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16 January 2025 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Supplied
Jurie Blignaut
Jurie Blignaut, top achiever in the 2024 matric exams for quintile four schools in SA and finalist of the UFS 2024 Matriculant of the Year competition.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to announce that the top achiever in the 2024 matric exams for quintile four schools in the country, Jurie Blignaut, will be studying towards an MBChB at the UFS from 2025.

Blignaut, a pupil of the Rustenburg High School, was one of the 14 finalists in the 2024 UFS Matriculant of the Year competition.

“Congratulations to Jurie on this wonderful achievement. We look forward to welcoming him and our cohort of 2025 first-year students to our campuses,” says Prof Anthea Rhoda, acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UFS. 

Boasting 11 distinctions and an average of 96,5%, Blignaut is not only an exceptional academic achiever but also participates in several cultural activities. He was the winner of the Kovsie Alumni Trust’s special award for personal cultural achievement in the final round of the competition. This head boy of his school is an excellent public speaker and musician. 

Blignaut’s highest achievement in public speaking was his national second place in last year’s ATKV public speaking competition in the section for Afrikaans home language. He plays the cello and has performed solo with the Pretoria Symphony Orchestra, was part of the school choir and band, and participated in the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival. 

“On behalf of the university management, I would also like to congratulate Dr Mantlhake Maboya, MEC for Education in the Free State, and her executive team on the Free State being the top-achieving province in South Africa,” says Prof Rhoda. 

Other finalists in the 2024 UFS Matriculant of the Year competition who excelled during the matric exams include Susan Bender from Voortrekker High School – top achiever in the Free State province – and Chris Goosen from Grey College Secondary School, who is also one of the top achievers in the Free State. 

News Archive

Prof Britz heading to Yale
2013-04-22

 

Prof Dolf Britz
Photo: Supplied
22 April 2013

Prof Dolf Britz has been awarded the honour of an appointment at Yale Divinity School (YDS) at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States. Starting in August 2013, Prof Britz will be involved in research initiatives and the teaching of post-graduate seminars at the university, which was founded in 1701.
The appointment is the natural progression of a collaboration agreement between the University of the Free State (UFS) and Yale University which dates back to 2009 with the formation of the Jonathan Edwards Centre Africa. The strategic partnership focuses on increasing African access to quality education and is geared towards empowering new-generation African leaders in academic and faith-based organisations with primary scholarly resources, research, education and publication.
Prof Britz’s appointment is equally exciting to the respective faculties involved at the UFS and Yale.
“We are most grateful that the generous support by the University of the Free States makes it possible for Prof Britz to be with us in this capacity,” said Prof Carolyn Sharp, Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at YDS.

Prof Adriaan Neele, the Director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale and extraordinary professor at the UFS, thinks Prof Britz’s appointment can be just as beneficial to YDS students.

“Prof Britz’s keen insight in historical primary sources will be very beneficial to Yale’s students and the faculty. His appointment demonstrates the strategic nature of the academic relationship between the UFS and Yale,” he said.

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