Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Graduates to celebrate their achievements at 2019 December Graduations

13 November 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Sonia Small

During the upcoming graduation ceremonies, the University of the Free State (UFS) will confer a number of qualifications on the Bloemfontein Campus on 9, 10 and 11 December 2019 in the Faculties of Education; the Humanities; Law; Theology and Religion; Economic and Management Sciences; Natural and Agricultural Sciences; and Health Sciences. 517 National Professional Diplomas and Advanced Certificates will be awarded to students graduating from the UFS South Campus University Access Programme.

An additional 147 master’s and doctoral degrees will be conferred in the Faculties of Education, Economic and Management Sciences, Health Sciences, the Humanities, Law, and Theology and Religion.

For more information about the upcoming graduation ceremonies and events, visit the UFS graduation ceremonies page.

Graduates can read through the Bloemfontein Graduations: Preparing for Graduations - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), which contain the necessary information for graduates to note during the graduation processions.

Graduation ceremonies for the different faculties will take place on the following dates:

9 Dec 2019
14:30: South Campus: Open Distance Learning
Certificates and diplomas

10 Dec 2019
09:00: Faculties of Education, the Humanities, Law, and Theology and Religion
All certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, and honours degrees

14:30: Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences and Natural and Agricultural Sciences
All certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, and honours degrees

11 Dec 2019
09:00: Faculty of Health Sciences
All certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, and honours degrees

14:30: All Faculties
Master's and doctoral qualifications

News Archive

Researchers reach out across continents in giraffe research

2015-09-18

Dr Francois Deacon and Prof Fred Bercovitch
busy with field work.

Researcher Dr Francois Deacon from the Department of Animal, Wildlife, and Grassland Sciences at the University of the Free State is conducting research with renowned wildlife scientist, Prof Fred Bercovitch, from the Center for International Collaboration and Advanced Studies in Primatology, Kyoto University Primate Research Institute in Japan.

Dr Deacon’s ground-breaking research has attracted international media attention. Together with Prof Nico Smit, he equipped giraffes with GPS collars, and conducted research based on this initiative. “Satellite tracking is proving to be extremely valuable in the wildlife environment. The unit is based on a mobile global two-way communication platform, utilising two-way data satellite communication, complete with GPS systems.”

Prof Bercovitch was involved with GPS tracking from elephants to koala bears.

Some of the highlights of the joint research on giraffes by Dr Deacon and Prof Bercovitch focus on:

• How much time do certain giraffes spend with, and away from, one another
• How do the home ranges of herds and individual giraffe overlap
• Do genetically-related animals spend more time together than non-genetically-related animals
• How much time do the young bulls, adult bulls, and dominant bulls spend with cow herds
• Herd interactions and social behaviours of giraffe
• The role of the veld and diet on animal behaviour and distribution

Their research article, “Gazing at a giraffe gyroscope: Where are we going?”, which was published in the African Journal of Ecology, assesses recent research by exploring five primary questions:

- How many (sub) species of giraffe exist?
- What are the dynamics of giraffe herds?
- How do giraffe communicate?
- What is the role of sexual selection in giraffe reproduction?
- How many giraffe reside in Africa?

They conclude this article by emphasising that the most essential issue is to develop conservation management plans that will save a wonderful species from extinction, and which will also enable scientists to conduct additional research aimed at answering their five questions.

In addition, they are working together on a grand proposal to get National Geographic to cover their work.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept