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UFS wins top awards at the 2024 Mace Excellence Awards

05 December 2024 | Story Dr Cindé Greyling | Photo Kaleidoscope

MACE Winners 2024 — From left to right: Burneline Kaars (Head: Employee Wellness and Organisational Development), Dr WP Wahl (Student Life Director), Linda Greyling (Senior Officer: Special Projects, Student Recruitment Services), Gerben Van Niekerk (Senior Officer: Kovsie Support Services), Malia Maranyane (Senior Officer: Undergraduate Marketing, Student Recruitment Services), Nomonde Mbadi (Student Recruitment Services Director), and Susan Van Jaarsveld (Senior Director: Human Resources).

On 28 November 2024, the University of the Free State (UFS) did it again – reigned as champions at the annual Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (MACE) Excellence Awards and walking away with two of the top awards: the MACE Award for Outstanding Research and the Severus Cerff Award for Consistent Excellence.

KovsieX was named the overall winner of the MACE Award for Outstanding Research. This award is made to the entry with the highest score in research, clearly demonstrating how research has supported the strategic objectives of the institution and the project. KovsieX is a multiplatform approach designed to leverage the strengths of diverse media channels. This digitalisation aligns with Vision 130, leveraging emerging technologies to enhance teaching and learning quality and efficiency of non-academic support structures and systems.

The UFS’ entries were of such high quality that the university won the sought-after Severus Cerff Award for Consistent Excellence. This award is based on the number of entries entered by an institution and the number and level of those entries winning awards. The award is therefore made to the institution with the highest success ratio.

Furthermore, the UFS Matriculant of the Year event received a Silver Award – entries scoring 5.75 or higher earn a Silver Award, placing this event among some of the top achievers in the events category. Three UFS entries received Gold Awards and were the winners in their respective categories: KovsieChat (Digital Channels), 2024 Women’s Day Breakfast (Events), and KovsieX (Stakeholder Engagement Campaigns). This is a magnificent achievement for the UFS.

"Winning a MACE award at this early stage is proof that KovsieX is not just meeting national standards – it’s setting them. If we can achieve this level of excellence now, imagine how we’ll compete on the global stage when the project is fully realised,” says Gerben van Niekerk, Student Media Manager.

Lacea Loader, Senior Director: Communication and Marketing and Coordinator of the MACE Excellence Awards, explained that a record number of entries were received for the Excellence Awards this year. “We are ecstatic about the direction of communication at the UFS and that the university has been able to maintain the quality of its entries in recent years,” says Loader.

The MACE Excellence Awards takes place annually as part of the MACE National Conference, recognising and celebrating excellence and the achievements of specialists and practitioners in marketing, advancement, and communication in the higher-education sector. This year, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) hosted the conference from 27 to 28 November 2024.

In 2023, the UFS won 11 awards, including the Chairperson’s Award of Excellence.

News Archive

Physics Department sheds light on mystery of dark matter through films and radio programme

2017-06-23

Description: Dark Matter Tags: Dark Matter

The screening of The Dark Matter Mystery and Dark
at the Naval Hill Planetarium was followed by a discussion
recorded for the radio programme Sterre en Planete
on RSG. From left are Mariette Erwee, Senior Officer at
the School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and
Technology Education of the UFS, Prof Matie Hoffman,
Associate Professor at the Physics Department of the UFS,
Hennie Maas, from RSG, and Sakkie van der Westhuizen,
PhD student in astrophysics.
Photo: Mart-Mari Duvenhage

The Physics Department at the University of the Free State (UFS) not only recently educated the local community about the mystery of dark matter, but shared its knowledge with a much wider audience.

The first screening of two planetarium full-dome films, The Dark Matter Mystery and Dark, at the Naval Hill Planetarium were concluded with a recording for the radio programme Sterre en Planete. During the discussion, led by Hennie Maas from RSG radio station, the audience asked questions that were answered by Prof Matie Hoffman, Associate Professor at the department, Sakkie van der Westhuizen, a PhD student in astrophysics, and Mariette Erwee from the School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Education. The radio show was broadcast on 18 June at 19:30 on RSG.

Shows screened at special event
According to Prof Hoffman the planetarium hosts a movie premiere whenever pre-rendered shows are screened for the first time. The films shown on 10 June 2017 introduced viewers to the quest for dark matter. “Dark Matter makes up a huge part of the Universe, but it is a great mystery. We know very little about it. We cannot see it, and it is an area of enormous interest to scientists,” Prof Hoffman said.

Films sourced from European Southern Observatory
The event was attended by various stakeholders such as loyal planetarium patrons, UFS colleagues, and those interested in astronomy. The films were sourced from the European Southern Observatory, an organisation that makes planetarium content available online.

The Dark Matter Mystery took the audience on contemporary astrophysics’ biggest quest. They saw why astronomers know dark matter exists. Dark, directed by Peter Morse, is an adventure that goes to the very edges of contemporary cosmology and data visualisation, telling a complex scientific story with a touch of humanity.

The films will be screened at the Naval Hill Planetarium from time to time and those interested can visit Computicket for more info.

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