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UFS Accounting students win Project Alpha competition

21 June 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Ernst & Young

UFS Accounting Students win EY Project Alpha — At the Ernst & Young Project Alpha 2019 Awards, some of the members of the winning team, from left: Kyle du Bruyn, Luke Rhode, Janri du Toit, Nicolaas van Zyl, Mojalefa Mosala (Business Ethics Lecturer), Bianca Malan, Lorandi Koegelenberg and Frans Benecke.

A few years ago the news was saturated with Volkswagen’s (VW) fuel emission scandal. “Dieselgate”. Investigations in the US found the German automaker guilty of programming computers in their diesel cars to alter its engine operations to seemingly meet legal emission standards.

A question of ethics

A notice of violation of the Clean Air Act issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency had dire consequences for the automobile company, but positive implications for the economy and the environment. As part of a lawsuit settlement, vehicles were recalled, fines were paid, and approximately 21 million affected vehicles with VW diesel engines were refitted by September 2015.

Project Alpha tackles ethical issues

A group of eight students from the University of the Free State (UFS) presented their case study of “Dieselgate” to a panel of judges in this year’s Ernst & Young Project Alpha competition. They emerged as the ultimate winners.

The “Hoaxwagen” group’s 10-minute video demonstrated “a critical assessment of a multidimensional matter” captivating the judges. “I was impressed, because their presentation addressed other skills such as the ability to present, communicate, come out of their comfort zone and be innovative, while at the same time addressing an ethical issue,” said Mojalefa Mosala, a judge and Business Ethics lecturer at the UFS.

Centred on critical thinking

The UFS is the first university outside of Johannesburg that participated in the Project Alpha contest. Ernst & Young and the UFS have forged a strong relationship over the past few years, giving students a glimpse into the corporate world of accounting.

“Project Alpha encourages critical thinking and not taking things at face value, by looking a bit deeper, spending time to understand the pros and cons of any situation in order to make an informed decision,” said Frans Benecke, member. of the winning team that prevailed over 82 others. Benecke’s team walked away with R2000 shopping vouchers and a life-long learning experience.

Engaging in global conversations

Participation in the competition gave students the opportunity to be exposed to contemporary global thinking, which is strongly advocated in the UFS’s Integrated Transformation Plan.

UFS Accounting students win 2019 Ernst & Young Project Alpha competition from University of the Free State on Vimeo.

News Archive

UFS acquires Willem Boshoff’s digital archive

2016-07-22

“I do not want to be the only person or artist that is part of this archive, but I want it to expand and involve others too.”

These were the words of Prof Willem Boshoff, the renowned artist and, Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts, during the presentation of the Willem Boshoff Archive to the University of the Free State (UFS) Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery during the Vrystaat Arts Festival.

The digital archive may be consulted at the Department of Art History and Image Studies. Large parts of it will also be available on the UFS website at http://scholar.ufs.ac.za.

Conversations surrounding the digital archive

In a discussion led by Dr Francis Halsall from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland, the discussion led to the discovery of various themes, including The idea of research, education and dialogue, doing or making, the organisation of knowledge, language and translation, word and figures or people, and the enthusiastic amateur.

Artwork attracts international attention

Alongside Prof Boshoff and Dr Halsall, many other participants who have been inspired by the artist’s work sat in on the discussion about the archive.

They included Ivan Vladislavic, author of Willem Boshoff (2004), Dr Katja Gentric, whose doctoral dissertation at the University of Bourgogne (2013) is on Boshoff’s work, and Helene Smuts, arts education writer and publisher. Josef van Wyk, a Master’s student working on Prof Boshoff’s archive, and Prof Johann Rossouw, Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy also formed part of the discussion.

Vladislavic mentioned that Prof Boshoff’s work opens up a different form of conceptualisation. “When I first encountered Willem’s work, I was excited by it from an art historic perspective,” he said.

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