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04 October 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studios)
Dr Udesh Pillay Director of the UFS Business School
Dr Udesh Pillay
The University of the Free State (UFS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Udesh Pillay as Director of the UFS Business School.

Dr Pillay was formerly Group Executive and Portfolio Head: Research, Innovation, and Built Environment Studies at the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).  He previously served as senior adviser for the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa (RSA) on research, innovation, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and also as senior adviser for the Department of Public Works (EPWP). Dr Pillay was also associate professor, lecturer, and supervisor at the Universities of Pretoria, Wits, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California Berkeley, and served as emeritus research fellow at the Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics (LSE).

UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, says: “Dr Udesh Pillay brings a wealth of experience as an acclaimed leader in the private and public sectors, coupled with expertise in the academic system, which is a perfect combination for the future of the Business School. I am confident that he will be able to turn the Business School into a competitive, leading entity within higher education.
While Dr Pillay brings a wealth of experience from the private, public, and higher education sectors – having served in executive management for close to 25 years – his vision goes beyond repositioning and repurposing the Business School into a world-class institution. Dr Pillay is deeply committed to the imperatives of sustainable economic development. He believes that the Business School will be well purposed to the principles of innovation and entrepreneurship and subscribes to the framework of a just energy transition.  Emphasis will also be placed on meeting the demands of the SME sector, a key contributor to the country’s GDP. Financial sustainability of the Business School and ensuring a critical mass of top academics and scholars is also integral to Dr Pillay’s vision. 

Prof Hendri Kroukamp, Dean: Economic and Management Sciences, adds: “The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) is extremely excited to welcome Dr Udesh Pillay as Director of the UFS Business School and as a member of the Faculty Management team.  We look forward to his contribution to strategically reposition the UFS Business School and to set a new vision that will differentiate the UFS Business School from other business schools by, inter alia, focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – not only in the Free State, but in the broader national and international arena.”

Dr Pillay’s multiple skills, coupled with his academic credentials, including a PhD in Built Environment Studies, Public Policy and Business Operations and Management from the University of Minnesota, USA, as well as an MA in Geographical and Built Environment Sciences from UKZN, among others, make him an ideal candidate to lead the Business School in the next phase.

Dr Pillay assumed his role as Director of the UFS Business School on 1 October 2021. 

News Archive

Students receive hands-on crime scene investigation training
2016-09-02

Description: Crime scene investigation training Tags: Crime scene investigation training

Ntau Mafisa, a forensic science honours student
at the UFS, and Captain Samuel Sethunya from
the SAPS Crime Scene Management in
Bloemfontein.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

With murder and robbery rates on the rise, the Forensic Science Programme of the Department of Genetics at the University of the Free State is playing a key role in training South Africa’s future crime scene investigators and forensic laboratory analysts.

According to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), murder and aggravated robbery rates for 2014/2015, as recorded by the South African Police Services (SAPS) have increased. Incidents of murder increased by 4.6% in the period from 2013/2014 to 2014/2015 and aggravated robbery increased by 8.5 % in the same period. The ISS is an African organisation thant enhances human security by providing independent and authoritative research, expert policy advice and capacity building.

Dr Ellen Mwenesongole, a forensic science lecturer at the Department of Genetics, said the university was one of a few universities in South Africa that actually had a forensic science programme, especially starting from undergraduate level.

Crime scene evaluation component incorporated in curriculum
As part of its Forensic Science Honours Programme, the department has, for the first time, incorporated a mock crime scene evaluation component in its curriculum. Students process a mock crime scene and are assessed based on how closely they follow standard operating procedures related to crime scenes and subsequent laboratory analysis of items of possible evidential value.

The mock crime scene forms part of a research project data collection of the honours students. In these projects students utilise different analytical methods to analyse and distinguish between different types of evidence such as hair fibres, cigarette butts, illicit drugs and dyes extracted from questioned documents and lipsticks.

Students utilise different analytical methods to analyse
and distinguish between different types of evidence.

This year, the department trained the first group of nine students in the Forensic Science Honours Programme. Dr Mwenesongole, who received her training in the UK at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, and Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England, said incorporating a crime scene evaluation component into the curriculum was a global trend at universities that were offering forensic science programmes.

Department of Genetics and SAPS collaborate
It is important to add this component to the student’s curriculum. In this way the university is equipping students not only with theoretical knowledge but practical knowledge on the importance of following proper protocol when collecting evidence at crime scenes and analysing it in the laboratory to reduce the risk of it becoming inadmissible in a court of law.

The Genetics Department has a good working relationship with the Forensic Science Laboratory and Free State Crime Scene Management of the Division Forensic Services of the SAPS. The mock crime scene was set up and assessed in collaboration with the Crime Scene Management Division of the SAPS. Although the SAPS provides specialist advanced training to its staff members, the university hopes to improve employability for students through such programmes.

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