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New alliance aims to boost higher education research in Africa

30 May 2025 | Story Prof Mikateko Mathebula | Photo Supplied

Africa Month Alliance — Pictured (from left to right): Prof Faith Mkwananzi, Dr Kapambwe Mwelwa, Prof Lochner Marais, Prof Chikumbutso Manthalu, and Prof Mikateko Mathebula.

Through collaborative agreements with the University of Malawi and the University of Zambia, the University of the Free State (UFS) has established the Research Alliance for Higher Education in Africa (RAHEdA), a dynamic initiative aimed at enhancing research capacity and partnerships within Sub-Saharan Africa.

The initiative forms part of the UFS’s SARChI Chair in Higher Education and Human Development (HEHD) research programme.

The collaborative agreements align with the UFS’s Vision 130 strategy in relation to internationalisation, emphasising the important role that intra-African mobility visits play in establishing relationships with universities on the continent. It also fosters knowledge exchange and engagement and allows for careful planning and strategy meetings.

In 2024, the HEHD hosted Dr Kapambwe Mwelwa, a lecturer in the University of Zambia’s Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies, and Prof Chikumbutso Manthalu, Head of Higher Education and Professional Development in the University of Malawi’s School of Education, for such a visit. Their engagements included research seminars, a PhD presentation day, and collaborative strategy sessions with UFS academics, including Prof Faith Mkwananzi and Prof Mikateko Mathebula from the UFS’s Centre for Development Support (CDS), who are co-founders of RAHEdA.

“During these discussions, an ambitious but feasible roadmap was laid out for the next three to five years,” Prof Mkwananzi said. “These activities include online workshops for staff and postgraduate students at all partner institutions, and a new webinar series that focuses on profiling, advancing, and celebrating thought leaders, higher education scholars, and scholarship in Africa.”

The inaugural webinar was held on 21 May 2025. Speaker Prof Siseko Kumalo, Associate Professor at the University of Johannesburg’s Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies, spoke on ‘Orality as the Bulwark of the Humanities?’, set the bar high for the webinar series through his compelling and original response to this timely question, as scholars around the world contemplate appropriate responses to the rise and influence of artificial intelligence in higher education teaching, learning, and assessment.

Funding to support RAHEdA has been generously provided by Prof Melanie Walker, Distinguished Professor and SARChI Chair in Higher Education and Human Development.

• For information on how to get involved and for updates on RAHEdA, please contact Prof Mikateko Mathebula at MathebulaM@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

Winning culture helps Kovsies Tennis team claim ninth gold

2015-12-09

Ruben Kruger of the University of the Free State in action at the 2015 USSA tournament in Cape Town.
Photo: Janine de Kock

A winning culture in the Kovsies Tennis Team, combined with good planning, contributed to the University of the Free State (UFS) USSA success recipe.

This is what Janine Erasmus, one of the team's captains, had to say.

According to her, this is why the UFS were able to handle the pressure of being the favourite so well, and this is what helped her team to achieve a ninth consecutive gold medal in Cape Town on 4 December 2015.

This was the sixth year in a row that the UFS triumphed in the combined USSA format since its inception in 2010. In 2007 and 2008, its Women's team won gold, and in 2009, it was the Men's team.

Erasmus was full of praise for the Kovsie coach, Marnus Kleinhans, and Janine de Kock, manager of KovsieTennis.

“We had a build-up of a few months to the USSA tournament, and they (Kleinhans and De Kock) already knew exactly what to do,” she said.

Erasmus, who won a third gold medal, believes her team had great depth this year.

Four in select squad

Kovsies and Maties played in the USSA Tennis Finals for a fourth consecutive year.

Erasmus and her team beat the Stellenbosch team 7 - 3 on 4 December 2015, after they defeated Tukkies 8 - 0 in their semi-final.

Mareli Bojé is one of four tennis players of the University of the Free State included in a 2015 USSA tournament team.
Photo: Janine de Kock

Arné Nel, Cornelius Rall, Duke Munro, and Mareli Bojé are the four Kovsies included in the USSA tournament team.

Nel, the other captain from the UFS, won all his matches for the third successive year. Munro won a gold medal at USSA for the seventh year in a row.

Gold for Table Tennis

Three UFS sports teams made it to the USSA finals, all against Maties. The tennis and men's table tennis teams were both winners, but the Sevens rugby team got stuck.

The Kovsie table tennis team beat Maties 3 - 1 in Kimberley.

Silver for Sevens rugby

The Kovsie Sevens rugby team, third at USSA for the past two years, walked away with silver in George on 1 December 2015.

The team was defeated by Maties 10 - 31 in the final. This was after they won 24 - 14 against Pukke in the semi-final, and 28 - 12 against the Central University of Technology in the quarter final.

Tukkies, the 2014 USSA Sevens champions, together with several other teams, did not take part because the tournament was postponed because of the nationwide student protests.

The Kovsie swimming team took part in the USSA tournament in Johannesburg from 28 November to 30 November 2015.

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