Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences
Prof S Vil-Nkomo, Dean
Telephone number: 012 420 3330
Fax number: 012 362 5194
E-mail address: snkomo@hakuna.up.ac.za
Preface by the Dean
To stay adrift in this Enron-ic and continuously changing age is not an easy task for faculties of business. It has therefore been a challenging year for the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. A year during which the faculty was prompted to probe and investigate its core business, structure and academic offerings. The faculty also had to confront the changes in higher education, discussions around rationalisation, as well as its strategic intent to be a relevant local actor on a global stage. The faculty undertook to turn these challenges into opportunities with focused research undertakings by the academic departments of the three schools in the faculty.
The faculty, together with other roleplayers, hosted a groundbreaking conference entitled: “Unpacking the New Partnership for Africa's Development: Opportunities for Business in Africa”. This NEPAD conference attracted a wide variety of delegates - opinion leaders from government, business and industry, as well as well-known business scholars. The outcome of the conference paved the way for a number of strategic initiatives and areas of research by faculty members and students.
During the course of the year, the Investment and Trade Policy Centre (ITPC) was established. This centre will play a major role in addressing capacity needs in the field of international investment and trade negotiations in Sub-Saharan Africa and relevant research into related areas. The Department of Economics has also identified public economics as a focus area of its academic and research programmes.
The School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) entered into a collaborative agreement with Conzaga University in the USA. This agreement signified the launch of a project intended to strengthen capacity in the areas of leadership studies and ethical governance in democratic states. The Department of Tourism Management has secured research funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) to establish scientifically justifiable and culturally sensitive ways to refine and expand tourism-based community development through community participation and activities in Maputaland. Funds have also been granted for the development of the Tourism Knowledge Resource System (TKRS). The Department of Marketing and Communication Management has been elected (the only member from Africa) on the Board of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA). Numerous international public relations and corporate communication programmes and research projects will flow from this collaboration. The Department of Human Resources Management is doing innovative research concerning the validity, bias and cultural fairness of psychometric and similar assessment instruments that have been stipulated in the Employment Equity Act.
In the area of Financial Sciences, the Endorsed Internal Auditing Programme (EIAP) is thriving since the university obtained this status from the Internal Auditors Inc (in the USA) three years ago. Meditari Accountancy Journal, the official research journal of the School of Financial Sciences, has moved into cyberspace and a separate website has been created for the journal. This will ensure that the journal becomes more accessible to academics both locally and internationally.
The above examples are but a few of the faculty's many achievements. The faculty will scrutinise its programme offerings and structures in a continuous effort to evaluate and improve itself. Through this process of evolvement the faculty will distinguish itself as a leading faculty, because it understands the need to develop human capital for the country and the world.
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