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09 March 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
Dr Edson Vengeai
Dr Edson Vengesai believes accreditation from and affiliation with the CFA Institute signals to potential students, employers, and the marketplace that the UFS BCom Investment Management and Banking curriculum is well-suited to prepare students for a brighter career in the investment field.

The University of the Free State (UFS) Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences was recently welcomed into the world’s largest association of investment professionals, the CFA Institute University Affiliation Programme. The CFA designation is globally recognised as the gold standard in the investment field.

Accreditation by this respected source of knowledge in investment and portfolio management reflects the rigour and value of the UFS BCom Investment Management and Banking (IMB) degree – housed in the more than a century-old Department of Economics and Finance. 

According to Dr Edson Vengesai, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and Finance, the BCom IMB positions students well to obtain the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) charter, which has become the world's most respected and recognised investment credential. Including the UFS, only five universities in South Africa are affiliated to the CFA Institute. 

Most respected investment designation

Members who have attained the prestigious designation ‘Chartered Financial Analyst’, hold prominent roles in leading investment firms in financial centres worldwide. “Becoming a charter holder is a defining moment for many investment professionals, which exemplifies a robust understanding of advanced investment analysis and real-world portfolio management skills,” he says.  

Dr Vengesai states that with this affiliation from the CFA Institute, the BCom IMB degree has been acknowledged as incorporating at least 70% of the CFA Program Candidate Body of Knowledge (CBOK) within the programme. Moreover, it also places emphasis on the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. He believes preparing graduates who are ethically grounded and ready to execute their duties in an ethical and professional manner is a major necessity in the financial analysis and investment field.

Writing from London in the United Kingdom, Director of University Relations at the CFA Institute, Peter Watkins, states: “The UFS BCom in Investment Management and Banking is a rigorous programme that will be of great benefit to students entering the investment profession.”

Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Poverty, Inequality and Economic Development, Prof Philippe Burger, adds that the accreditation aligns with the faculty’s drive to create opportunities for its students to not only pursue excellence, but also to compare with the best in the industry, locally and on an international basis. He says the BCom in Investment Management and Banking is one of a range of cutting-edge, industry-relevant, and scientifically rigorous degrees offered by the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. “Quite a number of the faculty’s programmes are accredited by professional bodies, with accreditation by the CFA being the latest.”

Taking the financial sector to new heights

Through the CFA programme, the UFS will also be eligible to receive CFA Programme Student Scholarships each year, which will contribute to the much-needed skill set of well-grounded financial analysts who can take the financial sector to new heights. “Aligning our degree programme with the CFA curriculum will equip our students with the kind of expertise and real-world skills in investment analysis that will help set them apart from other institutions and peers,” adds Dr Vengesai, who also aims to produce a breed of innovators, critical thinkers, and producers of information.

“The affiliation signals to potential students, employers, and the marketplace that the UFS BCom Investment Management and Banking curriculum is closely tied to professional practices and is well-suited to prepare students for a brighter career in the investment field,” Dr Vengesai concludes. 

News Archive

Researcher finds ways to serve justice efficiently
2016-01-07

Description: Prof Monwabisi Ralarala  Tags: Prof Monwabisi Ralarala

Prof Monwabisi Ralarala tackled the serving of justice from a linguistic viewpoint.
Photo: Supplied

In 2012, local and international media was saturated with reports of the Eugène Terre’Blanche murder trial. At the judgment, Judge John Horn read a lengthy extensive document, of which three pages were dedicated to voicing his concern about how police officers distort statements in the process of translation. Considering the fact that statements are the entry points to the criminal justice system, Prof Monwabisi Ralarala’s attention was drawn to the negative impact such distortion had insofar as the administration of justice was concerned. Of the three PhD degrees conferred by the University of the Free State (UFS) Faculty of Humanities at the 2015 Summer Graduation, one was in Language Practice with Prof Ralarala’s name on it.

Prof Ralarala’s research interests in language rights, forensic linguistics, and translation studies led him to use the Terre’Blanche trial as the basis for his second PhD case study titled: Implications and explications of police translation of complainants' sworn statements: evidence lost in translation. The doctoral dissertation focused on police stations in the Xhosa-speaking community of Khayelitsha in Cape Town.

Language and the law

When the victim of a crime approaches the South African Police Services (SAPS), the requirements are that a sworn statement be taken. However, as a prerequisite, the narration needs to be translated into English.  “The process unfolds in this manner: the complainant or the person laying the charges speaks in a language that they understand, and then the police officers translate that information into English because English is still the de facto language of record,” explained Prof Ralarala.

In the process of translation, the original narrative is lost, and so is some of the evidence. “They [the statements] have to be packaged in a certain way, in the form of a summary. As a police officer, you have to discard all the original narrative and create another narrative which is in English,” added the Associate Professor and Institutional Language Coordinator at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Evidence is the basis of any court case and, when it is translated by police officers who do not hold the credentials of professional translators, a problem inevitably arises.

Because police officers are not trained in translation, “Some of the statements are filled with distortions, changing of information all together. In some cases, one would come across a case which was initially an assault but then - through the change and transformation, re-narration, retelling of the story by someone else - it becomes a case of attempted murder.”

Considering that a statement determines a suspect’s fate, it becomes all the more important to ensure that accuracy is upheld.

His internal and external supervisors, Prof Kobus Marais and Prof Russel Kaschula from the UFS and Rhodes University respectively stated that his PhD work has been hailed as a gem by international scholars. “According to one international assessor, he has made an exceptional contribution to the humanities and social sciences in general and to the fields of linguistics and translation studies in particular.”

Reshaping the landscape

According to Prof Ralarala, there are huge gaps in the translated versions of statements which create a problem when a ruling is made. Some of the recommendations put forward in his dissertation to bridge that gap are:

• to review the language policy insofar as the criminal justice system is concerned. The languages we speak are official and constitutionally embraced, and they hold the same status as English, hence they need to be used in criminal justice processes;
• to revisit the constitution and review if the provisions made for the Nguni languages are implemented;
• to supplement paper and pen with technology such as tape recorders. Statements can be revisited in cases where a controversy arises;
• to deploy professional translators and interpreters at police stations;
• to design a manual for police officers which contains all the techniques on how a statement should be taken.
• to enforce constitutional  provisions in order to reinforce the language implementation plan in as far as African languages are concerned .

These recommendations serve to undo or eliminate any perceived injustices perpetuated and institutionalised by current linguistic and formal practices in South Africa's criminal justice system.

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