer Chemistry at the Nelson Mandela University. He is also the inaugural Director of the Centre for Rubber Science and Technology, a research entity in the Faculty of Science at the same institution.

• Mr Lukhona Mnguni is a governance, politics, and development specialist and prolific political analyst specialising in Africa and international relations, as well as a PhD intern at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He currently serves as the Head of Policy and Research at the Rivonia Circle. His work includes a current affairs analytical show on eNCA dubbed On the Spot with Lukhona Mnguni.

• Prof Dipane Hlalele is a Professor of Education and a C2 NRF-rated researcher. He is a highly rated scholar in inclusive education, critical pedagogy, and educational psychology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Prior to joining UKZN as an associate professor in 2017, he was an assistant dean and senior lecturer at the UFS, a college of education lecturer, and a high school deputy principal and teacher. 

To RSVP please click here on or before 19 September 2022.

News Archive

Call for campus review and participation into renaming and renewal of statues, signs, and symbols on UFS campuses
2016-08-25

 

The leadership of the University of the Free State (UFS) is issuing a Call for the renaming and renewal of statues, signs, and symbols on the three campuses to staff, students, and alumni.

In line with the founding statement and guidelines of the Naming Committee of Council, The Call will seek to retain the best representations of the history and identity of the UFS over more than a century, while committing to the transformation imperatives of our new democracy so that the totality of statues, signs, and symbols give credence to both the past and the future, all in line with the values of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.

Submissions should be made to the
SSSC between 21 July 2016 and 31 August 2016.
Proposals can be delivered to the
office of the Director: Communication and
Brand Management at Room 49,
Main Building, Bloemfontein Campus, or
via email to sssc@ufs.ac.za.

The ‘Guiding Principles’ of the Naming Committee, approved by Council on 8 March 2013, are transformation, reconciliation, excellence, distinctiveness, leadership, comprehensiveness, balance and sensitivity. The Policy of the UFS on Naming and Renaming is available here: http://bit.ly/2aeTLUz; and the Remit of the Naming Committee of the UFS is available here: http://bit.ly/29NXESC.

The Call will give special attention to creative submissions from staff, students, and alumni, such as signs and symbols that reflect our entangled past and place rival memories in critical conversation. Whatever is proposed, our commitment to the Academic Project and the Human Project remain foundations on which inspirational proposals could be based. In the end, a campus that is richly diverse, inclusive, and just in its symbolic infrastructure, would give visible meaning to the university’s commitment to social justice and reconciliation.

All submissions should be made to the Statues, Signs, and Symbols Committee (SSSC) between 21 July 2016 and 31 August 2016. Proposals could be delivered in hard copy to the office of the Director: Communication and Brand Management at Room 49, Main Building, Bloemfontein Campus or via email to sssc@ufs.ac.za.

Proposals will be reviewed by the SSSC, which is a subcommittee of the Naming Committee.

Final proposals will be submitted to Council for consideration at its final meeting of the 2016 academic year. In other words, new statues, symbols and signs – those approved by Council – will be implemented from January 2017.

Submissions could include, but are not limited to, the following: the renaming of streets and buildings; the proposal of new statues and other symbols on campus; the renewal of artwork collections; the reconfiguration of existing statues and symbols; the introduction of memorial gardens; the instatement of new galleries, sculptures, and literary collections; the establishment of prominent academic chairs or annual academic lectures in the name of illustrious figures, etc. Particular attention should be given to new buildings in the process of being built, such as residences.

Finally, it is important that the views and recommendations of all staff, students, and alumni be considered in submissions and that every campus citizen, past and present, has a sense of being able to participate fully and freely in the process.

Released by: Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Brand Management)
Tel: +27 51 401 3422/2707 or +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27 51 444 6393

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