The University of the Free State (UFS) Library and Information Services (LIS) recently hosted the Undergraduate and Honours Research Seminar (UHLIS) at the Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein campus. LIS in line with the teaching and learning goals informing the Universities’ strategy called ‘Vision 130’, is committed in its mission to play an active role in equipping and supporting Undergraduate and Honours students with the tools, skills, and knowledge needed to achieve academic excellence and promoting life-long learning.
The seminar showcased the best assignments by students from the faculties of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Humanities, and Health Sciences. The selected assignments were converted to a presentation for the seminar. In her opening address,
Ms Jeannete Molopyane, Director of LIS, commended the efforts of academics and faculty librarians, “This collaborative effort between the academics and the faculty librarians is a step in the right direction to embedded librarianship,” she said. Guest speaker
Professor Corli Witthuhn, Vice Rector: Research and Internationalisation, applauded the LIS for the strides taken over the years. “The submissions were exceptional and of a very high standard, it only proves how much the LIS has been working over the years.”
Professor Pearl Sithole, Campus Vice Principal: Academic & Research, presented the keynote address and enthralled the audience with her presentation “Grasp the fundamental logic of Research”. She shared her concerns about the intentions of researchers on the African continent regarding the process of knowledge production. She cautioned students against “minimalistic tendencies”. She said that research study must go beyond narrow interests, for example, focusing or relying on visual illustration or presentation (e.g., bar graphs, pie charts) or merely in pursuit of a job.
Professor Sithole encouraged LISHURS participants to adopt a holistic approach in their research by engaging various perspectives to address and provide solutions to solve pressing societal issues on the African continent.” Decolonial thinking in scholarly research is a must”, she concluded.
All presentations were adjudicated, and the first placed in each of the following categories were presented with trophies and all participants received certificates: Undergraduate individual; Group assignment; and Honours submissions.
The winners in the categories below are:
Undergraduate Individual Assignments:
1st place - Basic Training in Police Brutality: Exploring the Effects of SAPS Academies’ Basic Police
Development Learning Programmes on the Prevalence of Police Brutality in South Africa, by Chandre Boonzaaie (Humanities)
2nd place - Research Field Work Report on Visitors’ experiences of the National Museum in Bloemfontein, by Zandile Tapileno (Humanities)
3rd place - The processes of photosynthesis and photorespiration their energy output, by Jafta Ramathibe (Natural and Agricultural Sciences)
Group Assignments:
1st place - MSSM: Prevalence of sleep deprivation among medical students at the University of the Free State by Morgan du Toit, Bianca van der Vyver, Omphemetse Matshediso, Angelo Uys, Carolyn van der Merwe, Hanno Geldenhuys, Renemari Human, Ruben Rodriguez (Group 3 – Health Sciences)
2nd place - A decade of filing: what can you learn from kidney biopsies received at the Universitas Academic Laboratory in the Free State, South Africa? by Avisha Sewpersad, Reabetswe Maleka, Thato Kelebogile Majoe, Bokang Mokoatsi, Amkelwa Mgogodlana, Lesego Serero, Lionell Katlego Kere (Group 1 – Health Sciences)
Honours:
1st place - Urban Agriculture in poor neighbourhoods: The case of Ekangala, Bronkhorstspruit, Pretoria, South Africa, by Erica Mashanye (Natural and Agricultural Sciences)
2nd place - Time and Trees: An Eco-Critical Analysis of Temporality in Richard Powers' (2018) The Overstory, by Ananke Meintjies (Humanities)
3rd place - Elucidating the defensive role of Cell wall modifying and hexaose producing enzymes induced in wheat infected by Puccinia triticina, by Ninkoe Lebusa (Natural and Agricultural Sciences)
The Floating Trophy was won by the Faculty of Humanities for the most number of assignments submitted. “The LIS would like to acknowledge all the faculties for their continued support of the LIS. Ms Jeannette Molopyane said that this initiative is one among many other initiatives undertaken by LIS that endorses the tenets of Vision 130; striving for academic excellence, quality, and impact”.