Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
03 March 2023 | Story Nonsindiso Qwabe | Photo Stephen Collett
Prof Francis Petersen_ UFS Official Opening 2023
Prof Francis Petersen outlined the strategic intent of Vision 130 during his official welcoming address.

The trajectory to 2034, when the university turns 130, is not a dream, but an exciting journey that we are working towards achieving. Painting a picture of the university of the future, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, welcomed staff in his official opening speech on the Bloemfontein Campus on Friday 17 February 2023.

2023 marks the starting point of Vision 130, a vision with bold ambitions that will lead us to the renewal, re-imagining, and repositioning of the UFS in 2034, Prof Petersen said.  “We are building on our strengths, achievements, and learnings of our past and, in particular, the past five years. The vision is driven by excellence, and we won’t compromise excellence. It is about excellence, but it is also about visibility as an institution, and it is about impact.”

What does the UFS look like in 2034?

Prof Petersen said ours will be a university of choice for exceptional students, exceptional academics, and exceptional support staff. We will be recognised and acknowledged by peers and society as a top-tier university in South Africa, specifically among the top five universities in South Africa and the top 600 globally.

“Remember, I said we have built on the past, specifically the past five years, to give us a foundation. Still, we need to use that foundation to be able to deliver those specific goals or activities or deliverables that we want to achieve. We will have to start now if we want to achieve this in 2034.”

The Rector outlined four goals towards achieving these commitments:

• Improving academic excellence, improving our reputation, and improving our impact.

• Promoting an environment of agility, flexibility, and responsiveness.

• Advancing a transformational institutional culture that demonstrates the values of the University of the Free State – a place where ideas are discussed, contested, improved, and implemented in a culture of civil, robust engagement.

• Promoting stewardship and the prioritisation of institutional resources for strategic intent, which include our people, our staff, and our students.

Understand how your space is connected to Vision 130

“This is about creating a culture of delivery and empowering everyone within the University of the Free State and the UFS community to contribute to the realisation of Vision 130. This is what I am asking of you within your own sphere of operation. I am asking for a renewed commitment from you to own that space that you operate in. To understand how your space is connected to Vision 130 and to share what I would call an unrelenting ambition to deliver on this vision.”

Watch recording of the 2023 Official Opening below:


News Archive

Literacy Month fosters the love of reading
2017-09-19

Description: Literacy Month fosters the love of reading Tags: Literacy Month fosters the love of reading 

Vutivi Baloyi author of Keep Hoping with Neo Kgoroba
one of the co-authors of In Our Own Words.


Literacy Month is celebrated in September each year at the University of the Free State (UFS) with various activities that are academic and community related and aim to join different departments in collaborative efforts to carry forward an awareness of literacy and the joy of reading among learners. The UFS Sasol Library lined up a series of events to celebrate the month, one of them being the launch of two books on 14 September 2017.

Vutivi Baloyi is a UFS student who wrote a collection of poems at the age of 17 which were recently published in a book called Keep Hoping. The book was launched alongside In Our Own Words, a collection of narratives written by UFS students about university life and transitioning from township high schools to a different culture, society and community, and the challenges with which they are faced.

In their own words, they share incredible experiences
The launch was attended by learners from Christian Liphoko High School in Thaba Nchu as well as Moroka High School and others. The compilation of narratives by UFS students was done under the auspices of Prof Merridy Wilson-Strydom through the Enabling Success project in the Centre for Research in Higher Education. Prof Wilson-Strydom said the project, supported by the National Research Foundation, was a profound way of empowering students by bringing out the value of the stories of their life on campus as they saw them, with each student writing a chapter on a specific theme.

Students as change agents and community builders
The student authors spoke to their audience from the heart, sharing words of advice, especially to younger learners who are still in high school. This has sparked a desire for the beginning of collaborative programmes between the individual university students and high school learners who hail from Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu, highlighting the need for mentorship, life skills, academic improvement and an opportunity to give back. 

The event is also part of the ongoing Launch Your Own Book project that has grown in 2017 at the UFS Library under the leadership of Mr Marcus Maphile, Assistant Director: Library Marketing and Community Engagement. Literacy Month will be celebrated with more events in September such as a round-table discussion in collaboration with the Academic and Non-Fiction Authors Association of South Africa (ANSAFA) on 20 September 2017 at the library, to discuss developing authors and the role of ANSAFA. More activities will include outreach and community engagement, with a visit to Christian Liphoko High School in Thaba Nchu on 21 September 2017.

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