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Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences receives funding from European Union

06 April 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath | Photo Supplied

Dr Johan Coetzee_web read more — 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

International scholars take part in 2nd Summer Programme

2013-11-28

Dr Gansen Pillay, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the National Research Foundation, explaining to the scholars what will be expected of them.
Photo: Steven Collett

On Monday 25 November 2013, young researchers were welcomed to the University of the Free State (UFS) to take part in the 2nd Annual South African Young Scientists Summer Programme (SA-YSSP).

These 36 scholars, hand-picked from some of the world’s most promising and top researchers, will spend altogether three months in the Free State to work on various projects.

The SA-YSSP is a novel three-month programme for advanced doctoral candidates whose research interests align with the Department of Science and Technology’s (DST) grand challenges and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis’ (IIASA) current research programmes regarding global environmental, economic and social change.

Dr Priscilla Mensah, Co-director of the SA-YSSP, says the University of the Free State is proud to host the Southern African Young Scientists Summer Programme, which brings together some of the world's greatest minds in systems analysis to work with talented young scientists on addressing complex global challenges.

“At the end of the programme, the young scientists will showcase their work during a two-day colloquium (20-21 February 2014), which will also be streamed live to a wide audience. Additional information on the programme is available at www.ufs.ac.za/sa-yssp."

The programme will form part of an annual three-month education, academic training and research capacity-building programme jointly organised by IIASA, based in Austria, the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the DST. IIASA is an international research organisation that conducts policy-oriented scientific research in the three global problem areas of energy and climate change, food and water, and poverty and equity. South Africa’s engagements with IIASA, specifically with regard to the SA-YSSP, relate primarily to the DST’s Ten-Year Innovation Plan.

The UFS is the first institution outside Austria to host the Summer Programme. Researchers in the programme are, among others, from South Africa and the rest of the African continent, the USA, the Netherlands, India, Hungary, Austria and Germany.

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