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06 November 2023
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Story MBALI MABOEA
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Photo SUPPLIED
The Department of Geography on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus recently played host to the Society of South African Geographers Conference (SSAG 2023), which gathered more than 100 students over three days.
Fostering academic growth, collaboration, and inspiration among students and researchers in the field of geography, the Department of Geography on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus recently played host to the Society of South African Geographers Conference (SSAG 2023), which gathered more than 100 students over three days.
Following a five-year hiatus, the three-day conference comprised student proposal presentations in different fields: human geography, environment geography, geoinformatics, and physical geography, divided into breakaway sessions over two days. Furthermore, day three of the annual conference included an excursion to the Basotho Cultural Village and Clarens.
The three-day annual student conference focused on different themes presented by two main speakers. The topic of the first keynote speaker, Dr Mahlomola Daemane, General Manager of the SANParks Arid Research Unit, focused on the contemporary conservation, transition, and relevance of science in policy and decision making.
The second keynote speaker was Dr Felicia Akinyemi, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow affiliated with the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Her work focuses on the intersection of geoinformatics, global change, and sustainability. Dr Akinyemi focused her talk on the integrative geospatial methods and metrics for sustainable land use. She introduced different techniques and metrics and gave students insight in early-career African research.
Speaking about the success of the conference, Nthebohiseng Sekhele, Geography Lecturer on the Qwaqwa Campus and chair of the organising committee, said, “The local organising committee was also very impressed with the quality of presentations from our postgraduate students in Geography, as well as the robust discussions that happened during the parallel sessions in the two days of the conference. We had a positive response of physical and online participation from many universities across South Africa. We are pleased that we have achieved our goal with this conference, which is to inspire the next generation of geographers.”
"May Month of Compassion" for UFS staff
2011-05-04
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From the left: Louis van Wyk (Central Region, Events Coordinator of ER 24) and Prof. Gert van Zyl, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences
Photo: Gerda-Marie Viviers
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The Health and Wellness Centre of our university has kick-started the “Action of Compassion” which is aimed at promoting physical health for staff members of our university. This initiative is done in collaboration with Medi-Clinic and Pathcare who will be offering medical screening tests from 3 May 2011 until 13 May 2011. This forms part of the “Wake up to your Wellness – Take Control” programme of the Health and Wellness Centre. The tests will be done at 27 stations across our Main Campus. On 16 May the Wellness Centre will be at the South Campus and the date for a visit at the Qwaqwa Campus is to be established later. “The reason why we are doing this, is to conduct a research on Staff Wellness, give the staff feedback on their health and to create a database using the information we receive, so we can evaluate the health of our staff members and have them view their own status over time and whether they are making the right wellness choices,” said Dr Annette Prins.
This is a once-a-year initiative. Last year an estimated 1 100 staff members participated. This year the Health and Wellness Centre hopes to increase the figures. The medical screenings will include services like blood pressure, weight, height and BMI which will be conducted by Medi-Clinic and the cholesterol and blood glucose screenings will be conducted by Pathcare.
4 May 2011