Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
20 April 2023 | Story Kekeletso Takang | Photo Charl Devenish
Dr Carla Serfontein
UFS School of Accountancy Senior Lecturer, Dr Carla Serfontein, obtained her PhD in Management Accounting.

How many chartered accountants do you know who are also PhD holders? Dr Carla Serfontein, Senior Lecturer in Management Accounting in the University of the Free State (UFS) School of Accountancy, challenged the status quo. Dr Serfontein walked across the Callie Human stage during the morning graduation session on Wednesday 19 April 2023.

Obtaining a PhD is a milestone in the career of any academic, attesting not only to being a subject matter expert with proven credibility, but also to many hours of personal sacrifice and commitment to their discipline. Individuals who hold a PhD while also being a chartered accountant (SA) are relatively scarce, but this is an ideal combination for South African accountancy academics – as they have stature both from a professional and academic perspective. The UFS School of Accountancy is fortunate to have three such individuals, including Dr Serfontein, who was recently awarded her PhD in Management Accounting.

Dr Serfontein says obtaining her PhD in her lecturing field has expanded her knowledge in the subject area. “The UFS supported me by giving me the opportunity to be supervised by two truly outstanding academics, Prof Van Aardt Smit and Dr Cornelie Crous. That, to me, was an invaluable contribution, not only in obtaining this qualification but also in the growth that I experienced on this journey.”

Prof Frans Prinsloo, Director of the School of Accountancy, says he is proud of Dr Serfontein’s achievement. “With her thesis, Cost Efficiency at South African Universities, she highlights the flaws of conventional budgeting techniques in ensuring cost efficiencies and maximising input-output relationships at South African universities.  This is indeed a ground-breaking study and holds significant implications for how universities should be managed from a financial perspective. We are proud to have individuals of Dr Serfontein’s stature in the School of Accountancy.”

News Archive

Special awards for UFS staff
2006-05-16

Prof Dingie van Rensburg, Director: Centre for Health Systems Research and Development at the University of the Free State, received the Premier’s Excellence Award (Gold) for “outstanding excellence and leadership in the category Research and Development” from the Free State Premier, Mrs Beatrice Marshoff.


 

Prof Andries Stulting (left), Head of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of the Free State (UFS), and Prof Gert van Zyl, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the UFS, each received a special award from the Premier of the Free State, Mrs Beatrice Marshoff on the occasion of her Awards Dinner.  Stulting was honoured for his major contribution towards establishing units and clinics for eye care, as well as outreach programmes in communities.  Under his leadership the Free State also won the floating trophy of the National Department of Health in 2002, 2004 en 2005 as the unit that had performed the most cataract operations countrywide.  Van Zyl was honoured for his research and development contributions towards promoting the public health management system in the Free State.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept