Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
27 August 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Pierce van Heerden
Prof Brownhilder Neneh
Prof Brownhilder Neneh’s research paper was selected as Highly Commended in the 25th annual Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence.
Customer orientation is a firm strategic capability that enables businesses to identify opportunities that can be exploited to improve their performance outcomes. However, the gap between this capability and actual firm performance is quite wide when it comes to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), possibly because of the limited resources to effectively utilise this capability. So what can be done to ensure that all businesses that have this capability benefit from it?

This is the question which a paper by Prof Brownhilder Neneh seeks to address. The article, titled Customer orientation and SME performance: the role of networking ties, was recently published in the African Journal of Economic and Management Studies. Both the theoretical weight and practical implications of the research led to the journal’s editorial team selecting the article as Highly Commended in the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards. 

Finding solutions to real-world problems 

Not only is Prof Neneh responsible for innovating the way she leads as the Head of the Business Management Department at the University of the Free State (UFS), but her goal is to also constantly impact the way problems are solved in the business world. “Growing up, I was always fascinated about entrepreneurial stories, how people start and grow their businesses. However, I later learned that businesses had a very high failure rate,” she says. 

“As such, given the significant role that entrepreneurship plays in economic growth and addressing socioeconomic issues in our societies, I became motivated to find evidence-based solutions that could be implemented by businesses to enhance their chances of success.”

Research goals

Prof Neneh says her outlook for the future is “to continue producing high-quality research that can make a meaningful impact in advancing both the theory and practice of entrepreneurship”.

Seeing that governments the world over are increasingly depending on entrepreneurship for economic growth and addressing most of the existing socioeconomic issues, evidence-based entrepreneurship is increasingly needed. For Prof Neneh, moving forward means continuing to channel focus in this area.

News Archive

UFS changes format of graduation ceremony
2011-04-17

 

The highest number of qualifications in the history of the University of the Free State (UFS) will be awarded at the autumn diploma and graduation ceremony from 9-11 May 2011, which will be held in the Callie Human Centre on our Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

From this year, the format of the ceremony will change to make it more visible to students and the public. For the first time, all the doctoral and master’s degrees from each respective faculty will be conferred during one ceremony on 11 May 2011, instead of each faculty handling these qualifications individually. Another change in the format is that the procession will gather on the Red Square in front of the Main Building and move to the Callie Human Centre from there. Both academic staff and graduands will partake in the procession.

A total of 3 674 qualifications will be conferred during this year’s graduation ceremony, including 629 diplomas, 2 613 Bachelors and honours degrees, 372 master’s degrees and 58 doctorates.

An honorary doctorate in Drama and Theatre Arts will also be awarded to theatre stalwart Mr Pieter Fourie. He is one of the most acclaimed Afrikaans playwrights in South Africa and probably the only person to have left his mark as an actor, director, artistic director and writer.

Mr Fourie was awarded the Gerhard Beukes prize for drama , was honoured for his contribution to the arts by the South African Academy for Science and Arts and was appointed as trustee of the Arts and Culture Trust of the State President in 1997. He has also served as a committee member of the South African Academy for Science and Arts.

Mr. Fourie has also been the proud recipient of the Hertzog prize for drama, two FNB-Vita awards and a Fleur Du Cap award.
 

The full programme for the respective ceremonies is as follows:

  • Monday, 9 May 2011:

At 08:30, certificates and diplomas, excluding PGED and PGES, will be awarded to graduates from the Faculty of Education and at 12:00 PGED, PGED and B and honours degrees will be awarded to students from the same faculty. At 15:30 on the same day, certificates and B and honours degrees will be awarded to students in the Faculty of the Humanities.

At 19:00, the Faculties of Education, the Humanities and Economic and Management Sciences will have their prize-giving ceremonies for outstanding achievers.

  • Tuesday, 10 May 2011:

At 08:30, students in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences will graduate and at and 12:00 the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science will join them. This includes students in BML, B.Admin., B.Pub. and related honours degrees. At 15:30, 503 students from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences will receive their certificates, diplomas and B and honours degrees.

At 19:00, the Faculties of Health Sciences, Natural and Agriculture Sciences, Law and Theology will have their prize-giving ceremonies.

  • Wednesday, 11 May 2011:

The Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Theology will be awarding their certificates, diplomas and B and honours degrees at 08:30. At 12:00, all faculties will award a total of 372 master’s degrees and at 15:30 a total of 58 doctorates will be conferred.

The Chancellor’s Dinner will take place in the Centenary Complex on the Main Campus of the UFS at 19:00.

The graduation ceremony of our Qwaqwa Campus will take place in the Rolihlahla Mandela Hall on the Qwaqwa Campus on 7 May 2011 at 10:00. All the faculties at this campus will confer their degrees, certificates and diplomas at this ceremony.
 


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

 

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept