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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.

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A Kovsie parade through Bloemfontein's streets

2014-02-04

Photo: Albert van Biljon

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The community of Bloemfontein came out in numbers to watch the annual Kovsie Rag procession on Saturday 1 February 2014. Young and old lined the roads around the Bloemfontein Campus to get a glimpse of the colourful floats moving through the city’s streets. Onlookers showed their support for the UFS’s charitable fun drive, dropping coins in the money tins of first-year students who made their way through the crowds.

Celebrating the hard work of students who spent hours building floats, festivities kicked off with a morning parade to Heidedal and Mangaung. Here the Rag Office distributed 10 000 meals to members of the community.

With a beloved Hollywood panda as their inspiration, JBM, Soetdoring and Imperium residences were crowned winners of the movie-themed float-building competition later the evening. Their Kung Fu Panda float led the way as the main procession made its way to the Chevrolet Cricket Stadium for a night of celebration with music stars Mango Groove, Zakes Bantwini and Robbie Wessels.

Mango Groove had the audience on their feet playing well-known hits like Special Star, Moments Away and Hometalk. Robbie Wessels and Bantwini also didn't disappoint, with the audience stomping feet to their music. In addition, partygoers were treated to an amazing fireworks display that lightened up the Bloemfontein night sky.

Float-building results:

Overall winners: JBM, Soetdoring and Imperium
Winners Pool A: JBM, Soetdoring and Imperium
Winners Pool B: Welwitchia and Tswelopele

The overall assessment of floats was made up of 100 points. The impression of the floats on the little ones was very important, as children judges awarded 25% of the score. They gave a mark out of 10 and it was converted to a mark out of 25.

The assessment by the adult judges counted for 75 points. The criteria were as follows:

General impression and colour: 25 points
Detail: 25 points
Did the float complement the theme: 15 points

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