At its awards function held on 10 June 2015, the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences celebrated excellence in research and teaching and learning during 2014, by awarding Research Excellence awards and Teaching and Learning Excellence awards to its staff members.

 

In respect of research output at faculty level, the Faculty celebrated publishing 115 research papers for 2014, compared to a targeted number of 100 research papers for the year. This number represents a considerable increase from the 97 papers published in 2013.

 

As part of the initiative to increase research output, the Faculty is focusing on increasing both the quality and quantity of its research output, as well as the number of research active academic staff. To encourage higher research output and activity amongst staff,  the EMS Research Awards Committee presented awards in three categories, namely researcher of the year (senior and junior), first journal article publication, and most improved research outputs by a department.

 

 

The prestigious award for researcher of the year was determined by considering both quality and quantity of research produced during the year. The award for junior researcher of the year went to Prof Roula Inglesi-Lotz of the Department of Economics, while Prof Rangan Gupta, also of Economics and a researcher who has authored or co-authored 31 accredited articles, was honoured with the senior researcher of the year award.

 

The winner of the first journal article publication award went to Andrea Meyer of the Communication Management Division, while the award for the most improved research outputs by a department also went to the Communication Management Division. This Division increased its journal article units from .33 units in 2013 to 6.5 units in 2014. 

 

 

In addition to the above, seven staff members also received NRF-ratings in 2014. They are Prof Karin Barac from the Department of Auditing, Prof Jurie van Vuuren from the Department of Business Management, Prof Deon Nel from the Department of Marketing Management, Prof Charl de Villiers of the Department of Accounting, Prof Jan van Heerden (rerating) of the Department of Economics, Prof Danie Petzer of the Department of Marketing Management and Prof Alewyn Nel of the Department of Human Resource Management.

 

On the teaching and learning side, the Faculty of EMS also achieved remarkable successes. In 2014 the Faculty achieved an overall undergraduate pass rate of 80.2% compared to a pass rate of 75.6% in 2013. The 2014 pass rate is also the highest in recent times and can be attributed to the commitment and dedication of staff and several innovations in teaching and learning in the e-learning arena. Further evidence of the quality of teaching and innovation in the Faculty emerged from the fact that two staff members received UP Teaching Excellence and Innovation Awards: Theresa van Oordt received a Laureate Award and Wesley Niemann received a Certificate of Merit. As part of a long-term initiative to improve the work-readiness of students from the Faculty, more focus will be placed on graduate attributes during 2015 and 2016.

 

 

The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences also received eight nominations for the Teaching and Learning Excellence Awards and the EMS Teaching and Learning Awards Committee honoured four staff members with Teaching and Learning Excellence Awards. The recipients of these awards were three individuals and one teaching team. The winners, in alphabetical order based on department, were: Ms Marina Kirstein from the Department of Auditing, the teaching team from the Department of Business Management, comprising Prof Alex Antonites, Ms Reba Letsholo, Mr Dawie Bornman and Mr Wesley Rosslyn-Smith, Ms Evadne Bronkhorst and Ms Theresa van Oordt from the Department of Taxation.

 

View gallery of the EMS Faculty Awards function