FACULTY OF ARTS
Institute for Foundational Studies (IFS)
The CFS is the continuation of a number of institutions of the former PU for CHE that intended to promote a Christian perspective on science and culture.
The direct predecessor of the IRS was the Centre for Faith and Scholarship (CFS), which came into being in January 1996. The intention of the CFS was to continue the work of the Department of Philosophy of Science that was responsible for teaching the compulsory undergraduate subject “Wetenskapsleer” (Philosophy of Science) from 1980 to 1995, as well as for the training of new lecturers in “Christian Scholarship”. A new and major assignment was that the centre had to provide research services to lecturers and postgraduate students in order to promote Christian Scholarship.
In 2001, as part of a comprehensive strategic plan, the Senate accepted the philosophical moulding of students as one of four strategic priorities for the next three years. In implementing this decision, the School of Philosophy was established and the CFS was moved to the school as a separate but integral component of the school.
When the Institute for Reformed Studies (IRS) was closed at the end of 1999, some of its functions were also transferred to the CFS. Prof. PGW du Plessis was die first director of the CFS until the end of 1999. He was succeeded by Prof. PJJS Potgieter on 1 October 2000, and from 1 January 2009 Prof. Michael Heyns was the new head of the centre. In 2010 the name of the entity was changed to the Institute for Foundational Studies.