Bult - University of the Free State

Prof. Teuns Verschoor.
Nuus News
In a year where the UFS made headlines around the world for the wrong reasons, there were
also many blessings and achievements to celebrate. In his opening address earlier this year,
Prof. Teuns Verschoor, Acting Rector, listed some of the achievements that we can be proud of.
2008 was also a year of many blessings
“The year 2008 was for this University, as Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II would have phrased it, an ‘annus
horribilis,’ Prof. Verschoor said. “On this occasion, last
year, we optimistically spelt out the strategic priorities
that we would have liked to drive, only to be confronted
one month later with a triad of tragedies, to wit: the
vandalism committed by protesting students, the
disclosure and world-wide broadcasting of the Reitz
video, and class disruptions in close pursuit.”
About 80% of management time was spent on these
crises and minimazation of its impact on the core
role of the UFS. And there were many dark clouds
building up on the horizon. “But as a university, we
put our shoulders to the wheel and we succeeded to
a large extent in limiting the damages. We honestly
and straightforwardly acknowledged our mistakes and
failures, in the belief that we thereby indicate that today
we are wiser than yesterday.”
Many blessings came our way:
• Major support was received from the Fulbright
Commission in South Africa for the placement at
the UFS of internationally-renowned scholars from
the US to assist in the establishment of this institute.
• Where we expected a decline in the number of
first-year students for 2009 due to all the negative
publicity; our student number increased.
• The Career Preparation Programme experienced
a large growth in student numbers and now has
more than 800 students. We provide this bridging
opportunity for students who would otherwise not
be able to prepare themselves for the University
entry requirements.
• The Master’s Degree in Sustainable Agriculture
presented by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
and Rural Development has the most students (70)
in the sixteen years of the programme.
• Staff excelled in many spheres. Prof. Maryke
Labuschagne received the National Science and
Technology Forum Award for research capacity
building that resulted from the training of a large
number of mainly black post-graduate students
from South Africa and Africa over the last ten years.
• Prof. Hendrik Swart of Physics and Prof. Jannie
Swarts of Chemistry received R10 million from
the National Equipment Program of the National
Research Foundation, and R3 million from Sasol
to purchase state-of-the-art equipment. The UFS is
one of the leaders in nanotechnology research.
• The School of Nursing received a financial injection
of R16 million over four years from The Atlantic
Philanthropies, an international philanthropic
foundation with a strong focus on community wellbeing
and health care.
• The UFS, in collaboration with US-based agencies,
was appointed as the lead grantee to spearhead
a 10-year research and development programme
of the Bill and Melinda Gates and WK Kellogg
Foundations. The WK Kellogg Foundation has
already granted R8 million to the UFS to lead
the initial 18-month exploratory phase. This
programme will revise agricultural education
curricula in Africa to become more responsive to
the needs of smallholder family farms to achieve
improved productivity, food security and economic
development in Africa.
• The Centre for Accounting will receive close to
R12 million over the next four years from the
Thuthuka Bursary Fund to train black students as
chartered accountants.
• DiMTeC concluded two international cooperation
agreements in risk management with the United
Nations University and the University of Novi Sad,
Serbia.
• The University of Minnesota and the Duke State
University of North Carolina, visited the UFS, and
memoranda of cooperation will follow.
• The strategic role that we play in Africa was also
highlighted by the fact that almost 200 international
students from fourteen countries obtained their
qualifications at the UFS in 2008. International
student numbers increased from 1 800 to 2 200
over the past two years.
• The assessor of the Association of Commonwealth
Universities 2008 Internationalisation Benchmarking
Review has commended the UFS on its excellent
progress towards supporting internationalisation.
• The Student Development and Success Division
has received R1 million from the Council on Higher
Education for a national pilot study to identify the
drivers of student success.
• Department of Quantity Surveying and Construction
Management received unconditional accreditation
for Construction Management from the Chartered
Institute of Building (CIOB). The honours
programme in Construction Management is also
unconditionally accredited.
• The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
confirmed the UFS’s accreditation.
• The Centre for Education Development received a
grant of $100 000 from Hewlett Packard.
• We received R73,3 million in special funds from
the Minister of Education, of which R30 million
is for education training, R6 million for research
equipment and R17,1 million for Health Sciences.
• There were also achievements on the sports field.
The hockey team won the University Sport South
Africa (USSA) B section, three soccer players were
in the USSA team, rugby won the USSA competition
for the second time, netball made gold at the USSA
tournament for the fourth consecutive year, and the
ladies’ tennis won the USSA tournament.
• Four Kovsies are in the SA u.21 team who will
participate in the world cup on the Cook Islands in
August this year.
• The UFS was the host for the three-nation men’s
hockey tournament in March, where teams from
South Africa, Germany and Russia battled it out.
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Photos: Hannes Pieterse