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Prof Frans Prinsloo takes on new leadership role in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences

14 November 2023 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo SUPPLIED

The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) at the University of the Free State (UFS) has appointed Prof Frans Prinsloo as the Vice-Dean: Learning, Teaching, Innovation, and Digitalisation. Prof Prinsloo officially started his new role on 1 November 2023. “I am excited at the prospect of being able to support the academics in the faculty, enabling them to develop successful graduates who will not only sustain themselves and their families, but who can also function in and contribute positively to a dynamic world being transformed by technology,” Prof Prinsloo indicated.

What the new role entails

According to Prof Prinsloo, the role includes overseeing and providing strategic leadership regarding the teaching and learning portfolio within the faculty. The portfolio he is responsible for looks at teaching and learning policies as well as the development of new curricula in the faculty, among others. In addition, as part of his work, he indicated that, “I will also have to ensure that the faculty’s teaching approaches remain relevant and responsive to our diverse body of students’ learning needs to ensure their academic success, but also to develop essential graduate attributes. A further focus will be that the curricula of our academic programmes position our graduates to be in demand by employers and enable them to contribute meaningfully to the economy and society.”

Furthermore, Prof Prinsloo is responsible for ensuring that the academic programmes within the faculty are of high quality and accredited by all relevant top industry bodies.

The future of the faculty

As an Auditing academic for more than 25 years and Director of the UFS School of Accountancy for the past five years, Prof Prinsloo plans to use the experience he has acquired, as well as the leadership positions he has held throughout his career, to lead the faculty to new heights. “I look forward to positioning the UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences as a faculty with effective and cutting-edge teaching approaches to ensure our students’ academic success, and to have quality and unique academic programmes that draw top students from across South Africa, Africa, and beyond – in line with the UFS Vision 130,” he said.

In addition, part of what he aims to accomplish in his term as Vice-Dean is working to establish the faculty and its academics as recognised thought leaders and innovators as far as teaching and learning is concerned. Prof Prinsloo also highlighted that, “We also need to ensure that the successes attained by the faculty and its staff are shared within and outside of the UFS, and as such, I will also be responsible for strategically leading the marketing efforts of the faculty.”

However, his efforts to advance the faculty are not only focused on the progress of the staff and their offerings, but also on that of the students. In fact, he indicated that, “I would also like to use this position to explore ways of further supporting our students, particularly recognising the multitude of challenges such as ineffective study skills, financial and mental wellness-related challenges that many of our students face.”

News Archive

Universities can contribute to economic transformation

2010-01-27

At the lecture were, from the left: Prof. Neil Heideman (Acting Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences), Prof. Hartmut Frank (University of Bayreuth, Germany), Prof. Bianchi and Prof. Jan van der Westhuizen (professor in Chemistry at the UFS).
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe

Universities have a role to play in economic transformation and industrial development according to Prof. Fabrizio Bianchi, the Rector of the University of Ferrara in Italy.

This was the core message of his lecture on the topic Globalisation, Agriculture and Industrial Development that he delivered at the University of the Free State.

He said after the collapse of the agricultural industry in Italy as a result of the subsidies that the farmers were receiving from the government, the university had to step in.

“This was meant to maintain high prices and maximize the production but in the long run this approach created problems because the farmers were no longer producing high quality products but large quantities in order to receive subsidies,” he said.

“The result was that the government itself had to destroy those poor quality products. This was a completely unreasonable way to manage the economy”.

He said they had to abandon that approach and concentrate on quality because they realized that Italy could not match the prices and the quantity, in terms of production, of countries like China and the USA.

He said “knowledge and human resources” were the key factors that could get them out of that crisis; hence they came up with what he called “the Made in Italy approach”.

“We were working on the idea that food is part of culture and that it is not just simply for refueling the body,” he said.

“One of the fundamental ideas was to come back to the idea that production is the centre of the development process.”

“Quality is a very complex, collective issue,” he said. “You cannot understand development if you do not understand that you have to base it on strong roots”.

This approach resulted in the formation of several companies with specialized niche markets producing high quality products.

His visit to the UFS coincided with that of the 1991 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Richard Ernst from Switzerland, who was also part of the fourth presentation of the Cheese fondue concept.

The main thrust of this concept is that technical advances alone are insufficient for an agreement to be reached on the minimum respect between the various groups and individuals within a society. It proposes that for this to be achieved there has to be a concurrent development of empathy and emotional synergy.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
27 January 2010

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