Welcome to the home page of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Free State!

Since 2000, our focus has been on the strengthening of the three core pillars of the modern university. This is why the constructive integration of teaching and learning, research and community service have been priority challenges that we have addressed most seriously. Early in 2000, the Faculty Management took as their point of departure, the words of Einstein: “Endlessly following the same process, hoping for a different result, equals insanity. This led us to restructure the faculty in order to create support capacity in the mentioned areas, and through this to support staff maximally in the realisation of the integration process. The embracing of modern technology has contributed also to remarkable growth in the optimal support of students.

One of the highlights was the foundation of a branch of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) in 2001, which brought with it good international exposure for students, the university and the faculty. In 2002, students of UFS-SIFE won the national competition and represented South Africa at the World Cup in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) where they finished third in the world. They won the national competition again in 2003 and 2007, and represented South Africa in Germany (2003) and the USA (2007).

In the spirit of outreach as a university-wide priority, various national and international partnerships have been formed, and staff members play an important role in policy-formulation processes. The establishment and maintenance of existing international co-operation agreements offer ideal international benchmarking opportunities for staff. We are extremely proud of our co-operation agreements, which are actively managed in terms of staff and student exchanges:

Our mission is to be a dynamic, innovative and quality-driven faculty, promoting teaching and learning, doing research and delivering community service in the field of economic and management sciences. Please feel free to wander through our website and see how we put this mission into operation.

Faculty greetings

Tienie Crous
Dean