This Women’s Month, the University of the Free State is proud to celebrate the achievements of its women scholars who have distinguished themselves in academia, scholarship, research, and UFS programmes aimed at transforming the institution’s academic leadership and growing industry engagement.
Every August, South Africa pauses to honour the women who marched, who led, and who kept building, even when the odds were stacked against them. At the University of the Free State (UFS), that spirit is not confined to a month on the calendar – it is written into the institution's strategy, its appointments, and its daily work of shaping ‘responsible societal futures.’
A first that set the tone
On 9 June 2025, Prof Hester C. Klopper was inaugurated as the 15th Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Free State – the first woman to hold the office in the university's 122-year history. For the university, this marked both a symbolic milestone and a celebration of the depth of leadership potential among South African women in academia.
Reflecting on her first year in office, Prof Klopper has spoken about ‘walking with purpose’ as a discipline of deliberate leadership and decision-making. That discipline has translated into a refined institutional strategy built around five priorities: advancing academic excellence and research impact, building institutional agility, nurturing a transformational culture, strengthening long-term sustainability, and accelerating collaborative innovation and global integration. Four transdisciplinary research themes now anchor the university's work: Sustainable Futures, Systems for Societal Advancement, Planetary Health and Well-being, and A Flourishing Life – themes that speak directly to the kind of complex, human-centred problems many women academics say drew them to research in the first place.
