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UFS April graduations and everything you need to know

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

Education is the key to the unification of black and white masses of South Africa

2015-11-13

From left are Dr Victor Teise (Head of School of Higher Education), Dr Mafu Rakometsi (CEO of UMALUSI), and Prof Sechaba Mahlomaholo (Dean of Faculty of Education).
Photo: Valentino Ndaba

In view of the divisive nature South Africa’s (SA) schooling system during the pre-1994 period, education appears to be one of the most potent unifying mechanisms of the democratic dispensation. With the elimination of Bantu education and the subsequent gain of access to basic and higher education by the historically-disadvantaged of this country, the schooling system is said to be building and reconstructing bridges which were burnt by the apartheid administration.

This opinion was shared by Dr Mafu Rakometsi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UMALUSI – the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training. Dr Rakometsi, a University of the Free State alumnus, presented a guest lecture titled: “Educational transformation in South Africa – lessons for the future” on Thursday 5 November 2015 at the Bloemfontein Campus.

The discussion of salient matters regarding education and transformation was hosted by the Faculty of Education in collaboration with Institutional Advancement: Alumni.

According to Dr Rakometsi, the transformation of education in SA can be viewed in the same light as that of government; where the nationalist policy was succeeded by democracy. “Education promoted the agenda of ensuring that there was no integration of the South African population,” he said of the past.

“Simply put, in SA, the black person was denied, and deprived of, human rights,” he added. Nonetheless, the declaration of human rights as enshrined in our constitution, and the conviction held by lobby groups, such as the Black Sash, that the young should seek and receive education led to transformation within the education sector.

Although that transformation has been accomplished, poverty continues to hinder access to education. Approximately 80% of the black students in higher education are from poor families, meaning that their parents are unable to fund the completion of their studies. Financial exclusion then translates to social exclusion, which relegates these underprivileged students into narrow enclaves. This results in a counter-transformation situation as a consequence.

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