Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
03 January 2023
|
Story Lacea Loader
|
Photo Evert Kleynhans
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.
UFS appoints first head of Internationalisation
2006-11-08
Dr Aldo Stroebel, researcher at the Directorate Research Development of the University of the Free State (UFS), was appointed as the first head of the UFS Internationalisation Office. Dr Stroebel joined the UFS in 2003 and was mainly responsible for identifying international research funding opportunities.
He is also affiliated to the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at the UFS and co-ordinates the training and accreditation component of one of the programmes of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (ASGI-SA) managed by the UFS. Dr Stroebel is tasked with the responsibility to create, in close co-operation with Deans, an effective support structure for the two main components of internationalisation, namely international student support and the internationalisation of research. His appointment is effective from 1 January 2007.