Latest News Archive

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

Eco-Vehicle 2.0 makes debut at the eighth Annual Kovsie ACT Eco-Vehicle Race

03 October 2025 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Stephen Collett

Forty-five minutes. Forty-three minutes. Slippery, wet, muddy. Forty minutes. Thirty-nine minutes. Non-stop rain. Thirty-five minutes. Thirty-four minutes … soaked to the bone, shivering, pushing on. This year’s Kovsie ACT Eco-Vehicle Race redefined the word endurance.

What was meant to be a full day of racing, with Eco-Vehicle 1.0 and 2.0 competitions, smart laps and endurance races, was turned upside down by heavy rain. In the end, it came down to a single 45-minute endurance showdown in the Eco-Vehicle 2.0 competition.

Despite the weather, the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Bloemfontein Campus was buzzing with excitement on Saturday 27 September 2025, as students put months of hard work to the test during the eighth Annual Kovsie ACT Eco-Vehicle Race.

CUT crowned as overall winner

The big headline? The launch of Eco-Vehicle 2.0 – a brand-new prototype built through the advanced Skills Programme 2.0. Students from the three UFS campuses were joined by teams from the Central University of Technology (CUT), the University of South Africa (UNISA), and Nelson Mandela University (NMU). For nine months, they had been working on everything from sustainability and software engineering to mechanical and structural design, and now it was time to prove it on the track.

Two categories defined this year’s challenge:

Pit Stop – best vehicle presentation and recyclable décor
Endurance Race – most laps on limited energy

With the rain continuing to pour down, the results were clear. CUT walked away as overall winners, also scooping up the Pit Stop prize. They had already won the Bluetooth Race earlier this year, making 2025 their year. Team leader Junior Mochhakala, a second-year Technology student, said their success came down to smart planning. “We anticipated the weather conditions and built our strategy around that. I’m very glad it worked,” said a proud and happy Mochhakala after Saturday’s race.

Nelson Mandela University impressed with the Best Prepared Car award and claimed victory in the Endurance Race.

The MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Elzabe Rockman, was there too. She praised the project for building strong partnerships and said she was inspired by the students’ boldness to explore new technology.

The race continues to be funded by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (MerSETA). Since 2018, this funding has kept the wheels turning, enabling both the 1.0 and 2.0 programmes. Representatives Jabulane Mazibulo and S’busiso Ndlovu said their support is about caring, serving, and creating belonging.

Industry also stepped up. SA Truck Bodies sent engineers to mentor teams, giving students a real taste of the working world.

Building skills beyond the track

For Dr WP Wahl, Director: Student Life, the day was about more than just racing. “We started with the eco-vehicle idea in 2016, and it’s grown into something amazing. With support from MerSETA, we built the 1.0 during the pandemic, and now the 2.0 car is here – tested for the first time today, in the rain! What excites me most is the partnerships. We worked with CUT’s Faculty of Engineering on the 2.0. It’s not just about cars and racing; this programme is the training ground where our students gain the skills that they’ll need in the 21st Century.”

As the race ended and the winners were crowned, the checkered flag fell on muddy, smiling teams who shared one thing: grit and the will to build a greener future.

News Archive

UFS sets trend for higher education institutions

2005-09-21

The University of the Free State (UFS) offers more service-learning courses than any other higher education institution in the country and has the highest number of students enrolled for these service-learning courses.

This was the research findings on higher education institutions conducted between 2001 and 2004 by the Joint Education Trust (JET) into service-learning courses. These are courses which seek to integrate service to the community into the academic core of higher education institutions.

The results of this research indicated that the UFS is one of the few higher education institutions in South Africa that have made progress in integrating community engagement into the mainstream academy.

According to the findings 2 233 students at the UFS participated in service-learning courses supported by JET, while 858 students at the University of Transkei (UNITRA), 636 students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and only 600 students at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) participated in service-learning courses.

In total there were 6 930 students participating in service learning courses supported by the JET at 10 institutions throughout the country.

The research also found that out of a total of 182 service-learning courses supported by JET countrywide, the UFS had the highest number of such courses at 42, followed by WITS with 28, the University of Kwazulu Natal with 26, UWC 24 and UNITRA with 22.

Nationally, most of the service-learning courses at higher education institutions are offered in the human sciences (62), followed by health sciences (37), education (26), agriculture (14), and economic sciences (11).

According to leading academics, service-learning is a credit-bearing, educational exercise in which students participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs and helps the student to gain a deeper understanding of course content and a sense of civic responsibility.

Reacting to the research findings, the Rector and Vice-chancellor of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the university feels strongly that there should be integration of service-learning into the academic core of the institution.

“Through service-learning modules the UFS can give expression to its role of service to the community as an institution of higher learning, producing quality graduates who understand the communities in which they will have to function for the rest of their lives,” Prof Fourie said.

According to Mr Jo Lazarus, the project manager of the Community-Higher Education – Service Partnership (CHESP), which falls under the JET, a number of institutions have identified community engagement as a strategic priority and have allocated significant resources from their central budget towards its implementation.

Mr Lazarus said most students have an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards service learning.

“A large percentage of students surveyed indicated that their service-learning course helped to improve their relationship skills, leadership skills and project planning abilities. As significant is the fact that these courses also benefited them in terms of their awareness of cultural differences and opened their eyes about their own cultural stereotypes,” said Mr Lazarus.

“The key challenge still hampering the integration of service-learning as a core function of academic activity is that some institutions still see service-learning as an add-on, and nice-to-have activity,” he said.

According to Mr Lazarus higher education must demonstrate social responsibility and commitment to the common good by making available expertise and infrastructure for service-learning as a form of community engagement.

Media release
Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel: (051) 401-2584
   Cell: 083 645 2454
   E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
   20 September 2005

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