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03 January 2023 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Evert Kleynhans
Dr Dolf van Niekerk
Dr Dolf van Niekerk.

The University of the Free State (UFS) would like to express its condolences to the family and friends of South African author, Dr Dolf van Niekerk, on his passing.

Dr Van Niekerk, the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the UFS, passed away on 31 December 2022. The UFS awarded a Doctor of Letters to Dr Dolf van Niekerk during its April 2021 graduation ceremony. 
 
Dr Van Niekerk was a celebrated author who also achieved fame as a dramatist and radio presenter. An alumnus of the UFS, he received a BA degree from the university cum laude in 1949. He also played a role in academia and was an emeritus professor at the University of Pretoria until his retirement in 1994. His work includes 27 books in philosophy, poetry, fiction, drama, and memoirs, for which he has received numerous awards. These include the Eugene Marais Prize, the MER Prize, and the Scheepers Award for Youth Literature.
 
“Dr van Niekerk is a Kovsie alumnus with a deep connection to the Free State. He played a significant role in the country’s literary history, and it was an honour for the university to award him with an honorary degree. A wordsmith of note, Dr van Niekerk’s contributions to South African literature, radio, and stage will live on," says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor.

News Archive

Staff pay a successful visit to the University of Minnesota
2008-08-01

 

Staff from the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk, dean of the faculty, and prof. Izak Groenewald, director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, recently paid a successful visit to the University of Minnesota in the United States of America (USA). They visited among others the Minnesota Council on Economic Education (MCEE) and had talks with a representative of Cargill Inc., the world’s largest privately owned corporation. There is a good possibility that substantive monetary support will result from this interaction between the UFS and the University of Minnesota. During the visit were, from the left, back: Prof. Van Schalkwyk, Prof. Groenewald and Mr Tim Bodin, member of the MCEE council of directors and economist from Cargill Inc.; front: Dr Nona Mason, chairperson of the MCEE and director of the Master’s Programme in Business Communication at the St. Thomas University, and Prof. Claudia Parliament, executive director of the MCEE and professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. Prof. Parliament recently completed her sabbatical leave at the UFS.
Photo: Supplied
 

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