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27 September 2022 | Story Lunga Luthuli | Photo Lunga Luthuli
Prof Witness Mudzi
Prof Witness Mudzi, Director: Centre for Graduate Support, toasts the new dawn, as the centre aims to align its mandate with the University of the Free State’s goal of creating a one-stop shop for all postgraduate services.

Speaking at the Centre for Graduate Support (CGS) name launch held in the Centenary Complex on the Bloemfontein Campus, Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), shared the importance of being an “institution striving for continuous renewal, transformation, student support, and research excellence”.

Prof Petersen said: “These three pillars should not overshadow or compete with one another, but should complement, enhance, and strengthen one another. Part of the UFS strategy is to recruit and retain internationally recognised academics in fields representing our strengths and areas where we can contribute in a local, national, and international context.”

The centre has been known as the Postgraduate School for 10 years, and with the launch, “aims to align its mandate with the University of the Free State’s goal of creating a one-stop shop for all postgraduate services by expanding the centre’s services”.

Prof Petersen said: “We want to appoint and nurture promising young postdoctoral scholars with established academic records to ensure that all academic staff are research active.  We also aim to increase the proportion of academic staff with PhDs and the citation impact of their research.”

The launch was held on 9 and 15 September 2022 in two legs on the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses as the two hosts for postgraduate programmes.

By providing support to postgraduate students, Prof Petersen said the UFS wants to “enable master’s and doctoral students to graduate in the minimum acceptable time, to reduce drop rates, and to improve our throughput rates”.

He said: “The Centre for Graduate Support has a significant role to play – providing an essential part of the practical framework to turn vision and goals into reality. One of the goals over the next few years – as encapsulated in our Vision 130 working document – is to significantly increase the postgraduate to undergraduate student ratio, bringing it closer to 70/30.”

CGS to be hub for postgraduate students

Speaking at the launch, themed ‘The Evolution’, Prof Witness Mudzi, Director: Centre for Graduate Support, said the centre has become a one-stop centre for postgraduate students, covering admissions, registration, extensive training workshops, online tracking, funding, academic writing consultations, and thesis submission.

Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor.
Speaking at the name relaunch event, Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor. Photo: Stephen Collett 

 

Prof Mudzi said: “The centre plays a leading role in developing postgraduate-related policies within the UFS. The workshops we run are designed to supplement the efforts of faculties and departments in producing impactful students. Our research interventions are intended to improve the student and staff research outputs and their impact on society. Our support of postgraduate student conference attendance is meant to enhance the visibility of the University of the Free State.”


The new dawn will also be “an opportunity for conference attendance by PhD students, allowing academic staff who are busy with a PhD to take time off to concentrate on their studies, while the CGS funds a replacement staff member for up to six months, as well as marketing and communication strategies related to postgraduate studies and research”.

News Archive

Prof Barney Pityana to deliver the inaugural Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture
2013-04-24

 

Prof Barney Pityana
Photo: Supplied
24 April 2013

Well-known academic and human rights lawyer Prof Barney Pityana will deliver the inaugural Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture on Friday 26 April 2013,honouring the life and legacy of the anti-apartheid stalwart. Prof Pityana will be joined by Fischer’s daughters Ruth Rice and Ilse Wilson and his nephew Peter in the President CR Swart Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Prof Pityana has an impressive track record of accomplishments:

He is the current Rector of the College of the Transfiguration in Grahamstown; one of the founding members of the South African Students' Organisation; an important figure in the Black Consciousness Movement with Steve Biko; and an exponent of Black theology.

Prof Pityana is the former Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and also a former chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission.He has served on the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights at the Organization of African Unity in 1997. Prof Pityana’s work in human rights has been widely recognised and in December 2002 he was awarded an Honourable Mention of the 2002 UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education.

In April 2006, Prof Pityana received the Award of the Order of the Grand Counsellor of the Baobab: Silver from former President Thabo Mbeki.

Prof Pityana will meet with students from the Faculty of Law during the day of the lecture. At 12:00 the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice will host a critical conversation discussing Bram Fischer as a father and Afrikaner communist lawyer. The conversation will feature the perspective of his daughters. The Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture will commence at 18:30.

Programme:

1. Critical Conversation: Bram Fischer as a father and Afrikaner communist lawyer

Date: Friday 26 April 2013

Venue: Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice

Time: 12:00 – 14:00

2. Inaugural Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture

Date: Friday 26 April 2013

Venue: President CR Swart Auditorium

Time: 18:30 – 20:00

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