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07 April 2021 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa

Virtual graduation ceremonies for undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of the Free State (UFS) who have completed their qualifications at the end of the 2020 academic year, will be broadcast from 19 to 22 April 2021. This will be the fourth virtual graduation hosted by the UFS since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.  

Qualifications will be awarded in the form of certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, honours degrees, postgraduate diplomas, as well as master’s and doctoral degrees across all faculties.

In addition, three honorary doctorates will be conferred upon award-winning South African short-story writer, novelist, and poet – Dr Rudolf Johannes (Dolf) van Niekerk; retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa – Justice Zakeria Mohammed (Zak) Yacoob; and renowned business leader, founder, and chairperson of the private investment firms, Izingwe Capital and Izingwe Holdings – Dr Sipho Mila Pityana.

More than 9 000 qualifications will be awarded to students across all campuses, with the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences conferring the most qualifications. For a breakdown of the number of qualifications to be awarded per faculty on each day, see information below.

19 April 2021
Bloemfontein Campus (certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, honours degrees, and postgraduate diplomas)

Faculties: Economic and Management Sciences (1 198), Education (628), Health Sciences (219), the Humanities (1 191), Law (887), Natural and Agricultural Sciences (1 238), Theology and Religion (164)

→ Chancellor invitation 19 April 2021

20 April 2021
South Campus (certificates and diplomas)

Faculties: Economic and Management Sciences (87), Education (143), the Humanities (399)

→ Chancellor invitation 20 April 2021

21 April 2021
Qwaqwa Campus (certificates, diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, honours degrees, 
postgraduate diplomas, master’s, and doctoral degrees)

Faculties: Economic and Management Sciences (87), Education (776), the Humanities (538), Natural and Agricultural Sciences (1 237)

→ Chancellor invitation 21 April 2021

22 April 2021
Bloemfontein Campus (master’s and doctoral degrees)
Faculties: Economic and Management Sciences (45), Education (12), Health Sciences (29), the Humanities (21), Law (21), Natural and Agricultural Sciences (112), Theology and Religion (21)

→ Chancellor invitation 22 April 2021

The UFS is looking forward to honouring all graduates during the upcoming virtual graduation ceremonies and would like to celebrate your milestones and successes virtually with you and your loved ones. The university further encourages all graduates to join us in celebrating the virtual graduations. See information further below for details on how to join in on the fun.


News Archive

Music lecturer’s innovative app is a first in South Africa
2014-07-24

Dr Frelét de Villiers, lecturer at the Odeion School of Music (OSM) at the University of the Free State (UFS), is in the process of developing an innovative interactive mobile music application – Notes&Fun.

Notes&Fun is being designed to assist aspirant pianists. It will support beginners with notation and rhythmic patterns.

The app will display single notes, phrases or rhythmical patterns on the phone or tablet and then apply the built-in microphone to measure the frequency of the notes played on the piano itself. It will indicate whether you’ve played correctly, or if you have made a mistake, the correct note will be displayed. Notes&Fun consists of multiple levels, each with a practise and test mode that gradually increases in difficulty and complexity. As opposed to existing apps, Notes&Fun is conceptualised with immediate pitch detection and is applied with a real (acoustic) piano.

For the pilot phase of this initiative, the developing company Maxxor in Cape Town will create a demo app which can be downloaded for testing purposes and general feedback. Once the developing company and innovator are satisfied with the first phase, the product will be marketed vigorously on social media. The initial app will be free, but subsequent levels will need to be purchased. The developers will start a Facebook page where users of the app can add their latest scores and compete with other users. Initially the app will only be available on the Google Play Store due to the fact that more people own Android devices than Apple products. Once the product has proven to be financially viable, the developers will adapt it for the Mac App Store as well.

“The beauty of this app is that music has a universal language, so it can be marketed internationally and I am privileged to have the institutional support from the UFS Technology Unit regarding the judicial process and developing process of the product,” Dr De Villiers said.

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