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Centre for Teaching and Learning engages students on asset management profession

03 November 2022 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Supplied

SecureTheGrad Team — In front: Tshego Dichabe (CEO of Aeon Investment Management and UFS Alumni) In the back row from left are: Ludwig Esau, Ambroyse Johnson, Sello Mojapelo, Olebogeng Tlhong, Bonolo Mahlatsi, Anesu Manase, Evodia Mohoanyane (Assistant Director at CTL), Michelle Sibanda, and Bongi Ndlangisa.

The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of the Free State (UFS), in partnership with Aeon Investment Management and the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, hosted a guest lecture focusing on asset management trends in South Africa and globally, as well as careers for specific disciplines in the faculty.

Students from the Centre for Accounting, the School of Financial Planning Law, and commerce fields flocked to the event, which was hosted in the Education Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus on 20 October 2022.

The guest lecture formed part of a series of webinars on asset management under the #SecureTheGrad initiative. The purpose of these engagements was to give UFS students access to industry giants in the asset management profession. Guests in this lecture included Fatima Vawda, the founder of the 27four Group, as well as Muitheri Wahome, an asset management expert.

Asset Management

“Asset managers gather savings for investment and buy public securities on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and unlisted securities, providing investors with opportunities and exposure to assets that they would not necessarily be able to access on their own,” Wahome highlighted. Vawda indicated that asset management has its roots in life insurance companies. “Life insurance companies were selling life insurance policies and then they had all these assets on their balance sheets, and they needed asset management teams to manage those assets,” she explained.

Asset Management Trends

A number of the students in the audience expressed an interest in asset management as a career path, and Vawda went on to showcase several industry trends that students needed to take note of prior to considering asset management as a career path. Firstly, the skill set needed to prosper in the asset management industry has changed over the years. In fact, the ability to code and a comprehensive knowledge of Python have become essential knowledge in the industry. Vawda said, “Without the ability to be analytic and use data cleverly, there is no room in this kind of industry for you.”

Careers in Financial Services

Wahome urged students to check out a number of other careers in financial services to set their sights on. She indicated that a career in investments can take different forms, such as mega pension funds, pricing analysts – due to the growing investments in private markets, as well as compliance professionals, as the demand for these is currently high in the industry.

Wahome further advised the students that, “as you start your careers, do not be in a rush to choose a specialisation, working with an array of people in different areas gives you enormous reach, as well as valuable perspective”.

Attending the guest lecture were from left Prof Francois Strydom (Senior Director at CTL); Frans Koning (Head of the Department of Actuarial and Mathematical Statistics Department); Prof Philippe Burger (Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences), and Evodia Mohoanyane (Assistant Director at CTL) and Dr Engela van Staden (Vice-Rector: Academic) (Photo: Supplied)

News Archive

UFS releases draft charter to accelerate transformation

2007-02-02

The University of the Free State (UFS) today released a draft Institutional Charter which is intended to enhance and accelerate the ongoing transformation of the institution towards a non-racial, non-sexist future.

Speaking at the official opening of the university today, the Rector and Vice-chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the draft Institutional Charter, was an important milestone in the transformation debate for the university and the country.

“The draft charter acknowledges that black people, women and people with disabilities have been marginalised from job and developmental opportunities, within the higher education sector and at this university,” Prof Fourie said.

The charter commits the university to meeting the challenges of a transforming higher education institution in a developing society, in particular the challenges of nation-building, reconciliation, redress, non-racialism and non-sexism – and ultimately normalisation – within a high-quality academic institution.

The principles of the draft charter firmly signal the university’s commitment to diversity – attaining and maintaining substantive and sufficient diversity (including multiculturalism and multilingualism) – in its quest for quality and excellence.
Prof Fourie said the draft charter seeks to build consensus among staff and students at the UFS about the ultimate goals of transformation at a higher education institution.

The charter proposes several basic values and principles that should guide the transformation process and at the same time serve as a basis for a future, normalised university - a promised land to transform towards.

The discussion document says academic quality is intrinsically linked to transformation and it commits the university to strengthening the core competencies of research, teaching and learning as well as community service so as to ensure a robust university for future generations.

“Indeed the thousands of matriculants, black and white, who apply to study at the UFS want to study at a good university, and a good university wants to attract the best black and white students and the best black and white staff, male and female,“ Prof Fourie said.

He said the draft charter also seeks to safeguard academic freedom and institutional autonomy as the foundation of critical inquiry and scholarship.

Regarding the critical issue of creating a new institutional culture, the draft charter commits the UFS to creating a sense of belonging for all members of the university – black and white, male and female, of whatever language, religious, cultural or economic background, as well as people with disabilities.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@mail.uovs.ac.za
02 February 2007

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