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2023 Ernst Mach Grant recipient from the UFS

16 August 2023 | Story Rorisang Ramorena | Photo Supplied

Michael Skosana, a student on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Ernst Mach Grant scholarship exchange programme at the University of Applied Sciences in Austria.

Skosana, currently pursuing his honours in Financial Economics and Investment Management at the UFS, aspires to pursue not only his master's qualification but also his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) levels and regulatory exams and ultimately pass his board exams. Skosana is set to leave on 30 August to start the semester on 1 September 2023.

About the grant

The Ernst Mach Grant is a program aimed at students from non-European universities who wish to spend a semester or two at an Austrian University of applied sciences. The Austrian Ministry of Science and Research offers the Ernst Mach Grant to students with non-European citizenship who plan to take up exchanges at an Austrian university.

According to its 2023 – 2028 internationalisation strategy, the UFS aims to integrate international and intercultural dimensions into the university's being, including the formal and informal curriculum. The Office for International Affairs (OIA) enables such comprehensive internationalisation, and specifically its International Scholarships portfolio, under the leadership of Mbali Moiketsi, contributes by liaising with funding bodies for mobility, sharing information about possible opportunities, and supporting students through the process.

The responsibility of the OIA is to ensure that students and staff are exposed to intercultural opportunities as part of their learning curriculum through information sharing. The OIA partners and works with international funding agencies to bring the information to the students and staff and support them through the process.

Skosana's motivation to study abroad is to challenge himself on the spectrum of finance, to learn more about the Austrian and South African economies, and, hopefully, to work in Europe and gain insight before returning home to change the financial landscape of South Africa. He added that “the acquired skills will empower and develop the South African financial economy and educate South Africans on financial literacy, investments, and any financial goals they seek knowledge about.”

Furthermore, Skosana encourages students to be more open to knowledge and international experiences by participating in such opportunities. He emphasizes that “students should always want to broaden their intercultural and global competencies beyond academics.”

For more information related to scholarships and opportunities, contact Mbali Moiketsi at the following email moiketsimv@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

IRSJ Research Fellow promotes human rights transformation

2017-10-05

Dr Joanne Coysh and Dr Sahar Sattarzadeh attend the
launch of Human Rights Education and
the Politics of Knowledge.
Photo: Luis Escobedo D’Angles

Dr Joanne Coysh is a multi-talented individual who has designed, facilitated, and accompanied participatory processes for research, learning, and change. She is also a postdoctoral research fellow from the University of Warwick, in the UK, and is working at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ) at the UFS. Dr Coysh’s book, Human Rights Education and the Politics of Knowledge, was launched at the Centenary Complex on the Bloemfontein Campus by the IRSJ on 15 August 2017.

Connecting theory with practice
In the book, she argues that the traditional ways in which human rights education is conducted often become an obstacle. Based on her work on participatory group processes, Dr Coysh is uniquely positioned to bring a different and more practical, even radical, angle to the process of human rights education. Her purpose with the book is to connect theory to practice in order to design processes through which people begin to take positive and transformative decisions and actions. These not only have the potential to transform lives but our relationships with each other and the world in which we live as well.

Teaching and learning from the bottom up
When working with individuals and groups, Dr Coysh believes that they should be engaged, enabled, and empowered throughout the process. Not only does she explore real problems in context, but when doing her work, she also believes in encouraging respect for existing research and knowledge.

Her international experience in education and working in communities has allowed her to integrate global best practices into local application, allowing her to explore the big picture as well as local context. Having mastered the art of balancing theory with practice, research with reality, and facilitation with integration, her book shows how this dance can turn human rights education into human rights transformation.

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