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27 March 2018

 

The Graduation Ceremonies will be livestreamed daily: http://livestream.ufs.ac.za/

PHOTOS:  Graduation Ceremonies

Graduates were assured of an inspirational and enriching experience at this year’s April graduation ceremonies at the University of the Free State (UFS).
 
They were addressed by Kovsie alumni including David Abbey: Deputy President of the Association of Black Accountants of Southern Africa and Brand Pretorius, former CEO of McCarthy Ltd, as guest speakers at this year’s graduation processions. Graduates were also addressed by Miss Deaf South Africa: Chantelle Pretorius; Projects and Campaign Manager Corruption Watch: Zola Valashiya; and actor and Kwêla presenter, Hannes van Wyk.
 
Also on the list of guest speakers was Anita van der Merwe: Professor and Executive Head of the Department of Nursing and Midwifery at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Stellenbosch University and Anthony Turton: Affiliated Professor at the Centre for Environmental Management at the UFS. South Campus Assistant Director: Tshegofatso Setilo, and UFS Council Vice Chair: Dr Nthabeleng Rammile, will also address graduates.

Graduates per faculty
The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences has outdone itself as it has produced more than a thousand students who graduated during the April graduations. 
Graduates per faculty (excluding master’s and doctoral degrees) are: Faculty of Health Sciences (309), Faculty of Theology and Religion (55), South Campus: University Access Programme (494), Faculty of Law (428), Faculty of Education (472), Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (1072), Faculty of the Humanities (729) and Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (819).

Videos:

Monday 9 April 2018

Faculties of Health Sciences and Theology and Religion and South Campus: University Access Programme

Description: 2018 Autumn Graduation Ceremony 9 April read more image Tags: 2018 Autumn Graduation Ceremony 9 April read more image

 

WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 9 April 2018 (morning session)
WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 9 April 2018 (afternoon session)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Tuesday 10 April 2018

Faculty of Law and Faculty of Education

WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 10 April 2018 (morning session)
WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 10 April 2018 (afternoon session)

Wednesday 11 April 2018

Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 11 April 2018 (morning session)
WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 11 April 2018 (afternoon session)

Thursday 12 April 2018

Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences

WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 12 April 2018 (morning session)
WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 12 April 2018 (afternoon session)

Friday 13 April 2018

 Faculty of the Humanities

WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 13 April 2018 (morning session)
WATCH: UFS Autumn Graduation Ceremony 13 April 2018 (afternoon session)

Previous graduation articles:

https://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/archive.aspx?news=10463&cat=1

News Archive

Expert in Africa Studies debunks African middle class myth
2016-05-10

Description: Prof Henning Melber Tags: Prof Henning Melber

From left: Prof Heidi Hudson, Director of the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), Joe Besigye from the Institute of Reconciliation and Social Justice, and Prof Henning Melber, Extraordinary Professor at the CAS and guest lecturer for the day.
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

Until recently, think tanks from North America, the African Development Bank, United Nations Development Plan, and global economists have defined the African middle class based purely on monetary arithmetic. One of the claims made in the past is that anyone with a consumption power of $2 per day constitutes the middle class. Following this, if poverty is defined as monetary income below $1.5 a day, it means that it takes just half a dollar to reach the threshold considered as African middle class.

Prof Henning Melber highlighted the disparities in the notion of a growing African middle class in a guest lecture titled A critical anatomy of the African middle class(es), hosted by our Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) at the University of the Free State on 4 May 2016. He is an Extraordinary Professor at the Centre, as well as Senior Adviser and Director Emeritus of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Sweden.

Prof Melber argued that it is misleading to consider only income when identifying the middle class. In his opinion, such views were advanced by promoters of the global neo-liberal project. “My suspicion is that those who promote the middle class  discourse in that way, based on such a low threshold, were desperate to look for the success story that testifies to Africa rising.”

Another pitfall of such a middle-class analysis is its ahistorical contextualisation. This economically-reduced notion of the class is a sheer distortion. Prof Melber advised analysts to take cognisance of factors, such as consumption patterns, lifestyle, and political affiliation, amongst others.

In his second lecture for the day, Prof Melber dealt withthe topic of: Namibia since independence: the limits to Liberation, painting the historical backdrop against which the country’s current government is consolidating its political hegemony. He highlighted examples of the limited transformation that has been achieved since Namibia’s independence in 1990.

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