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12 December 2024 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Supplied
Dr Cias Tsotsetsi
Dr Cias Tsotetsi, newly appointed Campus Vice-Principal: Academic and Research on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Cias Tsotetsi as the Campus Vice-Principal: Academic and Research on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus as from 1 January 2025.

He is currently Senior Lecturer and Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Education on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus. He holds the following qualifications: BEd(Hons), Postgraduate Diploma in Education, Magister Educationis with specialisation in Policy Studies and Governance in Education, and PhD with specialisation in Philosophy and Policy Studies in Education – all from the UFS.

Dr Tsotetsi operated in the school environment for about 24 years before joining this university in 2010. Since then, he has taught several modules in the Faculty of Education and published several co-authored research articles as well as conference papers on community engagement, teacher development, and participatory action research methodologies, among others. He is also well versed in supervising postgraduate students.

He has received awards from both the university’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and the Research committees for his research and academic scholastic performance. He is a member of various committees, such as the Faculty of Education Academic Advisory Board and the Committee for Title Registration and has been participating in partnerships and in NRF-funded projects with peers from universities such as the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of Zululand, the Durban University of Technology, and the University of Venda.

“Dr Tsotetsi has a clear understanding of the current systems and operations on the Qwaqwa Campus and is positioned to drive its development. His experience and initiatives involving staff and postgraduate students are exceptional and inspiring. We look forward to Dr Tsotetsi’s valuable contribution to the UFS Qwaqwa Campus and the institution in his new position,” says Prof Prince Ngobeni, Campus Principal of the Qwaqwa Campus.

“I feel honoured to serve the university – and the Qwaqwa Campus in particular – and look forward to working with the campus and its management to develop the research portfolio,” says Dr Tsotetsi. 

News Archive

Rare tumour removed in groundbreaking surgery
2011-08-06

 

Mr Carel Botes and Prof. Francis Smit with a model of the human heart
Photo: Earl Coetzee

A team of surgeons, headed by Prof Francis Smit, Head of our Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at our Faculty of Health Sciences, performed open heart surgery on a male patient with a malignant tumour.

What makes this operation unique, is that the suspicious mass that was identified in the heart was a rapidly growing and a highly invasive cardiac tumour, which has only been seen in a small number of patients worldwide.

Without the necessary surgery or heart transplant, the prognosis of the patient would have been zero.

The patient, Mr Carl Botes, a 51-year-old farmer from Hoopstad, opted for the tumour to be removed rather than having a heart transplant.  Although both options would involve major risks and challenges, the transplant was the least feasible due to logistics, the waiting list for recipients and the lack of donors.

In the, highly complex, 10-hour operation, performed in the Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein, the entire right heart chamber had to be removed and the heart reconstructed.

After prolonged hospitalisation of five weeks, Mr Botes was discharged.

Currently he is fully functional and continuing with his active lifestyle.  After three months, all investigations and scans indicate that he is doing very well and has no complaints of fatigue, shortness of breath and palpitations – symptoms which occurred before the removal of the tumour.

For further information contact:
Prof Francis Smit
051-4053861
smitfe@ufs.ac.za
 

Media Release
6 August 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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