The world is entering a period of significant change. Whether it be exponential changes in use, application, and power of technology, climate change, or expected shift in the political and social sphere, the influence of the change has a fundamental impact on all aspects of modern life, both personal and professional. Most of these changes have been brought about by the fourth industrial revolution. A revolution in which new technologies or novel ways of perceiving the world trigger changes in economic and social structures. Thus, also have an impact on our value and belief systems and will require that some existing ideas, theories, and beliefs be revised.

Globally and in South African, society has demanded a shift in priorities to Transformation. Transformation can be viewed as systemic, which implies transformation of and through the organisation contributing to the transformation of society. Transformation of the organisation and transformation through the organisation are interrelated and mutually constitutive, particularly with the global shift in public pedagogies towards decolonisation, indigenisation, and desegregation.

In recent years, there has been a shift away from maximising short-term profit at all costs to creating shareholder value, with the focus of forward-looking firms falling on considering the stakeholders and those in the ecosystem in which organisations find themselves. This impacts how organisations do business and how they report to stakeholders.

There has also been a change in how the interaction with stakeholders and society can be viewed. Organisations, and universities, have moved away from 'community service' to wanting to make a societal impact through everything they do. In a university context, this extends to the research conducted and the attributes developed in the students delivered to the marketplace. These attributes include an enquiring mindset; an engaged citizen; a dynamic professional; while being a well-rounded individual. In response, the School of Accountancy strives to deliver a graduate to the market who is an ethically responsible leader who can fulfill their social mandate by using integrated thinking to create sustainable value. We regard both technical knowledge and non-technical (soft) skills as critical in our teaching approach.

To make a 'tangible social impact' is embedded in the vision of the School of Accountancy, and, as such, is included in teaching, learning, and assessment design. The notion of social impact is incorporated into the SOA curriculum through the School's teaching philosophy, which is student-centered, rather than knowledge-centered to ensure graduates are able to engage the issues of their time.

Some examples of how the curriculum is being reformed and renewed to deliver students with the appropriate graduate attributes for societal impact include:

• A continuous process whereby the School equips lecturers to be able to integrate the required non-technical skills (i.e. graduate attributes) into their modules. Such upskilling occurs through colloquia and ad hoc workshops where experts provide training to lecturers.
• In line with a scholarly approach to teaching, colleagues are encouraged to be innovative in their teaching materials and approaches, and then reflect on the effectiveness of their innovations. At the end of every year, an internal mini-conference is organised where colleagues can then share their novel ideas and practices. The aim is to spark similar ideas in other colleagues who present different modules and encourage staff to engage in scholarly activities, such as research, while they innovate.
• Staff take part in the Communities of Best Practice on teaching and learning, assessment, business acumen, digital acumen, critical thinking, ethics and public sector initiated by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). They work together with staff from other universities to create knowledge on how to integrate these aspects into the academic programme and develop graduates with the necessary attributes.
• Given the increasing importance of digital acumen, two digital acumen modules focusing on automation and programming as well as data analytics has been developed.
• In line with the value of life-long learning, it is deemed important to also place the responsibility for self-development on the students themselves. Therefore, students in the SAICA-accredited programmes are required to compile a portfolio of evidence relating to each of the values and acumens in SAICA's new CA2021 competency framework.
  Further information

Interested parties can obtain further information about the teaching and learning philosophy, from:

Prof. Stiaan Lamprecht​
Tel: +27 21 808-3844​
E-mail: [email protected]​
 

Student success is at the centre of the activities of the School of Accountancy (SOA). To this end, SOA has various initiatives to support students with teaching and learning. Two such projects are the Thuthuka Bursary programme and the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme, which is coordinated by a project team responsible for providing wrap-around support to students.

Thuthuka Bursary Programme

Thuthuka is a transformation initiative of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) which is aimed at encouraging previously disadvantaged learners in schools to engage in the chartered accounting field. The Stellenbosch Thuthuka Bursary Programme consists of four main components. The most important component is the student himself/herself, who has to accept responsibility for his/her future and to use existing opportunities optimally. Academic success is the second most important component in terms of which the student takes part in several transformation and academic quality initiatives of the SoA in the form of academic help programmes. The students also take part in purpose-driven modules in life and workplace skills. The last, but very important, component is social impact. Several lecturers are involved in the management of this project. Most lecturers in the SoA are mentors for Thuthuka students over the full duration of their studies.

The students are also active in the community in their personal capacities. They take part in several community service projects annually, which vary from the application and transfer of their newly developed accounting knowledge to school learners, sports coaching in their home communities and the distribution of food to the less privileged. As a group, the Thuthuka students also plough back their acquired knowledge and skills into the community in the form of annual projects.

For more information and contact details about the bursary programme, please visit: http://www.sun.ac.za/english/faculty/economy/accounting/programmes/thuthuka-bursary-programme >
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fact-sheet.pdf (217.7 KB)

Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP) project

The ISFAP pilot project is a national bursary initiative that is managed by SAICA. It is aimed at students forming part of the so-called “missing middle" (i.e. students from families with a combined income of less than R600 000 per year). The target group is students studying towards professional qualifications such as chartered accountants, engineers and medical doctors. The academic support provided to students is similar to the support given to students taking part in the Thuthuka Bursary programme.

For more information about the project and contact details, please visit: Bursaries-loans/funding-opportunities
 

The annual Teacher Enrichment Program (TEP) is a collaboration between the School of Accountancy at Stellenbosch University and the Western Cape Department of Education (WCED). It is focused on online training for economic and management sciences teachers across the Western Cape. The School of Accountancy presented a series of online upskilling training workshops. The purpose of the workshops is to strengthen teaching capabilities by providing knowledge and skills for teachers who are currently teaching these subjects and to assist them to explain these concepts to learners.​

fact-sheet.pdf (376.29 KB)

Further information
​
Interested parties can obtain further information about the project in this regard, from:

Ms. Waldette Engelbrecht
Tel: +27 21 808-9941
E-mail: [email protected]

The Ex-Cell project, funded by the Social Impact grant, launched in May 2021. The Ex-Cell project is a collaborative project between Stellenbosch University, the School of Accountancy, and the Department of Correctional Services.

It aims to rehumanise learning by focusing on learning's social, ubuntu-focused dimensions – collaboration, community-building and connectedness. This workshop has a theme of empowering participants to be better prepared for the business world by upskilling incarcerated persons and parolees to find employment and developing business plans to allow them to earn a living in the business world after their release. The programme is a free access initiative, open to the general public and therefore to people who are not attending the University. Th​e educational component pilot project entails SU lecturers and incarcerated participants learning with and from each other through dialogue and the sharing of experience.

By promoting educational and economic opportunities for the youth parolees, the project is further guided by the values and strategic themes embedded in SU's Vision 2040 as well as the National Development Plan. Similarly, all stakeholders benefit by learning from one another and sharing ideas, experiences, and knowledge.​
 

Further information

fact-sheet.pdf (559.35 KB)

Interested parties can obtain further information about the project in this regard, from:

Ms. Sher-Lee Arendse
Tel: +27 21 808-9941
E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Juan Ontong
Tel: +27 21 808-9230
E-mail:  [email protected]