Vision  

We aspire to be leaders in the development of world-class professionals and entrepreneurs from rural and developing communities.

Mission  

We will achieve our vision by developing, implementing and continuously evaluating research initiatives, learning and teaching programmes, as well as community engagement endeavours that are innovative, while working in partnership with our respective communities or stakeholders, with a view to achieving practical development and growth.  

Our Values  

In all our learning and teaching, research and community engagement endeavours, we demonstrate and uphold the highest standards of: 

• Professionalism
• Excellence
• Accountability
• Ethics
• Integrity.

Our Research Niche Areas  

We are conscious of the inextricable link between our teaching role as academics, our research role and how the two should influence each other in an upward spiral to add to the value chain.

Our mantra is to teach what we research and to research what we teach.

Hence, the following research niche areas are proposed:

• Entrepreneurship development with a focus on SMEs within the context of the Eastern Cape Provincial Development Plan (EC-PDP). Among others, these include agro-processing, downstream manufacturing and hospitality.

The enquiry also includes different forms of entrepreneurship, such as cooperatives and the search for effective models that include and empower communities.

• Accounting for service delivery in the Eastern Cape Province in general and in local authorities, in particular. This includes research in financial skills, management controls and practices, ethical issues in management, compliance with King II and III Codes of Governance, for example.
• Alternative governance and leadership models (for example, traditional leadership, national, regional and local leadership) within a human rights framework.
• Economic growth and development models for rural and peri-urban areas, with a focus on the Eastern Cape, but with lessons and implications for the SADC region.

This includes new models of black economic empowerment, environmental impact assessment, the Global Financial Crisis and its impact on developing economies, particularly poor and rural communities.

• The human capital development and contemporary challenges such as HIV/Aids at work, human resources management challenges in Africa, productivity enhancement models in the developmental context, new and relevant management and leadership paradigms, for example.
• The academic focus of the Faculty is to offer accounting science, economic, management and administrative programmes that infuse community engagement, where practical, and that equip our graduates to adequately respond to the needs of the communities that we serve and the public and private sector work environment.

Departments

The Faculty’s objectives are executed through the functioning and collaboration of the three Departments and the two directorates that make up the Faculty.

The heads of these units are responsible for the entire spectrum of activities around learning and teaching, community engagement, research, entrepreneurship development and agribusiness.

Our Faculty has the following academic departments:

• Department of Accounting Sciences (ACC)
• Department of Administration and Hospitality Management (ADH)
• Department of Economic and Business Sciences (EBS)
• Agribusiness Centre
• Centre for Entrepreneurship & Rapid Incubator.

Committees

Our Faculties are:

• Research and Innovation: Chair: Prof S Bulkaran
• Learning and Teaching Development: Chair: Mr L Mbaza
• Quality Enhancement: Chair: Ms L Velelo
• Institutional Partnerships and Internationalisation (including Short Learning Programmes): Chair: Mr V Sithole
• Library and Information Services: Chair: M L Mbaza

Academic Programmes