Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Celebrating 25 years of the UFS Business School

29 November 2024 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Tania Allan

Business School 25 Year Celebration — Some of the guests and staff members of the UFS Business School who attended the 25th anniversary celebration of the school.

To commemorate its 25^th anniversary, the Business School at the University of the Free State (UFS) held a celebratory event on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on 22 November 2024.

Prof Frans Prinsloo, acting Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) at the UFS who attended the event, said, “The occasion is not just a celebration of the passing of time, but it’s also an opportunity for us to reflect on the values, achievements, and aspirations that have shaped the journey of the UFS Business School.” The event, which was regarded as a ‘momentous milestone’, was also attended by Prof Nicolene Barkhuizen, Director of the UFS Business School, Prof Frederick Fourie and Prof Bennie Anderson – founding members of the Business School, as well as Prof Tienie Crous and Prof Hendri Kroukamp, who are former deans of EMS.

A walk down memory lane

In his opening address, Prof Prinsloo reflected on the growth of the Business School over the past 25 years and highlighted some of the achievements of the staff that make up the Business School. However, the highlight of the event for many in the audience was the trip down memory lane by the founding members of the Business School as well as the former deans of the faculty.

In their address, Profs Fourie and Anderson shared some of their fondest memories and experiences as they worked towards putting together the Business School. For instance, Prof Fourie indicated that in order to ensure that the syllabus was of high quality, the founding members had to travel overseas and learn from several institutions, such as Harvard Business School.

In addition, Profs Fourie and Anderson spoke extensively about their pride in the Business Management and Leadership (BML) programme, offered by the Business School. According to Prof Fourie, the degree was the brainchild of Prof Anderson, who for several reasons wanted to consider working adults who might not have had experience in school learning. As such, they consider the BML programme as one of their most special achievements, given its impact. Furthermore, Prof Crous and Prof Kroukamp also shared their memories of being part of the institution, and specifically the Business School.

Forging ahead for another 25 years

In the pursuit of 25 more years, Prof Barkhuizen indicated that the school is aiming to achieve success with several projects. These include staff and student exchanges in order to optimise the experience of both stakeholders. “Even though we have a global reach, it is important for us to apply it locally,” she said. In addition, Prof Barkhuizen highlights that for the Business School to continue serving the needs of its unique student clientele, it needs to become more agile. As such, it will continuously reinvent its programmes with the input of its stakeholders. For instance, she indicated that the school is looking at implementing joint qualification offerings, among other things.

As the event ended, Prof Barkhuizen said that she was, “so proud of the progress made by the Business School; it has been a journey to get here, but this function today taught me to never give up hope and not to give up on one’s dreams”.

News Archive

UFS hosts first SA Digital Sky Academy at the Naval Hill Planetarium

2015-10-02

From the left are: Prof Neil Heideman
(Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, UFS),
Jack White (Director: Sky-Skan Oceania),
Dr Michelle Cluver (Department of Astronomy, University of the Western Cape),
Martin Ratcliffe (Director: Professional Development, Sky-Skan).
Photo: Mart-Mari Duvenhage

South Africa hosts some of the world’s largest telescopes, and won the bid to co-host the SKA recently. So it’s not surprising that there is unprecedented interest in Astronomy in our country. Astronomy is seen as a gateway subject that attracts people to the sciences, while planetariums help to make Astronomy accessible to millions of people. Digital planetariums are especially powerful teaching tools because they are versatile, offer an immersive experience, and explain and illustrate three-dimensional concepts effectively. On the other hand, scientists, are eager to exploit a digital planetarium’s potential to represent and explore data visually, whether the data relate to medicine, astronomy, chemistry, the environment, or other fields of research.

The four-day ‘Digital Sky Academy’ (DSA) presented at the Naval Hill Planetarium in Bloemfontein from 18 - 22 September 2015 was an opportunity to offer training and first-hand experience of digital planetarium technology to representatives from other centres in South Africa. The Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS) was the host of this event.

The Department of Science and Technology has designated the Naval Hill Planetarium as the South African hub for the training of digital planetarium presenters and operators. In addition to attracting interest from scientists and future planetarium operators and presenters, the DSA workshop provided an invaluable opportunity for our presenters to hone their skills.

A number of experienced and distinguished people attended the workshop. Among them was Dr Mark SubbaRao from Chicago in the United States, who shared information on data visualisation techniques used in the Adler Planetarium. Jack White, Director of Sky-Skan, one of the few companies that provide digital technology for planetariums throughout the world, coordinated the event in partnership with Prof Matie Hoffman from the Department of Physics at the UFS.

Jack travelled from Melbourne in Australia to oversee the workshop. Two Sky-Skan colleagues from the United States, Martin Weiss and Martin Ratcliffe, were on hand to share their expertise on digital planetarium hardware and software. The workshop programme included Skype conference calls with other US-based planetarium experts. Amongst the delegates to the DSA representatives from the SKA, the Iziko Museum, and five South Africa universities. They were here to gain experience, explore the capacity of the digital facility, and share ideas on future collaboration.

During the workshop, a public lecture was held on 19 September. Dr Michelle Cluver from the University of the Western Cape gave a presentation entitled, ‘More than the eye can see: the significance of infrared light in Astronomy.’

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept