Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
07 March 2024
Photo Lunga Luthuli
Prof Francois Strydom, Senior Director at the Centre for Teaching and Learning and Simphiwe Kunene, the first African DREAM scholar and a master’s student from the Faculty of Education.
The University of the Free State (UFS) received recognition for its commitment to student success at the 2024 Achieving the Dream (ATD) conference which celebrated its 20-year anniversary. Simphiwe Kunene, an Education master's student originally from the Qwaqwa campus, was selected to represent South Africa as the first DREAM scholar from Africa as part of the conference.
The Achieving the Dream network of over 300 institutions, which is one of the largest movements in US higher education aims to transform colleges and universities so that students of colour and a lower socio-economic status are supported to earn a degree. The UFS is a leading partner in the Siyaphumelela Network, which has been working for 10 years with ATD to enhance the success of students in South Africa. Prof Francois Strydom, Senior Director at the Centre of Teaching and Learning (CTL), accepted the award on behalf of the institution.
Prof Strydom said that collaboration with the ATD and Siyaphumelela institutions has helped the UFS to develop cutting-edge approaches to “level the playing field” and support Kovsies to earn their undergraduate degrees.
The first African DREAM scholar
Kunene was selected as the first African DREAM scholar from the Siyaphumelela network. To select the DREAM scholar, each Siyaphumelela partner institution nominated one student as a preferred candidate. From the proposed candidates, the DREAM scholar was selected by the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide) based on the following: demonstrating resilience, academic excellence, and a deep commitment to making a positive difference in universities and personal communities.
He addressed the conference of over 2 000 delegates and shared with them his hopes and dreams. Many members of the South African delegation said Simphiwe did his country proud. He had the following to say about his opportunity to be a DREAM scholar: “Being a DREAM scholar was life changing for me, exposing me to an array of opportunities I never knew were possible and available for me. It was as if, for a moment, the world had stopped to just listen to what I had to say."
The way forward
The UFS will continue its work as a partner of the Siyaphumelela network for the 2024-2026 cycle. The multi-stakeholder project team is focused on enhancing undergraduate students’ time, and to position the UFS as a thought and research leader in the area of student success as part of Vision 130.
UFS subscribes to ResearchResearch
2006-02-20
|
ResearchResearch is the world's leading publisher of news and information for the international research community. From their offices in London, Sydney, Washington, Brussels, Amsterdam and Sweden their editorial team provides unrivalled expertise and in-depth news coverage of research policy and politics, and comprehensive listings of funding opportunities and sponsors across all disciplines.
The information on this site is stored in three interlinked databases:
1. Funding opportunities
2. Sponsors
3. News
Funding opportunities
Records include a detailed abstract of the opportunity including details of eligibility requirements, deadline, the original text of the call (where available); and links to the application form, specific page of the sponsor's web site, contact details of programme management and records in our Sponsors database describing the relevant research programme and sponsor. Note: You will only see funding opportunities that you and your researchers are eligible to apply for.
The Funding opportunities database has been designed to be easy to use for occasional users but offers complex search options for regular users. Opportunities can be browsed by Sponsor, by discipline, type of sponsor, purpose of award, by deadline, eligibility, and so on.
Sponsors
Records include the objectives, eligibility requirements and application procedures of sponsors along with relevant links to the sponsors’ web pages. Note: You will only see sponsors that you and your researchers are eligible to apply for funding from.
News
Keep up to date with global research developments. Research Day Worldwide, a roundup of all the latest in research policy and politics from the UK, US, Europe, Australia & New Zealand, Asia and Africa.
Access to ResearchResearch.com is available from any PC on the university network, though staff is encouraged to obtain their own username and password, which allows access from a PC off the University network, as well as allowing staff to set up customised funding alerts on their own areas of research and subscribe to news alerts (click on Apply for a personal account under my institution's license to register and obtain a username and password).
Other facilities include the ability to bookmark information, collate and distribute it to colleagues in the form of a "Magazine". This is especially useful for staff with a research co-ordination role.
Further detail is available from the Directorate Research Development (Dr Aldo Stroebel, stroebea.rd@mail.uovs.ac.za, 401 3506).
|