QMHALL/301/0/2015

Tutorial Letter 301/0/2015

All honours modules

QMHALL

Year modules

Department of Decision Sciences

This tutorial letter contains important information

about all Decision Sciences honours modules and programmes.
Please read it carefully.

Bar code

university
Learn without limits. of south africa
Contents
1 Welcome 3

2 The Department of Decision Sciences 3

2.1 Contacting lecturers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Administrative matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 Plagiarism 4

4 ORSSA 5

5 Change in curriculum 5

6 Qualifications being phased out and their replacements 5

7 Teach-out plans 6
7.1 HonsBSc/BCom Operations Research – 0460X and 05738 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.2 HonsBSc/BCom Financial Modelling – 05746 and 0572X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.3 Staying with the old curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7.4 Advice to students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

8 Curricula for new programmes 7

8.1 Postgraduate Diploma in Operations Research (PG Dip in OR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8.2 Degree of Honours Bachelor of Commerce in Financial Modelling (BComHons in FinMod) . 7
8.3 Degree of Honours Bachelor of Science in Operations Research (BScHons in OR) . . . . . . 7

9 Admission requirements 8

10 Summary 8

11 Lecturers 9

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1 Welcome

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Department of Decision Sciences and trust that you will find the
modules for which you are registered interesting and of practical value.

The purpose of this tutorial letter is to provide you with general information regarding all honours modules
offered by the department.

2 The Department of Decision Sciences

The department is situated in the Club One building on Unisa’s Hazelwood campus, at the corner of Dely
Road and Pinaster Avenue in Pretoria.

You may contact the following secretaries in the department for enquiries not pertaining to module related
matters:
Mrs M Cunningham 012 433-4684
Mrs E van Deventer 012 433-4722

The departmental postgraduate e-mail address is dscpostgrad@unisa.ac.za.

More information regarding the department is available on the departmental webpage at

http://www.unisa.ac.za/decisionsciences

2.1 Contacting lecturers

You are most welcome to contact your lecturers. The names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of
the responsible lecturers for each module are provided in Section 11 of this tutorial letter, as well as on
myUnisa.

We recommend that you transfer the names and contact details of the lecturer(s) for your module(s) to
the relevant Tutorial letter 101.

You may contact your lecturer(s) in any of the following ways:

⊲ Preferably per telephone or e-mail.

⊲ Per fax on the number 012 429-4898. Note that it is very important that the code of the module,
your name and your student number should appear on the fax.

⊲ If you want to visit your lecturer personally, please make an appointment beforehand.

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2.2 Administrative matters

Enquiries regarding administrative matters should never be addressed to your lecturer(s).

The following table provides important e-mail addresses for administrative enquiries:

Enquiry E-mail address

Exemption/activation of registration econ@unisa.ac.za
Payment/refund/statement of account finan@unisa.ac.za
Examination exams@unisa.ac.za
Aegrotat/special exam aegrotats@unisa.ac.za
Assignments assign@unisa.ac.za

Telephonic enquiries about administrative matters should be addressed to the relevant sections. Consult
the brochure my Studies @ Unisa in this regard.

3 Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s words or ideas and presenting it as one’s own. It is a very
serious offense – people have lost their jobs and students have been expelled from universities for committing
plagiarism.
Each of the following situations is considered to be plagiarism:
⊲ Submitting someone else’s work as your own. This includes copying assignment solutions.
⊲ Copying words or ideas from someone else without providing a full reference to the source.
⊲ Failing to indicate a quotation as such and not providing the correct information about the source
thereof. This includes copying text directly from a source (like the internet) and not indicating it
as a quote (by using quotation marks) or providing a full reference to the source. Also using figures
from sources without providing full references.
⊲ Changing some words in the text, but copying the structure of a written part from a source without
giving credit.
⊲ Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work. Even
when you give credit to the source, this is regarded as plagiarism.
Plagiarism can usually be prevented by acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed and pro-
viding the information necessary to find the source.
Whether it is detected or not, plagiarism violates the essential objective of any educational system, where
lecturers help students to acquire knowledge and skills that will enable them to fulfill their potential.
Plagiarism undermines the notion of academic integrity on which the academic world is grounded. All
knowledge depends on previous knowledge. Sir Isaac Newton said
“If I have seen further [than certain other men] it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”1
1
From Bartleby.com.

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4 ORSSA

The Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA) is a society especially for the discipline Oper-
ations Research, which includes Quantitative Management and Decision Sciences.
Information regarding this society and its activities can be found on the internet at
http://www.orssa.org.za/wiki/.

5 Change in curriculum

The Department of Decision Sciences is restructuring all of its honours programmes, in order to conform
to the government’s Higher Education Qualifications Framework (HEQF). Most significantly for us, this
requires that honours degrees must contain a larger research component. At the same time, the department
is using the restructuring to modernise our programmes and adjust them to reflect contemporary techniques
and market requirements.
In 2015, we introduce the BCom Honours in Financial Modelling (BComHons in FinMod, for short) as
well as the Postgraduate Diploma in Operations Research (PGDip in OR).
It is important to note that the latter is not an honours degree, as it does not contain the 36-credit Research
Project that is included in the BComHons in FinMod, although all the modules that make up the Diploma
are NQF level 8 modules. The diploma will offer a mixture of Operations Research and Financial Modelling
modules for those who desire exposure to both fields.

6 Qualifications being phased out and their replacements

The following degrees will be phased out over the next few years:
⊲ HonsBSc Financial Modelling (05746)
⊲ HonsBCom Financial Modelling (0572X)
⊲ HonsBSc Operations Research (04640X) and
⊲ HonsBCom Operations Research (05738).

These will be replaced by the following degrees:

⊲ BCom Honours in Financial Modelling (98350) and
⊲ BSc Honours in Operations Research.

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 7 Teach-out plans

7.1 HonsBSc/BCom Operations Research – 0460X and 05738

Since we are still awaiting accreditation for the new BSc Honours in Operations Research (BScHons in
OR), registrations for the old programmes (04640X and 05738) will still be accepted. Although we will
implement the new programme BScHons in OR as soon as possible, students registered in 2015 and before
will have at least until 2017 (with examinations in Jan/Feb 2018) to complete the degree.
The curriculum for HonsBSc/BCom OR has now been fixed and there are no electives for students who
register for the first time in 2015. The syllabus consists of the following compulsory modules:
DSC4810 (formerly HONPR1B) HONOPTR
DSC4812 (formerly HONFORP) HONPR2B
HONASMB HONSIMG
HONSM1A HONNNSH
HONLINR HONDANE

7.2 HonsBSc/BCom Financial Modelling – 05746 and 0572X

Students who were registered for these degrees before 2015, may make the transition to the new curriculum
in 2015 if they so choose. The following credits will be transferred to the new programmes:

a. HONFORP will transfer 12 credits and is equivalent to DSC4812.

b. HONASMB and HONSM1A together will transfer 24 credits and are equivalent to DSC4821.

c. HONMD1Y and HONMD23 together will transfer 24 credits and are equivalent to DSC4825.

7.3 Staying with the old curriculum

Students who wish to stay with their original degree will be allowed to do so. Some of the current honours
modules will be presented until 2017 (examinations in Jan/Feb 2018). This gives students a minimum
of three years to complete the two-year programme. After 2017 students will transition into the new
programme and credits will be transferred as stated above.

7.4 Advice to students

If you are in any doubt whether to change to the new curriculum or stick with the old, please contact us
for help at dscpostgrad@unisa.ac.za.

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8 Curricula for new programmes

8.1 Postgraduate Diploma in Operations Research (PG Dip in OR)

Compulsory modules
Old module code NQF level New module code Module title Credits
HONPR1B 8 DSC4810 Research Support Tools 12
HONFORP 8 DSC4812 Forecasting 12
– 8 DSC4821 Stochastic Modelling 24
– 8 DSC4824 Introduction to Heuristics 24
– 8 DSC4825 Financial Modelling 1 24
Electives: Choose one of the following
– 8 DSC4823 Discrete Optimisation 24
– 8 DSC4826 Financial Modelling 2 24

8.2 Degree of Honours Bachelor of Commerce in Financial Modelling (BComHons in

FinMod)

Compulsory modules
Old module code NQF level New module code Module title Credits
HONFORP 8 DSC4812 Forecasting 12
– 8 DSC4821 Stochastic Modelling 24
– 8 DSC4825 Financial Modelling 1 24
– 8 DSC4826 Financial Modelling 2 24
HONPR1B & HONPR2C 8 DSC4830 Research Project 36

8.3 Degree of Honours Bachelor of Science in Operations Research (BScHons in OR)

Not yet open for registration

Compulsory modules
Old module code NQF level New module code Module title Credits
HONFORP 8 DSC4812 Forecasting 12
– 8 DSC4821 Stochastic Modelling 24
– 8 DSC4823 Discrete Optimisation 24
– 8 DSC4824 Introduction to Heuristics 24
HONPR1B & HONPR2C 8 DSC4830 Research Project 36

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 9 Admission requirements

The admission requirements for the old programmes will stay as they were specified for 2014.
The requirements for the new programmes are as follows:
⊲ BScHons in Operations Research: A Bachelor of Science degree with an average of at least 60%
achieved in the final year for mathematics, statistics or operations research.
⊲ BComHons in Financial Modelling: A Bachelor of Science or Commerce degree with an average of
at least 60% achieved in the final year for mathematics, statistics or operations research.
⊲ Postgraduate Diploma in OR: A Bachelor of Science or Commerce degree with an average of at least
60% achieved in the final year for mathematics, statistics or operations research.

10 Summary

2015 2016 2017

Qualifications available HonsBSc/BCom OR HonsBSc/BCom OR New BScHons in OR
to new students (04640X/05738) (04640X/05738)BCom
BComHons in FinMod BComHons in FinMod BComHons in FinMod
(98350) (98350) (98350)
PGDip in OR (98236) PGDip in OR (98236) PGDip in OR (98236)
Qualifications available HonsBSc/BCom OR HonsBSc/BCom OR HonsBSc/BCom OR
for re-registration (04640X/05738) (04640X/05738) (04640X/05738)
HonsBSc/BCom Fin- HonsBSc/BCom Fin- HonsBSc/BCom Fin-
Mod (05746/0572X) Mod (05746/0572X) Mod (05746/0572X)
BComHons in FinMod BComHons in FinMod
(98350) (98350)
PGDip in OR (98236) PGDip in OR (98236)
Modules offered for the ALL modules with
last time codes starting with
HON. . .
New code replacing (old DSC4810 (HONPR1B) DSC4810 (HONPR1B) DSC4810 (HONPR1B)
code) DSC4812 (HONFORP) DSC4812 (HONFORP) DSC4812 (HONFORP)

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11 Lecturers

The names and contact numbers of the lecturers presenting modules in the department are provided in the
following table:

Telephone E-mail Office

Module Lecturer(s) number address Club 1
HONSM1A Dr R J de Beer 012 433-4665 dbeerrj@unisa.ac.za 4-32

HONASMB Prof S Mukeru 012 433-4658 mukers@unisa.ac.za 4-24

HONDANE Mrs M C Strydom 012 433-4715 strydmc@unisa.ac.za 4-29

HONSIMG Ms J le Roux 012 433-4723 lrouxj@unisa.ac.za 4-11

OLD MODULES

HONNNSH Prof G Davie 012 433-4636 davieg@unisa.ac.za 4-27

HONOPTR Prof P Potgieter 012 433-4603 potgip@unisa.ac.za 4-13

HONLINR Dr F E S Bullock 012 654-7829 unisa.bullock@gmail.com –

HONFIN6 Prof M P Mulaudzi 012 433-4670 mulaump@unisa.ac.za 4-23

HONSC1Y Ms J le Roux 012 433-4723 lrouxj@unisa.ac.za 4-11

HONMD1Y Prof B Swart 012 433-4620 swartb@unisa.ac.za –

HONMD23 Prof P H Potgieter 012 433-4694 potgiph@unisa.ac.za 4-30

HONPR2C Prof M D Jankowitz 012 433-4731 jankomd@unisa.ac.za 4-26

DSC4810 Dr M Fick 012 433-4732 fickm@unisa.ac.za 4-14

DSC4812 Prof M D Jankowitz 012 433-4731 jankomd@unisa.ac.za 4-26

NEW MODULES

DSC4821 Dr R J de Beer 012 433-4665 dbeerrj@unisa.ac.za 4-32

DSC4823 Prof P Potgieter 012 433-4603 potgip@unisa.ac.za 4-13

DSC4824 Prof W L Fouché 012 433-4717 fouchwl@unisa.ac.za 4-10

DSC4825 Prof M P Mulaudzi 012 433-4670 mulaump@unisa.ac.za 4-23

DSC4826 Prof B Swart 012 433-4620 swartb@unisa.ac.za –

DSC4830 Prof M D Jankowitz 012 433-4731 jankomd@unisa.ac.za 4-26