Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS celebrates 96% South African Institute of Chartered Accountants IAC pass rate

01 September 2025 | Story Tshepo Tsotetsi | Photo Dr Reabetswe Parkies

BAccHons and PGDip graduates — Prof Frans Prinsloo, Head of the UFS School of Accountancy, with some of the proud 2024 BAccHons and PGDip (Chartered Accountancy) graduates who contributed to the School’s outstanding 96% pass rate in the June 2025 Initial Assessment of Competence (IAC).

The University of the Free State (UFS) has once again affirmed its position as one of the country’s leading institutions in accounting education. In the June 2025 Initial Assessment of Competence (IAC) by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), UFS graduates from the 2024 BAccHons and PGDip (Chartered Accountancy) programmes achieved an exceptional 96% pass rate. This performance stands well above the national throughput of 76% across both the January and June sittings, confirming the university’s reputation for producing work-ready Chartered Accountants (CAs).

This achievement in the IAC – previously known as the Initial Test of Competence (ITC) – not only showcases the quality of teaching and learning at UFS but also echoes the recent SAICA endorsement visit, during which evaluators commended the School of Accountancy for cultivating confident, competent graduates ready to contribute to both the profession and the South African economy.

Driving excellence through vision and innovation

Reflecting on the results, Prof Frans Prinsloo, Head of the School of Accountancy, emphasised that this success confirms the School’s long-standing commitment to excellence and innovation. “Exceeding the national average by such a significant margin reinforces that our programmes are developing highly competent and sought-after Chartered Accountants. This achievement places UFS among the leading institutions in South Africa for producing high-quality graduates,” he said.

Prof Prinsloo attributed the outcome to the unwavering dedication of staff who, as highlighted by SAICA’s endorsement team, “go above and beyond” to support student success. He also pointed to a range of initiatives that have created an enabling environment for achievement, from a humanising pedagogy that prioritises student voices and dynamic learning communities, to early intervention strategies and an academic trainee programme that provides peer support through consultations and small-group sessions. “We are not just delivering a curriculum; w are fostering a culture of learning, growth, and achievement,” Prof Prinsloo added.

Prof Phillipe Burger, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, said the results reflect the faculty’s broader vision of preparing leaders who can excel in both business and society. “We are preparing leaders for tomorrow, and education is the key to that. Corporate leadership requires technical expertise, but also resilience, adaptability, and the ability to work as part of a team. All of this we pack into our CA programme,” he explained.

Prof Burger also highlighted the faculty’s national role in shaping the profession through ongoing collaboration with SAICA and industry, ensuring that graduates remain relevant and highly employable. He noted the remarkable growth in the faculty’s accounting programmes, with the BAcc enrolling four times as many new first-year students this year compared to five years ago, alongside a significant increase in the average Admission Point (AP) scores of incoming students. “This growth, combined with rising admission standards, is testament to the quality of our programmes and the confidence that students and parents have in what we offer,” Prof Burger said.

As UFS celebrates this milestone, both leaders agree that the achievement belongs not only to the graduates but to the entire learning community. The outstanding 96% pass rate signals the university’s continued success in producing Chartered Accountants who are academically excellent, ethically grounded, and ready to make an impact in South Africa and beyond.

News Archive

Research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

2005-11-30

Mr Akach in conversation (using sign language) with his assistant Ms Emily Matabane. Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS research project gives insight into the world of the deaf

The Sign Language Division of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language has signed a bilateral research project with the universities of Ghent and Brussels to write a book on sign language.

“We want to compare the Belgium and South African sign languages with each other. The book will be about the deaf telling us about themselves and how they live. It will also focus on the use of story telling techniques and the grammar used by deaf people. We want to see if the hand forms and the grammatical markers and other linguistic features that deaf people from these two countries use are the same or not,” said Mr Philemon Akach, lecturer at the UFS Sign Language Division and coordinator of the research.

According to Mr Akach, the sign language community in South Africa, with about 600 000 deaf people who use South African Sign Language (SASL) as first language, is quite big. “Over and above the deaf people in South Africa, there are also the non-deaf who use SASL, like the children of deaf parents etc. This book can therefore be used to teach people about the deaf culture,” he added.

Another of Mr Akach’s achievements is his election as Vice-President of the newly established World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI). The association was established earlier this month during a conference in Worcester.

Mr Akach has been actively involved with sign language interpretation since 1986 and has been interpreting at the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) since 1987. “My appointment as Vice-President of the WASLI is an emotional one. I have been involved with deaf people for so long and have been trying to create awareness and obtain recognition for sign language, especially in Africa,” said Mr Akach. WASLI is affiliated to the WFD.

According to Mr Akach there was no formal structure in the world to support sign language and sign language interpreters. “Now we have the backup of WASLI and we can convince governments in other African countries and across the world to support deaf people by supporting WASLI and therefore narrow the communication gap between the deaf and the hearing. My main aim as Vice-President is to endeavour for the recognition of sign language and spoken language interpreters as a profession by governments,” he said.

According to Mr Akach the formal training of interpreters is of vital importance. “Anybody who has a deaf person in his/her family and can communicate in sign language can claim that they are an interpreter. This is not true. It is tantamount to think that all mother tongue or first language speakers are interpreters. Likewise students who learn sign language up to whatever level and are fluent in signing, should still join an interpreter’s programme,” he said.

“Sign language interpreting is a profession and should be presented as an academic course alongside other spoken languages. The UFS has been taking the lead with sign language and spoken language interpretation and was the first university on the African continent to introduce sign language as an academic course,” he said.

“Although sign language has always been an unknown language to young people it has become quite popular in recent years. This year we had a total of 160 students at the Sign Language Section of the UFS and the numbers seem to increase steadily every year,” he said.

Mr Akach’s assistant, Ms Emily Matabane, is deaf and they communicate in sign language. Ms Matabane also handles the tutorials with students to give them hands-on experience on how to use sign language.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
30 November 2005

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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