Speaking to donors at the Donor Sundowner Cocktail event held at the
Sci-Ed Science Education Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus,
Professor Francis Petersen Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS) said, ‘the university has a voice to make an impact on things important to South African citizens.’
The event hosted by the
Department of Institutional Advancement was attended by the CEOs and Corporate Social Investment officers from the organisations involved with UFS faculties of Education, Law, Health Sciences, Natural and Agricultural Sciences, the Business School and support services departments.
The event was marked by the UFS acknowledging the contribution made by existing donors and focused on building new relations and sharing plans, highlighting the role this played in changing the narrative of the university and the lives of the student community.
Prof Petersen thanked the donors for their contributions to the institution. “Financial and in-kind contributions make an immense difference to the university,” said Prof Petersen. He iterated the appreciation of the UFS to the donors, and noted that the ongoing relationship building with existing and new donors and partners is integral for the university.
Re-connect to achieve success
Guests in attendance were also given insight into the recently launched
Vision 130 – a 12-year strategy taking the university to 2034 commemorating 130 years. “We want to be a university that has a student population of 35 000, and do more research and development work that can impact locally, nationally, and internationally,” said Prof Petersen.
Prof Peterson highlighted the need for the university to reshape the proportion of undergraduate to postgraduate students and to open more time for staff to do research work that answers to the needs of industry and the private sector. “We must understand that the university is not the only custodian of knowledge. Some knowledge sits amongst yourselves,’ added Prof Petersen.
Mapping the way forward to greater heights
‘The aspiration for the university is to be among the top 600 universities in the world and amongst the top five in the country and to do that, we need to change the shape of the university, by improving qualifications of academic and support staff. We need to get quality skills into the system,’ he said.
Prof Petersen said the university also needs to get ‘quality students into the system and a proxy to that using the
National Senior Certificate and Admission Policy Score (APS), we have made a commitment that by 2034 at least 60 percent of students entering the university should have an APS of 35 and higher’. Prof Peterson emphasized the commitment of the UFS that staff and students that come to the university ‘be diverse racially, ability and intellectually.’
The Department of Institutional Advancement is planning a similar event to be held in Cape Town in April, and another in Gauteng later in the year.