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2024 Elections: What the future holds after 29 May

02 May 2024 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath | Photo right

2024 UFS Thought-Leader Webinar Series

PRESENTS

a webinar titled

2024 Elections: Promises, Perils, and Delivery: What the Future Holds After 29 May 2024?

The University of the Free State (UFS) is pleased to present its first webinar for the year, titled 2024 Elections: Promises, Perils, and Delivery: What the Future Holds After 29 May 2024? – which is part of the 2024 Thought-Leader Webinar Series. As a public higher-education institution in South Africa with a responsibility to contribute to public discourse, the university will be presenting the webinar as part of the UFS Thought-Leader Series, which is in its sixth consecutive year. The aim of the webinar series is to discuss issues facing South Africa by engaging experts at the university and in South Africa.

Webinar presented on 23 May 2024

On 29 May 2024, South Africans will go to the polls. This election is considered by South Africans as significant and much needed since the end of apartheid in 1994. South Africa is plagued by record power cuts, poor service delivery, and high levels of unemployment, with drastic effects on businesses and the local economy. Coinciding with the celebration of 30 years of freedom and democracy, this seventh democratic election is a turning point for South Africa to determine the desired future for all South Africans.

Date: Thursday 23 May 2024

Time: 12:30-14:00

RSVP: Click to view document HERE no later than 22 May 2024.

Some of the topics discussed by leading experts in 2023 included, among others, Threats to South Africa’s stability and security challenges; The need for a global and regional plan / approach to respond to the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war; and Student protest action, politics, and higher education.

Facilitator:

Prof Francis Petersen

Vice-Chancellor and Principal, UFS

Panellists:

Prof Bonang Mohale

Chancellor, UFS

Dr Ebrahim Harvey

Political writer and commentator

Bios of speakers:

Prof Bonang Mohale

Prof Bonang Mohale is the Chancellor of the University of the Free State, former President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), Professor of Practice in the Johannesburg Business School (JBS) College of Business and Economics, and Chairman of two listed entities – the Bidvest Group Limited and ArcelorMittal, as well as SBV Services and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions! He is a member of the Community of Chairpersons (CoC) of the World Economic Forum and author of two best-selling books, Lift As You Rise and Behold The Turtle! He has been included in the Reputation Poll International’s (RPI) 2023 list of the ‘100 Most Reputable Africans’. The selection criteria are integrity, reputation, transparency, visibility, and impact. He is the recipient of the 2023 ME-Vision Academy’s ‘Exclusive Recognition in Successful Leadership’ Award for consistently leading self successfully, consistently leading people successfully, successfully leading as a senior executive and CEO, successfully leading society in various impactful roles, and his contribution to mentoring and inspiring future successful leaders.

Dr Ebrahim Harvey

Dr Ebrahim Harvey is a political writer, analyst, commentator, former Cosatu trade unionist, and Mail & Guardian columnist. He is currently a News24 columnist. He also wrote the authorised biography of former president, Kgalema Motlanthe (2012), and The Great Pretenders: Race and Class under ANC Rule (2021), which won the 2022 SA Literary Award for Non-Fiction. He holds a master’s degree in Public and Development Management and a PhD degree in Sociology, both from the University of the Witwatersrand.

News Archive

Bloemfontein Campus hosts annual HELTASA conference

2014-12-09

From the left are: Prof Francois Strydom, Director: Academic - Centre for Teaching and Learning, UFS; Dr Lis Lange, Vice-Rector: Academic, UFS; and Prof George Kuh, Adjunct Research Professor of Education Policy at the University of Illinois.

This year, the privilege to host the annual Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) conference was afforded to our university. The event took place on the Bloemfontein Campus from 18 – 21 November 2014, attracting keynote speakers and members from across the world.

HELTASA is a professional association mainly for educators and significant role players in higher education institutions. With its inception in the early 2000s, it has grown to become the premier organisation for teaching and learning in Southern Africa, Dr Amanda Hlengwa, President of HELTASA, pointed out.

A central concern of this body is issues around success within the tertiary sector. The theme of this year, ‘Accessing success: using evidence for change’ served to focus members’ attention on what works and what does not work – as derived from researched evidence.

In a message from Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), he stressed that the task as university teachers “is not simply cognitive gains that ensure graduation success but also intellectual gains that ensure success in life during and after university studies.”

The conference was led by internationally-acclaimed keynote speakers, namely Prof George Kuh, Prof William Grabe and Prof Fredricka Stoller, as well as our own A1 NRF-rated Prof Malanie Walker.

Prof Kuh is Adjunct Research Professor of Education Policy at the University of Illinois and Chancellor’s Professor of Higher Education Emeritus at Indiana University. In his keynote address, Prof Kuh offered valuable lessons from the field to promote student success.

Profs Grabe and Stoller collectively presented the second keynote address that explored how to set up students for success through strategic-reader training. Prof Grabe is Regents’ Professor of Applied Linguistics and Vice President for Research at Northern Arizona University. Prof Stoller is a Professor of English at Northern Arizona University, where she teaches in the MA-TESL and PhD in Applied Linguistics programmes.

Prof Walker is a Senior Research Professor at the UFS Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development (CRHED). She is also currently Director of Research Training and a senior researcher in the EU-funded Marie Curie EDUWEL project. In her keynote address, Prof Walker looked at well-being and agency in higher education.

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