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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

UFS pays tribute to Nadine Gordimer
2014-07-15

 
Nadine Gordimer
Photo: Jullian Edelstein
The staff and students of the University of the Free State (UFS) are greatly saddened by the news of Nadine Gordimer’s passing. We extend our deepest condolences and heart-felt sympathy to Ms Gordimer’s family, friends and loved ones.

Nadine Gordimer – renowned South African author, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature – passed away on Sunday evening, 13 July 2014 at the age of 90.

The university community had the great privilege of Ms Gordimer delivering the Inaugural Reconciliation Lecture on our Bloemfontein Campus on 7 November 2012. Lauded as one of the literary world’s most powerful voices against apartheid, Ms Gordimer hailed the university for doing things differently from what has been done in the past.

In reference to the transformation underway at the university, Ms Gordimer observed in the Annual Reconciliation Lecture that “The University of the Free State has begun a national culture in so many ways.”

The legacy of Nadine Gordimer will forever remain in the memory of the UFS, its staff and students.


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