Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS hosting national Global Change Conference

18 January 2023 | Story Edzani Nephalela | Photo Henco Myburg

Free State MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Thembeni Nxangisa, representing Minister Barbara Creecy during the Fifth Global Change Conference at the University of the Free State

From 30 January to 2 February 2023, the University of the Free State is hosting researchers, members of industry and government, businesspeople, funders, and foreign diplomatic missions for the fifth National Global Change Conference.

The purpose of the conference is to share and debate current local research and development initiatives that form part of the Global Change Grand Challenge (GCC5), one of the focus areas developed under the Department of Science and Innovation's Ten-Year Innovation Plan.

The GCC5 supports knowledge generation and technological innovation to enable South Africa, Africa, and the world to respond to global environmental change, including climate change, in an informed and innovative way.

The four-day event is taking place on the Bloemfontein Campus of the UFS under the theme: ‘Research and innovation accelerating transformations to global sustainability’. It is jointly organised by the Department of Science and Innovation, the National Research Foundation, the South African Global Change Science Committee, and the UFS.

Topics on the conference agenda include the state of the southern oceans; the role of physics in power grids; climate and health, water resources, and global crises; and agriculture in a changing environment, among other topics.

For more information on GCC5, kindly click here.

Follow the discussion on UFS social media platforms.

News Archive

Limpopo government department receives Sign Language qualification

2012-04-25

At the certificate ceremony were, from the left: Wisani Mashamba, Deputy Manager: Human Resources and Development in the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Limpopo; Dr Philemon Akach, Head of the Department of South African Sign Language; Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic; and Ms Fhumulani Maguga, Senior Manager: Human Resources and Development in the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Limpopo.
Photo: Stephen Collett
25 April 2012

Certificates were awarded to a group of staff members from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Limpopo who successfully completed a short course in South African Sign Language at the University of the Free State (UFS). Fourteen staff members from this department received their certificates at a ceremony on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic, said the UFS was the first tertiary institution in the country, and in Africa, to present Sign Language as an academic course. Prof. Hay urged the 14 men and women who received their certificates to use the qualification to make a difference in the lives of others.

Dr Philemon Akach, Head of the Department of South African Sign Language, mentioned the difficulties that deaf people still have to cope with. “Poverty and neglect is rife. In this country you have to toyi-toyi to be heard. If deaf people toyi-toyi, will they be heard?”

Ms Fhumulani Maguga, Senior Manager: Human Resources and Development in the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Limpopo, said her department is looking into future partnerships with the UFS.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept