Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
14 October 2025
|
Story Lacea Loader
In the interest of the safety of the staff and students at the University of the Free State (UFS), the Executive Management assessed the current situation on the three campuses and made the following resolutions:
1. The Qwaqwa Campus is closed with immediate effect, and students are requested to leave the campus within the next 24 hours.
2. The Executive Management Committee extends an invitation to the Student Representative Councils (SRCs) of all three campuses to further engagement.
3. On the Bloemfontein and South Campuses, all lectures are suspended until further notice; however, only limited movement will be allowed on campus from 19:00 in the evening until 07:00 in the morning.
Meet our Council: Marius Swart – a Councillor with deep roots in the UFS
2017-07-12
Marius Swart, Alumni election on the UFS Council.
Photo: Stephen Collett
Marius Swart, a Kovsie alumnus, is an Alumni election on the University Council. Not only is he a Kovsie alumnus, but all four of his siblings and their spouses are Kovsie alumni, as well as all three his children.
Interest in future decisions at the UFS
He is currently practicing as cardiothoracic surgeon at Mediclinic in Bloemfontein, but has always been involved with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the university. He spent eight years as consultant in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and recently became a registered student again when he enrolled for an interdisciplinary PhD. He is currently also supervisor for the research projects of undergraduate medical students.
Thus, Marius no doubt has a substantial interest in the issues and future decisions at the UFS.
Guard against retroformation
"Higher education is a challenging environment and expectations about excellence and human development are being tested. Transformation is on everybody’s lips, but we have to guard against what I would call retroformation – moving back to old regimes and new forms of exclusion," he says.
Marius is excited to begin his term with a new Rector and Vice-Chancellor. He realises that many challenges awaits him as councillor on the way forward, but he is ready to pull his weight in Council.
"My own daughter is involved in the challenges students are experiencing on a daily basis, and my wife is supporting a first-generation rural student. The university should be sensitive to these students. Empowering them can bring change to communities."
His interests are varied and it is clear that he has a vision for a better world.