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DHET international scholarship sessions spark interest at UFS

22 October 2024 | Story Precious Shamase and Bulelwa Moikwathai | Photo Supplied

DHET international scholarship sessions 2024 — Bulelwa Moikwaikwatlhai , Assistant Director: International Office and Dr Temwa Moyo, acting Director for International Scholarships at DHET.

The University of the Free State (UFS) Qwaqwa Campus recently hosted two information sessions on international scholarships, led by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). These sessions were initiated by the Office for international Affairs.

In his welcoming address during the first information session for campus heads of department, Campus Vice-Principal: Support Services, Teboho Manchu, expressed his enthusiasm for the event and its potential benefits for students and staff. He emphasised the importance of these sessions in fostering growth and development. “We are looking forward to these engagements and hope that they will benefit all of us. Please feel welcome. I would also like to thank the Office for International Affairs and all the colleagues who have been working with them to make this interaction possible.”

Dr Temwa Moyo, acting Director for International Scholarships at the DHET, gave a comprehensive presentation on Erasmus+ programmes, which provide universities with opportunities and funding to collaborate on curriculum development for new programmes, capacity building in higher education, and full scholarships for joint master’s degrees, to name a few.

“The UFS has a significant international footprint, including on the African continent. Our department’s role is to stimulate international collaboration among institutions and to strengthen national collaborations to share best practices and build networks and capacity. This is the idea of the Erasmus + programmes,” explained Dr Moyo.

The DHET representative emphasised the department’s commitment to fostering international collaboration among universities and institutions. He explained that the Erasmus+ programmes aim to empower institutions and capacitate them to engage globally.

In the second student-centred session, Prof Ralph Clark, Director of the Afromontane Research Unit, encouraged students to take advantage of these opportunities because they enhance one’s networks, perspectives, and knowledge, as well as provide a platform for students to participate in and contribute to conversations and activities aimed at addressing global challenges with societal impact. The event provided attendees with various international opportunities through the DHET to support their academic pursuits. Students and staff learned about the benefits of studying abroad, the requirements, and the application process. The DHET’s emphasis on institutional partnerships also highlights the possibility of enriching academic exchange and cultural experiences.

Overall, the DHET international scholarship sessions on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus were a resounding success, with both students and staff attending in numbers. These sessions inspired students and staff to explore the exciting possibilities of global engagements.

News Archive

Universities can contribute to economic transformation

2010-01-27

At the lecture were, from the left: Prof. Neil Heideman (Acting Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences), Prof. Hartmut Frank (University of Bayreuth, Germany), Prof. Bianchi and Prof. Jan van der Westhuizen (professor in Chemistry at the UFS).
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe

Universities have a role to play in economic transformation and industrial development according to Prof. Fabrizio Bianchi, the Rector of the University of Ferrara in Italy.

This was the core message of his lecture on the topic Globalisation, Agriculture and Industrial Development that he delivered at the University of the Free State.

He said after the collapse of the agricultural industry in Italy as a result of the subsidies that the farmers were receiving from the government, the university had to step in.

“This was meant to maintain high prices and maximize the production but in the long run this approach created problems because the farmers were no longer producing high quality products but large quantities in order to receive subsidies,” he said.

“The result was that the government itself had to destroy those poor quality products. This was a completely unreasonable way to manage the economy”.

He said they had to abandon that approach and concentrate on quality because they realized that Italy could not match the prices and the quantity, in terms of production, of countries like China and the USA.

He said “knowledge and human resources” were the key factors that could get them out of that crisis; hence they came up with what he called “the Made in Italy approach”.

“We were working on the idea that food is part of culture and that it is not just simply for refueling the body,” he said.

“One of the fundamental ideas was to come back to the idea that production is the centre of the development process.”

“Quality is a very complex, collective issue,” he said. “You cannot understand development if you do not understand that you have to base it on strong roots”.

This approach resulted in the formation of several companies with specialized niche markets producing high quality products.

His visit to the UFS coincided with that of the 1991 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Richard Ernst from Switzerland, who was also part of the fourth presentation of the Cheese fondue concept.

The main thrust of this concept is that technical advances alone are insufficient for an agreement to be reached on the minimum respect between the various groups and individuals within a society. It proposes that for this to be achieved there has to be a concurrent development of empathy and emotional synergy.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
27 January 2010

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