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UFS Business School: The future of business is now

14 October 2022 | Story Dr Cinde Greyling | Photo Iflair Photography

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

UFS withdraws interdict against SASCO and ANCYL

2003-11-25

The Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State, Prof Frederick Fourie, announced today that a court order against the South African Students Congress (SASCO) and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) had been withdrawn.

The withdrawal of the court order follows after a written statement by SASCO and the ANCYL in which they “unconditionally withdraw or retract statements threatening to render the institution ungovernable” and give their “commitment not to proceed with our threats to establish our own democratic SRC and occupy the current SRC offices”.

The UFS management obtained the court order in October after SASCO and the ANCYL refused to accept the outcome of the recent student referendum and SRC elections and threatened to disrupt the campus.

Prof Fourie also welcomed the undertaking by SASCO and the ANCYL to act in accordance with the prescribed procedures to resolve any grievance that the organisations may have, saying the UFS management remains committed to a constructive dialogue with all student organisations to manage a campus of diversity, tolerance and non-racialism.

In September students voted in a referendum to test support for a system of proportional representation (PR) for the SRC. A vast majority of students voted against the PR system, a system favoured by SASCO and the ANCYL..

Following allegations of fraud in the referendum, the UFS management asked the auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers to conduct an independent audit of the ballot papers.

The auditors found that a total of 180 ballot papers out of 3513 – only 5.12% - of the votes cast - appeared to have been altered by means of erasing and then changing the student number.

According to the auditors, with all potentially altered and suspicious ballot papers excluded, a huge majority of 60,8% of students voted against the proportional representation system.

A few days after the referendum, the actual SRC election was held. However, at no stage were there any complaints from any organization about the integrity of the SRC election itself.

Despite this and the findings of the auditors, SASCO and the ANCYL refused to accept the outcome.

Law student Quintin du Plessis was elected SRC president. He welcomed the stance taken by SASCO and the ANCYL to pursue their objectives through the existing structures and said the SRC was always willing to engage with these organisations on issues of student governance.

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