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UFS on track to revolutionise student success and boost sustainability

14 August 2025 | Story Onthatile Tikoe and the Centre for Teaching and Learning | Photo Supplied

CTL — From the left: Dr Jenny Glennie (SAIDE), Gugu Khanye (Director: Student Success – UFS), Prof Matete Madiba (Deputy Vice-Chancellor – UWC), Prof Francois Strydom (UFS Siyaphumelela Lead), and Prof Nthabiseng Ogude (Siyaphumelela Institutional Coach) at the 2025 Siyaphumelela Conference. The group played a key role in advancing conversations around student success, collaboration, and innovation in higher education.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is advancing a transformative approach to student success that positions it to become a national leader in enhancing social mobility. This vision was underscored at the 2025 Siyaphumelela Conference, where the university shared details of its groundbreaking collaboration with the National Institute for Student Success (NISS) at Georgia State University (GSU) in the United States.

Prof Francois Strydom, Senior Director: Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), explained that the initiative builds on lessons from GSU’s remarkable achievements. “The success of Georgia State University has been truly inspiring,” he said. “The NISS approach, which focuses on using data to dismantle systemic barriers and improve graduation rates, has transformed outcomes for a predominantly low-income and diverse student body. By contextualising this data-driven model for our environment, the UFS is proud to be the first university on the African continent to implement it.”

Building on proven success

GSU’s success in eliminating equity gaps in retention and completion among different racial groups was achieved through a redesign of its support structures and processes. Drawing on its own established track record of narrowing equity gaps in success rates, the UFS aims to replicate these outcomes in a way that is tailored to its unique context.

At the conference, the UFS Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) launched a new national report on student engagement trends and presented papers on a range of topics. These included innovative strategies for improving performance in high-priority modules, the use of predictive analytics to provide proactive student support, and research into gender differences in academic performance and class attendance in a post-COVID world.

Prof Strydom also led an exploratory panel discussion on strengthening collaboration between universities, business, and philanthropy to drive large-scale student success initiatives. “By facilitating a deeper understanding between philanthropic organisations, businesses, and universities, we can develop innovative and impactful approaches to funding and student support,” he said.

Driving innovation and sustainability

The UFS’ contributions at the conference were further reinforced by institutional projects focused on the evidence-based integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into student learning and success. These initiatives reflect a clear commitment to transformation that is both research-led and data-driven.

Looking ahead, Prof Strydom emphasised the opportunity before the institution: “We have a unique opportunity to leverage the lessons learnt from our student success initiatives to guide further research, deploy technology in ways that optimise human connection, and help create responsible societal futures while contributing to the sustainability of our university.”

News Archive

Another boost for sport at the UFS

2005-10-13

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has officially appointed Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd, which has former Springbok rugby captain Morné du Plessis as managing director, to manage its Centre for Exercise and Sport Science Services (CESSS) on the Bloemfontein campus.

According to Prof Teuns Verschoor, Vice-Rector: Academic Operations, the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is another step in the implementation of the UFS’s wide-ranging sport strategy to improve sport facilities and elevate formerly marginalized sports such as soccer, hockey, netball, tennis etc.

Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is the manager of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and coordinates and manages the national basketball high-performance programme of SA Basketball, as well as the Boxing Academy on behalf of Boxing South Africa.

“It is also actively involved with the sports plans of several tertiary institutions like that of the University of Johannesburg and the University of Stellenbosch,” said Prof Verschoor.

“Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was also appointed by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation to manage the allocation of sports codes to high-performance centres and to oversee the allocation of monies received from the National Lottery to these centres – this includes the CESSS at the UFS,” Prof Verschoor added.

In unfolding its national sports plan, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has already identified the UFS-based CESSS as the high-performance testing centre for the national basketball teams whilst the national boxing teams are also earmarked to be trained at the UFS.

“We are glad to be associated with a company of this stature and look forward to work with them in the further development of sports at the UFS,” said Prof Verschoor.

According to Prof Verschoor, the CESSS will act as a centralised body that is responsible for the coordination and management of joint initiatives between professional service providers, research projects and KovsieSport.

“The centre will also coordinate and manage joint initiatives between various academic programmes in different academic subject fields such as sports medicine, bio kinetics, physiotherapy, dietetics, etc. ,” said Prof Verschoor.

These initiatives will help the UFS to become a centre and catalyst of sports development, to become internationally recognised in the field of exercise and sports science research and to become a centre for high quality sports performance enhancement.

Some of the objectives of the CESSS are:

To provide sports science services like to athletes, students, the general public and other stakeholders including certain national sport teams.
To provide the necessary teaching and training facilities and internship opportunities for UFS students in sports related fields of study will also be provided by the centre like human movement science.
To present skills-transfer programmes directed at the broader community like development of skills in various sporting codes.
To continue and extend the current chronic risk reversal programmes presented by the Department of Human Movement Science such as obesity management, cardiac rehabilitation and other lifestyle related conditions.

The centre was founded in 2003 and was until now managed by Dr Louis Holtzhausen, from Kovsie Health and a consultant, Dr Gary Vorster.

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed today by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The manager of the centre appointed by Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is Mr Charles Store, an alumnus of the UFS, previously employed at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town and by the SANDF at 3 Military Hospital, Bloemfontein.

Media release
Issued by: Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
072-207-8334
12 October 2005

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