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Volume about a critical institutional history of the UFS underway

24 April 2024 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Prof Saleem Badat, Research Professor in the UFS Department of History, who has initiated an exciting research project to produce a critical institutional history of the UFS.

The Department of History at the University of the Free State (UFS) has initiated an exciting research project to produce a critical institutional history of the UFS. The initiative is part of a wider national project, the Research Project on the Histories of Universities (RPHUSA) in South Africa. Prof Saleem Badat is leading this undertaking, which involves several other universities.

According to Prof Badat, the aim of the UFS project is to produce a volume on the overall history of the UFS and possible additional volumes on specific themes and issues, depending on the nature and extent of scholarly contributions.

The emphasis of this project will mainly be on critical reflections on

• learning-teaching, research, and community engagement at the UFS;

• the history of disciplines or fields or departments, centres, and institutes;

• governance, leadership and management, and finances;

• student politics and unionism;

• work on issues such as the UFS’ location, architecture, and planning; and

• its crest, regalia, and visual imagery.

“The Department of History hopes that the project will stimulate broad participation,” says Prof Badat.

He invites current and former UFS scholars, students, support staff, and alumni to contribute to research, writing, publishing, and related activities. To discuss the history project, the Department of History will convene a seminar:

Date: Monday, 6 May 2024

Time: 14:00

Venue: Flippie Groenewoud Building (FGG), Room 202

Please confirm attendance with Nicole Masalla.

After the seminar there will be an opportunity for potential contributors to participate in a workshop to consider the nature, extent, and range of possible contributions and to develop protocols, time frames, and timelines for research, writing, and publishing.

News Archive

Students help to get the economy back to the rural areas

2009-08-14

At the launch of Sanlam’s Creativity for Progress Competition for the Ekn 324 group were, from the left: P.J. Bothma, Mr Frank Louw, National Sponsorship Manager of Sanlam, Dr Karen Thomas, lecturer in Economic Policy at the Department of Economics, Kaylee Wells and Eugene Maseme.
Photo: Lacea Loader

Third-year students in the subject Economic Policy Analysis at the UFS are hard at work to think of ideas on how knowledge and expertise can be taken back to the rural areas of South Africa. This is the theme of Sanlam’s national competition for universities called Creativity for Progress with a total prize money of R900 000. This year's topic is "Rural areas are failing to retain and attract skilled people and graduates, resulting in economic stagnation. How would you remedy this?"

The group of 162 students, which is divided into groups of six, must compile a project that is academically grounded, practical and implementable. They must also approach the project from a community service learning perspective and it counts a quarter of their semester mark. To encourage the students, Prof. Tienie Crous, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, has sponsored some prizes for which the groups must compete. Teams of between four and six members will first compete at intra-varsity level to determine a varsity winner. The national panel members will then adjudicate the varsity winners, and invite the semi finalists to the finals. Teams will be assessed on their business proposals as well as the presentation of these proposals to a panel of judges. Last year the group from the UFS ended second in the final round of the competition.

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