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ARU2024 Conference
SAMC2025 (scheduled 17 to 20 March 2025 at Champagne Sports Resort) will build on the highly successful First Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022) held in March 2022.
On 5 March 2024, the first announcement went out for the Second Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2025). SAMC2025 will take place next year from 17 to 20 March at Champagne Sports Resort. The theme for the upcoming conference is: Southern African Mountains – Overcoming Boundaries and Barriers. 

This event will once again bring together academics, researchers, early career professionals, practitioners, policy makers, postgraduate students, and government officials to engage and exchange experiences, research findings, problem solving, and to foster partnerships regarding the transboundary and transdisciplinary sustainability of Southern African mountains. 

The SAMC series is conceptualised by the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) at the University of the Free State (UFS), the African Mountain Research Foundation (AMRF), and Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS) – a joint initiative between EURAC Research and the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security) and implemented by the Peaks Foundation.

Prof Ralph Clark, Director of the ARU, says “SAM2022 was a wonderful event that greatly encouraged regional collegiality around Southern African mountains. We hope that SAMC2025 will be even more impactful in growing our regional community of practice for a stronger transboundary agenda, and for attaining real solutions to the problems facing mountain ecosystems and mountain peoples.”

With Southern African mountains comprising those situated south of the Congo Rainforest and Lake Rukwa – including the mountainous islands of the western Indian Ocean – SAMC2025 is encouraging participation from Angola, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion, South Africa, southern Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. 

According to the organisers, the SAMC series is purposefully multi- and trans-disciplinary, with a strong impetus to link science, policy, and practitioner realms, and thus all approaches are encouraged. A first of its kind in the region will be a Royal Mountain Indaba, bringing together customary law, mountains, and the Sustainable Development Goals, given that vast tracks of mountain-scape in Southern Africa are directly under traditional governance.  

SAMC2025 will build on the highly successful first Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022) held in March 2022. This, the first of its kind in Southern Africa, attracted 259 participants from 21 countries, with 168 papers delivered and four sponsored special sessions. SAMC2025 will include plenary sessions, parallel oral paper presentation sessions, poster sessions, panel discussions, and sessions for special interest groups – with separate review tracks for abstract submissions from the science, policy, and practitioner sectors that accommodate those sectors to their best advantage. 

The following useful resources are available and can be downloaded:

1. Invitation SAMC2025.

2. Announcements and Call for Abstracts – document includes access to

  • call for abstracts with link to online submission system;
  • call for proposals for workshops and/or panel discussions; 
  • publication of selected conference papers; 
  • registration information; 
  • student and early career academics summit; 
  • important dates; 
  • venue details; 
  • information for international travellers; and 
  • information for directing enquiries. 

3. Guidelines for the submission of abstracts – document includes access to

  • presentation categories and types;
  • review of abstracts;
  • style guide for abstracts submitted for oral or poster presentations;
  • conditions; and
  • other considerations with regard to formatting, style, and technical details.
  • review of proposals;
  • style guide for proposals for workshops and/or panel discussions; and

  • conditions. 

News Archive

B. Iur. programme in Occupational Risk Law first of its kind in the country
2010-11-26

The University of the Free State (UFS) will offer a B.Iur. degree programme in Occupational Risk Law from 2011.

This programme of the Faculty of Law is the first of its kind to be offered in South Africa and positions the UFS in the forefront of this field of study.

The programme is designed to develop and qualify professionals, knowledgeable in the field of occupational risk law as prescribed by South African legislation and international best practices. It further offers a qualification based on a well-researched basis of applicable legal principles, combined with safety, health, environmental and quality risk management principles applicable to employers and employees in a specialised industry.

The B.Iur. (Occupational Risk Law) has been developed by experts within the parameters of international comparability, according to research-based identification of career demands and requirements in the fields mentioned.

By introducing this programmesignificant progress will be made towards achieving the nationally stated objective of legal safety, health and environmental quality assurance in the workplace and within the broader community. The programme will also encompass the values and standards prescribed by the Institute of Safety Managers. This will provide them with a further step towards the regulation of the professional en ethical standards in the field of legal safety, health and environmental quality assurance.

With the programme, the UFS not only creates a unique opportunity for stakeholders and learners to add meaningful value to their careers, but also exerts a meaningful influence on the industry and society in terms of the acquisition of a most appropriate type of qualification. The B.Iur. (Occupational Risk Law)degree therefore offers a meaningful contribution towards the industry through addressing the increasing demand for career opportunities in the field of legal safety, health and environmental quality compliance.

The new programme is the result of an agreement between the faculty and its partner, IRCA Global. The university officially launched its partnership with IRCA Global, an international supplier of risk management solutions pertaining to safety, health, the environment and quality in 2008. As part of the agreement, the UFS will offer short learning programme, a diploma and a degree in Risk Management.

IRCA Global is a South African company in the international risk control and SHEQ environments with filials in Africa, Australia, India, Eastern Europe, and South America.

In the interim IRCA Global has continued with the marketing of the programme, with the result that hundreds of potential students are waiting for the launching of the programme. The faculty is geared towards offering the programme in e-learning. New modules will also be offered with the help of IRCA’s trained and skilled facilitators. The faculty also utilises the partnerships entered into with IRCA to appoint practising specialists as part-time lecturers for the occupational risk law component of the programme as well as to develop a new specialist component amongst the permanent staff.

The programme is already active and students can register for the first semester 2011 (study code 3324, programme code M3000). Direct your enquiries to Cora-Mari de Vos at 051 401 3532 or devosc@ufs.ac.za.

The programme consists of fundamental modules of the LL.B. and B.Iur., as well as short learning programmes in the Faculty of Law and specially developed core modules in occupational risk law. The B.Iur.in Occupational Risk Law enables successful candidates to enrol for applicable Post Graduate Diplomas or a cognate Honours Degree. Obtaining one of these qualifications provides the platform to articulate to Magister degrees. Horizontal articulation possibilities exist with the accredited Baccalaureus of Law (LL.B.) which is presented by several institutions in the country.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za
26 November 2010

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