Menu Close

University of the Free State

The University of the Free State (UFS) is increasingly being seen as an exciting scholarship destination, as evidenced by an unprecedented level of interest by academics and students from around the world. The changes taking place at the university continue to capture the imagination of people everywhere, including the international media and our growing base of international universities.

One of the reasons for the broader interest in the UFS is our very public commitment to the highest academic standards. In doing so, the university pursues a vision of uplifting standards for students and academics alike despite the challenges young people encounter in the school system. We believe strongly that given the opportunity, all young people can achieve the high standards set by our university. This is our academic project.

The UFS remains conscious, however, of its responsibility for public scholarship, for turning ideas into action, for making research count in the lives of ordinary people and for developing a spirit of service through scholarship among our students. These students are the next generation of leaders in South Africa, on our continent, and in this global, interconnected world. In these pursuits, the university seeks to distinguish itself from its competitors. Few universities, for example, make human reconciliation one of the foundations of its mission. This is our human project.

With its central campus situated in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State province, the UFS is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in South Africa. It opened its doors in 1904 with a mere six students in the Humanities and has since grown to more than 30 000 students spread across seven faculties. Besides the Bloemfontein Campus, the university also has a South Campus in Bloemfontein.

Bloemfontein is not only the birthplace of major political parties that shaped the political landscape in South Africa. The city has also produced some of the leading minds in teaching, medicine, agriculture, science, theology, economics, management and many other fields. We are particularly proud of the legal minds cultivated in the university and in the city, the home of the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The UFS also has a vibrant Qwaqwa Campus in the Eastern Free State serving rural students from the immediate area and surrounding provinces, and a smaller South Campus in Bloemfontein that provides alternative access to higher education for promising students who obtained poor marks in their final school examinations.

The university’s seven faculties with more than 130 departments and/or schools are served by more than 1692 academic staff members, supported by a strong administrative and support staff.

Links

Displaying 81 - 100 of 139 articles

Loskop, one of the two hills at the Permo-Triassic boundary site in the Karoo Basin in South Africa’s Free State province. Jennifer Botha

New analysis sheds important light on an ancient mass extinction event

The analysis suggests that there was a mass extinction event at the time of the end-Permian, on land - and that it happened at the same time as the marine end-Permian extinction.
Quality higher education is more than just securing a job. Shutterstock

Quality higher education means more than learning how to work

Higher education needs to do more than produce graduates who can get a job. It should also give students opportunities and a voice when it comes to participating in the economy and broader society.
When faced with a class full of learners, student teachers must adapt theory to practice. Sunshine Seeds/Shutterstock/Editorial use only

What student teachers learn when putting theory into classroom practice

Student teachers saw certain incidents in their classrooms as a learning process that caused them to act, respond and reflect so they could maintain quality teaching.
Violence against women is often represented as a timeless and universal phenomenon, creating the view the problem is too large to fix, or that only the worst abuses are worthy of attention. James Ross/AAP Image

The long history of gender violence in Australia, and why it matters today

History shows that domestic violence has been deeply entrenched in the culture of Australia from its early days. Progress is only made by understanding this history – and talking about it.
Photos des activistes politiques (condamnés pour meurtre) de Mute Nyanya Yawa, Katyana Zoya et Mpitizeli Zoy affichées au-dessus des tombes qu'ils ont partagé au cimetière de ouest Mamelodi, Pretoria, Afrique du Sud, 2018. Phill Magakoe / AFP

La justice sud-africaine rouvre les dossiers de l’apartheid

Vingt-cinq ans après la fin du pouvoir ségrégationniste, la justice sud-africaine rouvre certains dossiers concernant des agents de l’État soupçonnés de crimes graves et qui n’ont guère été inquiétés.
Angolan President Joao Lourenco and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Johannesburg in 2018. EPA-EFE/Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin Pool

How Russia is growing its strategic influence in Africa

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has new aspirations in Africa in pursuit of his country’s assertiveness in the global arena.
Lin-Manuel Miranda (centre), Emily Blunt, Julie Walters, Emily Mortimer, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, and Joel Dawson in Mary Poppins Returns (2018). Lucamar Productions,Marc Platt Productions,Walt Disney Pictures

Will the new Mary Poppins film acknowledge the suffragettes’ success?

Disney’s 1964 classic film had a suffragette theme, but it remains to be seen if the new version will celebrate votes for women.

Authors

More Authors