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UFS to offer agricultural engineering, as well as Africa’s first postgraduate ecological engineering sciences degrees

01 September 2025 | Story Martinette Brits | Photo Supplied

For the first time, the University of the Free State (UFS) will be offering a full four-year engineering degree. From 2026, the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences will present the Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, alongside new PhD and MSc degrees in Ecological and Nature-based Engineering Sciences – the first postgraduate qualifications of their kind on the African continent. Together, these programmes strengthen the university’s role in addressing some of the world’s most pressing and complex sustainability challenges.

Louis Lagrange, BEng Project Manager, describes the new undergraduate degree as a milestone for the university: “It will be the first full engineering degree presented by the UFS, and it directly targets the pressing water–food–energy nexus. It combines hard-core engineering and precision farming digital skills with the living world of biosystems to develop regenerative and environmentally sustainable food production systems.”

The BEng degree is endorsed by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and approved by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). It is designed to prepare students for the full agricultural engineering design process – from identifying and evaluating challenges, to designing, implementing, and testing sustainable solutions. Students will also be able to specialise through electives in animal production, horticulture, or open land crop production.

Lagrange explains that the programme offers students hands-on engagement from the start. “They will gain experience in agricultural mechanisations such as drones and GIS, water and irrigation systems, soil and environmental stewardship, renewable energy including solar and biofuels, precision agriculture, data-driven smart farming, and food processing.”

BEng graduates will be well positioned for diverse careers, ranging from agricultural/biosystems engineer, irrigation and water resource engineer, smart farming specialist, and food processing engineer to roles in mechanisation, soil conservation, animal husbandry, and energy conversion. Employers include agribusinesses, consulting engineers, environmental firms, government agencies, and research organisations.

According to Dr Jacques Maritz, Head of Engineering Sciences, “Our BSc, MSc, and PhD graduates will be uniquely positioned as ecological engineering scientists who can also branch out to advanced sustainability analysts, computational sustainability professionals, or nature-based complexity scientists who will have the future-proof skill of solving complex sustainability challenges in interdisciplinary teams by using some of the most advanced technology. On the horizon – an NQF 8 postgraduate diploma (PGDip) in Ecological and Nature-based Engineering Sciences to academically link undergraduate students to postgraduate studies.”

Postgraduate degrees: advancing ecological engineering

Alongside this undergraduate development and the existing BSc specialising in Physics with Engineering Subjects, the UFS is also introducing new postgraduate degrees in Ecological and Nature-based Engineering Sciences. “These are the first qualifications of their kind on the African continent and are endorsed by the International Ecological Engineering Society (IEES) and the Ecological Engineering Institute of Africa (EEIA),” explains Dr Maritz.

Dr Maritz explains: “Ecological engineering applies ecological and complexity science principles to design and restore sustainable ecosystems that integrate human society with the natural environment. These programmes will also strengthen work-integrated learning at the UFS, preparing graduates to address climate resilience, scientifically led biodiversity restoration, pollution remediation through data-driven interventions, and sustainable complex systems development.”

The postgraduate programmes are linked to the UFS’ growing research agenda, which includes plans for a biomass production facility at the UFS Industrial Park to advance scientific circular economy solutions, sustainable energy, and bio-inspired technologies. They also engage with cutting-edge fields such as extreme ecological engineering – creating new ecological functionality in severely degraded environments – and industrial ecological engineering, which reimagines the built environment through green construction materials, circular economy practices, and innovations such as 3D-printed green concrete.

Both Lagrange and Dr Maritz emphasise that these qualifications reflect the UFS’ Vision 130 commitment to being research-led, student-centred, and regionally engaged. They agree that the new programmes are ideally suited for students who want to combine engineering, science, and nature with emerging technologies, while pursuing careers that make a real impact on sustainability in South Africa and beyond.

News Archive

UFS physicists publish in prestigious Nature journal

2017-10-16

Description: Boyden Observatory gravitational wave event Tags: Boyden Observatory, gravitational wave event, Dr Brian van Soelen, Hélène Szegedi, multi-wavelength astronomy
Hélène Szegedi and Dr Brian van Soelen are scientists in the
Department of Physics at the University of the Free State.
Photo: Charl Devenish

In August 2017, the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein played a major role in obtaining optical observations of one of the biggest discoveries ever made in astrophysics: the detection of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave event.

An article reporting on this discovery will appear in the prestigious science journal, Nature, in October 2017. Co-authors of the article, Dr Brian van Soelen and Hélène Szegedi, are from the Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS). Both Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi are researching multi-wavelength astronomy.

Discovery is the beginning of a new epoch in astronomy

Dr van Soelen said: “These observations and this discovery are the beginning of a new epoch in astronomy. We are now able to not only undertake multi-wavelength observations over the whole electromagnetic spectrum (radio up to gamma-rays) but have now been able to observe the same source in both electromagnetic and gravitational waves.”

Until recently it was only possible to observe the universe using light obtained from astronomical sources. This all changed in February 2016 when LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) stated that for the first time they had detected gravitational waves on 14 September 2015 from the merger of two black holes. Since then, LIGO has announced the detection of two more such mergers. A fourth was just reported (27 September 2017), which was the first detected by both LIGO and Virgo. However, despite the huge amount of energy released in these processes, none of this is detectable as radiation in any part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Since the first LIGO detection astronomers have been searching for possible electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave detections.

Large international collaboration of astronomers rushed to observe source

On 17 August 2017 LIGO and Virgo detected the first ever gravitational waves resulting from the merger of two neutron stars. Neutron star mergers produce massive explosions called kilonovae which will produce a specific electromagnetic signature. After the detection of the gravitational wave, telescopes around the world started searching for the optical counterpart, and it was discovered to be located in an elliptical galaxy, NGC4993, 130 million light years away. A large international collaboration of astronomers, including Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi, rushed to observe this source.

At the Boyden Observatory, Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi used the Boyden 1.5-m optical telescope to observe the source in the early evening, from 18 to 21 August. The observations obtained at Boyden Observatory, combined with observations from telescopes in Chile and Hawaii, confirmed that this was the first-ever detection of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave event. Combined with the detection of gamma-rays with the Fermi-LAT telescope, this also confirms that neutron star mergers are responsible for short gamma-ray bursts.

The results from these optical observations are reported in A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source published in Nature in October 2017.

“Our paper is one of a few that will be submitted by different groups that will report on this discovery, including a large LIGO-Virgo paper summarising all observations. The main results from our paper were obtained through the New Technology Telescope, the GROND system, and the Pan-STARRS system. The Boyden observations helped to obtain extra observations during the first 72 hours which showed that the light of the source decreased much quicker than was expected for supernova, classifying this source as a kilonova,” Dr Van Soelen said.

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