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Prof Philippe Burger appointed as Dean: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at UFS

26 November 2021 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studios)

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the appointment of Prof Philippe Burger as Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences for a five-year term during its quarterly virtual meeting on 26 November 2021.

He is Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Poverty, Inequality and Economic Development, as well as Vice-Dean (Strategic Projects) of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, and Professor of Economics at the UFS.

Extensive experience

Prof Burger was a 2016/17 Fulbright exchange scholar at the Center for Sustainable Development, Earth Institute, Columbia University in the United States, with Prof Jeffrey Sachs as his Fulbright host, where he wrote a book titled Getting it right: a new economy for South Africa. The book was launched, with presentations at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and RAND Corporation in Washington DC, among others. In addition, he is a member of the Fiscal Policy and Financial Markets Task Team of the Lancet Commission on COVID-19. Co-chaired by the Head of the IMF’s Department of Fiscal Affairs and a former Minister of Finance of Chile, the task team of 11 members comprises economists from across the world, including two Nobel prize winners.

From September 2012 to October 2014, Prof Burger was President of the Economic Society of South Africa. His publications include three more books and numerous academic articles on fiscal rules and fiscal sustainability, public-private partnerships, and macroeconomic and economic development policy. Together with IMF staff, he co-authored two IMF working papers. In 2009, the IMF invited him to spend a month at the IMF as a visiting scholar in the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD), researching public-private partnerships and the Global Financial Crisis. For two months each in 2007, 2010, and 2012, he was seconded to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, to work on public-private partnerships and capital budgeting, while in October 2011 he joined an OECD mission to Indonesia to conduct a regulatory review of Indonesia.

Prof Burger was a member of the Panel of Experts of the South African National Treasury, in which capacity he co-authored a 20-year review of South African fiscal policy since 1994. From 2013 to 2018, he was a member of the South African Statistics Council, which oversees the work of Statistics South Africa. From 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2019, he acted as dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the UFS, and from 2002 to 2019 he was Head of the UFS Department of Economics.

“With more than 27 years of experience in the higher-education sector, Prof Burger will bring a wealth of expertise, extensive networks, and partnerships, nationally and abroad, to the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and the UFS. His experience in the positions held at the university, as well as his extensive knowledge and understanding of the South African and global economy, places him in good standing to lead the faculty to be a formidable and impactful academic force nationally and abroad,” said Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor.

“Prof Burger has the competencies required as dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, leading it to exploit opportunities and deal with the challenges that the rapidly changing world presents to the UFS,” said Prof Petersen.

Vision for the faculty

In response to his appointment, Prof Burger said, “I am humbled by this appointment and look forward to taking on this wonderful challenge. The faculty has a strong team of academics and administrative staff. With this team, I know we will create wonderful pathways for our students into the future and into the complex world of work. I also look forward to strengthening our research position and building the faculty as a nationally and internationally recognised research-strong faculty, as well as a faculty with a very strong Global South presence.”

Prof Burger succeeds the current Dean, Prof Hendri Kroukamp, who will be retiring at the end of February 2022.

News Archive

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC

2005-08-03

The UFS Central SRC

Address by the first Inaugural President of the Central SRC of the University of the Free State, Mr Tello Motloung on Wednesday 3 August 2003

The Chairperson of the UFS Council, Judge Faan Hancke,
The Vice-chancellor and Rector of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie
The Vice-Rector Student Affairs of the UFS, Dr Ezekiel Moraka
The Presidents of the main campus SRC and the Vista campus SRC
Colleagues in the Central SRC, campus SRCs, students and fellow South Africans

Please receive my heartfelt revolutionary greetings

Vice-chancellor and rector what I bring here with me assisted by facts, is just the work of my imagination. Like a love letter addressed to a sweetheart miles away, even though you do not know how she feels, what she wants to hear, and do not even know what she looks like.

I value speech as just an honest intimation, that’s why I got into a habit of establishing a dialogue with people, looking at each other’s face, and persuading one another of what we are saying.

Vice-chancellor, today marks an important milestone in the history of the existence of the UFS. Today reflects the confidence and trust that students of the UFS have placed in us. They are confident that the Central SRC has both the will and the capacity to take our university forward as we confront the challenge of transformation.

Students are confident that they are correct to trust the Central SRC as the principal agent of change in our university that is genuinely committed to the objective of building a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic university. We need to frankly ask ourselves, as CSRC members, whether are we up to all these challenges?

All Central SRC members have to understand this fully, internalize it, and ensure that everything we do, does not betray the confidence and trust of students, or disappoint their expectations. I say this knowing that all Central SRC members have committed themselves to serve the students of the UFS, black and white, and no one among us (CSRC) needs any special lectures about this central commitment.

The UFS should be an omnibus, welcoming everybody on board. But we should be a bus with a clear direction. We will certainly lose our way if we, as an institution, don’t have a clear road map spelling out where we are heading to.

There should be clear guidelines on the role of students in the transformation process. Students should also be viewed as role players in transformation along with the University management, and not just opposing forces. There is no right time, other than this one, to move away from the politics of opposition to politics of transformation.

However, we need the support of management to do so. The University should value the role and contribution of student leaders, hear our legitimate claims and consider them as part of political and policy decision making.

Vice-chancellor and Rector, it remains our task to ensure that the UFS is transformed into an institution that is seen to be playing a vigilant role in developing students academically, intellectually, socially, culturally, politically and otherwise. The process of transformation is not ending tonight, it is just beginning tonight.

Judge Hancke, Prof Fourie, Dr Moraka, fellow students and fellow South Africans, I lead students at this university with a sense of pride and duty, and I know very well that I lead men and women, students who are all determined that we reach our destination safely and on time.

A navy divided within its ranks will be destroyed and vanquished by the enemy, but the navy united in purpose and action, loyalty and commitment will not sink but sail on to victory.

It is befitting to mention that every drop of my blood is telling me that the UFS is my home. I firstly became a student here, I became the SRC treasurer in my first year here, I became the deputy president here, and I became the first president of the Central SRC of the UFS.

Therefore you should never doubt my commitment towards the transformation of this university. To paraphrase what was said by students at another institution, “If there is no UFS in heaven, then I am not going.”

Let me conclude by thanking my ancestors for teaching me that even if I wined and dined with kings and queens, I am not a king myself, so I should not turn my back on people who made me what I am today.

Most importantly, I would like to thank the Almighty God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving me time and power to lead this university.

It will be theoretically irresponsible if I ended my speech without indicating that “Only a Kovsie knows the feeling”.

I thank you.

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