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Kovsies to honour students during December graduation ceremonies

19 November 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Sonia Small

Graduations — The UFS will honour all graduates during the upcoming graduation ceremonies to be held in the Callie Human Centre on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus from 9 to 11 December 2019.

The University of the Free State (UFS) will confer a number of qualifications on graduates at the upcoming graduation ceremonies on the Bloemfontein Campus from 9 to 11 December 2019.

A total of 1 216 graduates across all UFS faculties will gather at the Callie Human Centre to be addressed by Chief Director: Teaching and Learning Development in the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Whitty Green; 2019 Kovsie Ambassador Award winner, Ms Louzanne Coetzee; and former Managing Director of De Beers Consolidated Mines and member of the UFS Council, Mr David Noko.

Judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal and Chancellor of the Central University of Technology (CUT), Justice Mahube Molemela, will also be addressing the audience during the 2019 December graduation ceremonies.

For more information about the upcoming celebrations, visit the UFS graduation ceremonies page.
Graduates can read through the Bloemfontein Graduations: Preparing for Graduations Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), which contains the necessary information for graduates to note during the graduation processions.

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

Bloemfontein Campus

9-11 December 2019

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

10 Dec 2019
09:00: Faculties of Education, the Humanities, Law and Theology and Religion
All certificates, diplomas, Bachelor’s degrees, and Honours degrees
Graduations Programme: Faculties of Education, The Humanities, Law, Theology and Religion

14:30: Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences and Natural and Agricultural Sciences
All certificates, diplomas, Bachelor’s degrees, and Honours degrees
Graduations Programme: Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences and Natural and Agricultural Sciences

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
Graduations Programme: Master's and Doctoral Candidates in All Faculties

Family and friends who are unable to attend your graduation ceremony can still watch you graduate through our livestream link at which becomes active at 08:45 and 14:15 on the day of the ceremony.

News Archive

Kovsies hoist the rainbow flag to show support for International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia

2015-05-25

Photo: Lihlumelo Toyana

Kovsies reaffirm diverse expressions of love (Facebook video clip)

Transformation is not about black or white anymore, it's about including different diversities (Facebook video clip)

Violence and discrimination against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) community is rife in South Africa. Advancing the spirit of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Human Project, Out@Kovsies and the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ) showed their true colours by hoisting the rainbow flag in front of the Main Building on the Bloemfontein Campus.

International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia

This event was in anticipation of International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia celebrated on Sunday 17 May 2015. People across the world, regardless of their sexual orientation, come together annually on this day in support of the LGBTI community. This year, Kovsies became part of that global community when, for the first time in history, the rainbow flag – a popular symbol of LGBTI pride – fluttered high over the Red Square.

Human embrace

Committed to the human embrace, this event was another decisive step towards true transformation. “Transformation is not about black or white anymore,” said Zanele Thela, coordinator and guardian of Out@Kovsies, during the event. “It’s about including different diversities, different sexual orientations.”

Laura-Jane Watkins, research assistant at the IRSJ, said that this day “reflects our attitude as a collective community to embrace difference. Today is a day that we reaffirm diverse expressions of love beyond societal perceptions of gender as an inherent human need and right. Let us now stand together as a student community to promote the value of humanness.”

Rainbow flag

The rainbow flag, also fondly known as the freedom flag, was designed by civil rights activist, Gilbert Baker, and was hoisted publically on 25 June 1978. The modern version of the flag consists of six colours, each with a specific meaning. Red stands for life, orange for healing, yellow depicts sunlight, green stands for nature, blue for serenity, and violet for spirit.

The hope that Thela holds is for everyone to be free to express themselves and their love for one another, because “that’s the one thing we all have in common: love”.

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