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06 April 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath | Photo Supplied
Dr Johan Coetzee, Senior Lecturer and researcher in the Department of Economics and Finance and the UFS Business School

Dr Johan Coetzee from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) is championing a collaboration with the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (SUAS) in Austria, resulting in the receipt of a considerable grant from the European Union. 

In 2020, the decision was made to apply for Erasmus+ funding from the European Commission; after a successful grant, a formal inter-institutional agreement was signed in March 2021. The agreement is the culmination of a relationship between the Department of Economics and Finance at the UFS and the Department of Controlling and Finance at SUAS since 2008. More specifically, the relationship is built on the collaboration between the UFS’s Dr Coetzee and Prof Christine Mitter from the SUAS, who was recently appointed as a Research Fellow in Finance in the department. 

“I am extremely proud of the formalisation of the relationship between the two universities. In late 2019, a delegation led by the Dean of Economic and Management Sciences, Prof Hendri Kroukamp, together with Prof Philippe Burger and myself visited Salzburg to formalise and iron out the expectations regarding future collaboration,” says Dr Coetzee. 

“The Erasmus+ grant pays testament to not only on-boarding expertise from a foreign university with a strong niche in being practically relevant to the Austrian society, but also to affirming the relationship with like-minded scholars to provide students with a culturally rewarding university experience. This agreement brings together two departments with a history of working well together, and now it is a formal manifestation of years of mutually beneficial teaching and research efforts,” says Dr Coetzee.

“On the back of this agreement,” concludes Dr Coetzee, “our departments are also currently finalising a proposal to offer a consecutive degree exchange programme where prospective postgraduate students will obtain two master’s degrees in the broader field of finance and spend time on both campuses. We look forward to this becoming a reality in the not-too-distant future.”

In addition to their teaching and research collaboration, several additional academics from the Department of Economics and Finance are also involved in the teaching collaboration. Research projects have also been concluded in the past, with future projects in the pipeline.

News Archive

Prof. Van Coller elected as member of ASSAF
2010-11-08

Prof. Hennie van Coller

After he had been nominated by Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof. Hennie van Coller, Head of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French, was elected as a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF).

ASSAF consists of approximately 340 members and Prof. Van Coller is proud to be the only Afrikaans literator amongst the members. Apart from Prof. Dingie Janse van Rensburg, who retired earlier this year, Prof. Van Coller is also the only staff member of the UFS’s Faculty of the Humanities who is a member of ASSAF.

Prof. Van Coller is a former Chairperson of the South African Academy for Science and Art and states that his membership of ASSAF proves that a good relationship and collaboration exist amongst the academies for the benefit of science.

The academy’s core function requires that the country’s most outstanding academics be honoured as members. With that in mind, Prof. Van Coller’s research and contribution to Afrikaans literature were not in vain. “Recognition cannot be bought, and therefore recognition by one’s peers in particular is very precious,” said Prof. Van Coller.
– Lize du Plessis

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