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14 October 2022 | Story Dr Cinde Greyling | Photo Iflair Photography
UFS Business school
The UFS Business School.

The University of the Free State Business School (UFSBS) was established in the late 1990s and is fully accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the Central and East European Management  Development Association (CEEMAN). Since its inception, the school has operated as a boutique business school focusing on personal attention to adult learners.

Late 2021, the UFSBS appointed a new Director, Dr Udesh Pillay. In conjunction with the change in leadership, the UFSBS is embarking on a new strategic journey, while maintaining the focus on its core business – in other words, its official academic offerings. The strategic journey of the UFSBS has been underway for the past year, and significant time has been allocated to the recurriculation of programme offerings; decolonisation of the academic agenda; and orientating the UFSBS so that it makes a larger practical contribution to the SME sector locally and nationally, especially in relation to business continuity and resilience in the wake of unforeseen externalities.  These developments will ensure that the UFSBS remains a premier academic institution and contributes to the success of South Africa and its people. It also ensures that the twin principles of academic excellence and social justice become mutually reinforcing.

The UFSBS’s strategic direction for the next five years aligns neatly with the Vision 130. By 2034 – when the university commemorates its 130th anniversary – the UFS wants to be recognised and acknowledged by peers and society as a top-tier university in South Africa. Similarly, the UFSBS has aspirations to become a top-ten business school in SA over the next five years.

Given the history of South Africa, it is of utmost importance to empower people to add value, particularly in the field of business and management leadership. The UFSBS will contribute to building an ecosystem of entrepreneurialism, with the more traditional academic programmes based upon the conventional practices of teaching and learning, research, and mentorship to be supplemented by ‘opportunity-driven initiatives’, such as executive education, consulting support, coaching, incubation services, and the commercialisation of intellectual property.

Globally, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has catalysed processes of digital transformation in business, to which the UFSBS will align to ensure that students are equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills in a fast-changing, technology-enabled world. With the support of the Centre for Business Dynamics (CBD) housed in the UFSBS; the establishment of the Small Business Academy (SBA) in early 2024 in the UFSBS; the soon-to-be-established High-Growth Business Incubator (in collaboration with the NAS faculty); and with the process of strengthening relationships with the Paradys Experimental Farm gaining traction, a differentiated medium has been created to nurture responsible,  ethical, and socially conscious business leaders. The foundation then – to create the next generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs to become agents of change and value co-creators for business and society – will thus have begun.

The UFSBS will align to ensure that students are equipped with relevant knowledge and skills in a fast-changing, technology-enabled world. – Dr Udesh Pillay.
The slogan, ‘BE WORTH MORE’, embodies what the UFSBS strives for, and is consistent with new developments in global discourses, which are rethinking and transforming many of the traditional dogmas that have informed the mandates of business schools. 

As a critical bridge between academia and business, the UFSBS is uniquely poised to reimagine a better and intelligent future that is data-informed, collaborative, innovative, and inclusive.

News Archive

Education dialogue opens engagement on legacy of OR Tambo
2017-10-05

Description: Dialogue  Tags: OR Tambo, education, future, students, Africa, activism 

Pali Lehohla, outgoing Statistician-General speaking at the
Centennial celebration of Oliver Tambo.
Photo: Supplied


To celebrate Oliver Reginald Tambo’s centennial year, the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation, in partnership with the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof Francis Petersen, and Absa Bank, hosted an interactive dialogue session, titled “Educating Africa’s Future” on 26 September 2017 on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Students encouraged to take charge of their future
The event opened up dialogue on some of the current burning issues that affect students in South Africa, societal challenges such as poverty and crime, and how leaders such as Tambo envisaged a free Africa. Prof Petersen highlighted the role that universities played in developing society, in creating leaders and crafting the path to transformation. Other speakers included Pali Lehohla, outgoing Statistician-General, Linda Vilakazi, CEO of the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation, Nombulelo Nxesi, CEO of Education, Training and Development Practices, Sector Education and Training Authority, Prof Peliwe Lolwana, Associate Professor at Wits University’s Centre for Researching Education and Labour, and Sikhululekile Luwaca, former UFS Student Representative Council (SRC) president.

Education may require a new approach
During the panel discussion that was facilitated by Phiwe Mathe, former UFS SRC President and media officer in the Office of the Chief Whip of the Free State Legislature. The audience raised concerns regarding the future of funding for university study, the securing of employment and possibilities, if any, of entrepreneurship. In response to some of the concerns, Pali Lehohla said the realities of family dynamics in South Africa affected the ability of students to be properly profiled and funded, according to family income, and that most importantly, the solutions to Africa’s challenges had to come from within and not without. Students’ questions gravitated towards the question of whether higher education in its current form was still valuable or whether new models of teaching that would foster inclusion and earlier economic independence would be of better value.

The legacy of OR Tambo continues to be honoured
The notion of education as a driver for the liberation of South Africa and the continent as a whole, poverty alleviation and freedom from colonial rule are some of the building blocks of the legacy of Oliver Tambo. 
Linda Vilakazi reiterated that students and student leaders would benefit from seeing the importance of using a broad-based African approach to the issues that plague them and their peers, rather than seeing their challenges outside of the continental context.  Sikhululekile Luwaca said higher education must be more accessible, and in order to drive change, students should use their education to become future employers rather than employees and change the face of the future themselves as was envisioned by other liberation leaders.
Caption: Pali Lehohla, outgoing Statistician-General speaking at the Centennial celebration of Oliver Tambo.

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