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UFS Reflection Series webinar: The quality of our democracies under COVID-19

04 August 2020 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath

Apart from its devastating impact on people’s lives and livelihoods, the COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the nature and quality of our democracies – democracy read in its widest sense here as collective and individual self-determination. Formal, institutional democracy has beencurtailed through the imposition of states of emergency or disaster and the logistical difficulties associated with social distancing. Extra-institutional democratic work, such as protest and social-movement activity, has suffered from prohibitions imposed by law and through state suppression related to ‘lockdown’. The nature (and perhaps democratic quality) of public conversation has changed – for better or worse – from increasing reliance on ‘science’ and ‘scientists’ to justify public choices. The crisis has brought to the fore already existing characteristics of our democracies, such as the prevalence and power of special-interest bargaining, the extreme inequality of our societies, and chauvinist nationalisms that force us to ask whether we have ever had democracy at all. What will be the long-term effects of these impacts of the crisis on our democracies? What will democracy look like post-COVID? What does the crisis teach us about what our democracies have always been?

Join us for a discussion of these and other democracy-related issues in these troubled times by a panel of four hailing from Colombia, India, South Africa, and the USA.

Date: Thursday, 13 August

Time: 14:00-16:00 (South African Standard Time – GMT +2)

Please RSVP to Mamello Serasengwe at serasengwemsm@ufs.ac.za no later than 12 August 2020 upon which you will receive a Skype for Business meeting invite and link to access the webinar

Panel

Prof Natalia Angel Cabo (University of Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia)

Dr Quaraysha Ismail-Sooliman (University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa)

Dr Usha Ramanathan Independent Law Researcher (Delhi, India)

Prof Katie Young (Boston College, Boston, USA)

Moderator

Prof Danie Brand (Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa)

News Archive

Largest group of financial planners ever to graduate from UFS

2013-06-14

Stuart James Milroy and Gerda Grobler
Photo: Stephen Collett
14 June 2013

During this year’s graduation, the Centre for Financial Planning Law (CFPL) conferred the most diplomas ever for this sector at a graduation ceremony. Five hundred and ninety four students received diplomas (543 postgraduate diplomas in Financial Planning and 51 advanced postgraduate diplomas in Financial Planning).

Top student for the postgraduate diploma in Financial Planning, was Gerda Grobler. For the advanced postgraduate diploma in Financial Planning, Stuart James Milroy received the honour as top achiever. Other top achievers for modules in the advanced postgraduate diploma were L Phillips, RC Claassen, SJ Milroy and L Wilkinson. G Grobler, TT Baxter, KR Smit and E du Rand were the top achievers for modules in the postgraduate diploma in Financial Planning.

For five years, the University of the Free State was the only institution that offered a full qualification to become a certified financial planner. The university is still the largest institution in this field. The Centre for Financial Planning Law (CFPL) at the UFS is also the only institution in South Africa offering the advanced postgraduate diploma in Financial Planning as a purely specialist diploma.

To date, the CFPL at the UFS has awarded 4 200 postgraduate diplomas and 710 advanced postgraduate diplomas in Financial Planning.

Donors who made this event possible, include:

Alexander Forbes
Old Mutual
Liberty
Acsis
Momentum
LexisNexis
Galileo Capital
PSG
ABSA Bank

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