university of cape town faculty of commerce

university of cape town faculty of commerce

The University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Commerce had its beginnings immediately after World War I. Robert Leslie, then Professor of Economics, led the drive to establish a faculty which would provide students with the broad educational background and professional training most appropriate to an executive career in the business world. From its inception, the Faculty of Commerce displayed that spirit of enterprise and unorthodoxy and that strong sense of purpose which were to become its most distinguishing characteristics. Thus the Faculty Board met for the first time on 25th November 1921, four days before it had been formally constituted by the University Council!
A two-year Diploma in Commerce was immediately organised. Then, in 1924, Professor (later Sir Arnold) Plant was appointed to the John Garlick Chair of Commerce, and drew up a curriculum for the Degree of Bachelor of Commerce. Courses were provided both for full-time and for part-time students, who worked during the day and attended lectures in the evening.
The postgraduate research degrees of Master of Commerce and Doctor of Philosophy were also offered. By virtue of its professional bias, and also because many of its students were already following commercial careers, the Faculty achieved the special advantage of being firmly rooted at once in the world of learning and also in the world of business.
In 1952 the University of Cape Town agreed to train articled clerks seeking to qualify as Chartered Accountants, and the Certificate in the Theory of Accountancy was introduced. The offering of the CTA course on a part-time basis led to such an increase in student numbers that the Faculty of Commerce became one of the largest in the University.
The Graduate School of Business, formed in 1965, enrolled South Africa’s first full time Master of Business Administration students in 1966. GSB programmes enable the development of managers and leaders at all levels. The School offers four core academic programmes (Associate in Management (AIM); Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA); the MBA; and the Executive MBA) and a range of Executive Education short courses that cater for generalist and professional development needs. In addition, the Executive Education unit provides accredited academic learning or professional development programmes that can be tailored to the needs of specific clients.
All learning is offered either full time or on a modular basis so that if you are unable to relocate to Cape Town or cannot afford to take a year out of work you can still study at the GSB.
From 1968 onwards, the undergraduate Degree of Bachelor of Business Science has been available in the Faculty. This provides a broad training in business, while the postgraduate Master of Business Science affords an opportunity for advanced study and research.
The present Degree of Bachelor of Commerce has been expanded from principally an accounting qualification to include Information Systems, Economics, Mathematics, Statistical Sciences or Law as optional majors. The BCom (Hons) was first offered in 1969 and current Honours fields are Actuarial Science, Financial Accounting, Financial Management, Taxation, Economics, Statistics, Information Systems, Human Resource Management and Organisational Psychology. In the year 1981 a Conversion Course aimed at graduates from other disciplines wishing to qualify as Chartered Accountants was offered for the first time.
Also in 1981 two new higher degrees were introduced: the Master of Philosophy to cater for cross-disciplinary research, and the Doctor of Economic Sciences to be awarded on the basis of publications. The Faculty is also offering five one year full-time Postgraduate Diplomas in Management.
During 1991 the staff offering Quantitative Methods courses in the Business Science Department joined with the staff of the Department of Mathematical Statistics to form a new Department of Statistical Sciences. Staff of this Department were given the choice of becoming members of the Commerce Faculty or the Science Faculty. A total of 7 members of the Statistical Sciences Department became members of the Faculty of Commerce.
In 1994, it was decided to merge the Industrial Psychology section of the Department of Psychology with the Department of Business Science. The Department of Organisation and Management was also brought into the department to form The School of Management Studies. The School comprises four sections, viz, Business Science, Actuarial Science, Human Resource Management and Organisational Psychology.
The Faculty of Commerce has grown to comprise the Department of Accounting, the School of Management Studies, the School of Economics and the Graduate School of Business, the Department of Information Systems and certain members of the Department of Statistical Sciences.
In December 1977 then Department of Business Science, the Department of Accounting, the School of Economics and the Faculty Office moved to new quarters in the Leslie Commerce Building. Many distinguished names have been associated with the Faculty of Commerce, but it is fitting that the name of the man who was the driving force behind the Faculty’s founding, and its first Dean, should be commemorated in this fine building, its congenial atmosphere and outstanding design making it a worthy successor to the faculty’s original premises – the historic Hiddingh Campus in the shadow of the Lioness Gate.
The Commerce Faculty is the largest of all the faculties in the University of Cape Town and continues to expand the programmes it offers its students. Commerce degree programmes prepare students for the personnel needs of the fast-growing world of financial service industries and prepare them for participation in the global economy. The Commerce Faculty receives strong support from international agencies, and remains committed to engagement with the African continent.
The Faculty offers two undergraduate degrees: a four-year Bachelor of Business Science (BBusSc) and a three-year Bachelor of Commerce (BCom). Both of these degree programmes are divided into a variety of streams to cater both for the interests of our students, and the employment needs of the country.

Prof Ingrid Woolard became Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town on 1 March 2024.
She teaches in the School of Economics and is a Research Associate of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) and is a Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labour in Bonn. Her areas of research interest include labour markets, social protection, tax policy and the measurement of poverty and inequality.
Professor Woolard earned her BSc (Mathematical Statistics and Economics) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 1992 and then went on to complete her BA (Hons) (Economics) at the University of South Africa in 1995. She earned her PhD (Economics) from the University of Cape Town in 2002.
She holds a C1 rating from the National Research Foundation and has published one book, 20 journal articles and nine book chapters since 1998. Her work has been cited more than 2900 times.
She joined UCT in April 2005 as a Chief Research Officer in SALDRU, a role she held until June 2008. In July 2008, she became an Associate Professor in the School of Economics and served in this post for just over five years before becoming Professor in January 2014.
Professor Woolard is an active contributor to the Poverty & Inequality Initiative (PII) Planning Group, UCT’s institution-wide project addressing challenges posed by poverty and inequality. She has been one of the Principal Investigators for the first four waves of South Africa’s national socio-economic panel survey, the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), which SALDRU conducts on behalf of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.
Her interest in economics and labour has seen her serving on government advisory committees including the Department of Finance’s Davis Tax Committee since July 2013 and advising the Department of Public Works’ in the design of Phase III of the Expanded Public Works Programme in 2013. Between 2008 and 2014, Professor Woolard served on the Employment Conditions Commission, which advises the Minister of Labour on making sectoral determinations with regards to working conditions and minimum wages in sectors where collective bargain is weak.
Professor Woolard has served in a number of committees at UCT, including the Student Disciplinary Tribunal, the Academic Union Executive Committee and the Senate. At the Faculty of Commerce level, she has been a member of the Doctoral Committee of Assessors, the Academic Policy and Practice Committee and the Higher Degrees Committee.
Prior to joining UCT, Professor Woolard held several key positions, including serving as Senior Research Fellow in the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Development Studies (2004-2005), Senior Research Specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council (2002-2004) and part-time Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (2002-2004).

The Commerce Faculty Office is the administrative heart of the Commerce Faculty and is responsible for dealing with all administrative processes found within the faculty. All student and staff queries get directed and dealt with here.
Postal Address:
Faculty of Commerce
University of Cape Town
Private Bag
Rondebosch
7701
Physical Address
Leslie Commerce Building
Engineering Mall
Upper Campus
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch
7701
Phone: +27 (0)21 650 4375
Fax: +27 (0)21 650-4369
Email: Faculty Officer: Com-faculty@uct.ac.za
Website: http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za
Education Development Unit (EDU)
For information about the EDU, contact:
EDU Coordinator
Dr J Pym (021 650-3866):
EDU Administrative Assistant
Ms S Solomons (021 650-3720):
Tel: (021) 650 3720
Email: June.Pym@uct.ac.za  or Shanaaz.Solomons@uct.ac.za
Website: http://www.educommerce.uct.ac.za/