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UFS awards joint degrees, giving graduates a competitive edge

10 December 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Two students, Jenny Josefsson and Janie Swanepoel in the Faculty of the Humanities at the University of the Free State (UFS), graduated with joint degrees during the December graduation ceremonies.

Josefsson received her degree from both the UFS and Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and Swanepoel was awarded her degree by the UFS and the University of Cologne, Germany.

According to the Office for International Affairs (OIA) at the UFS – with a joint degree, the candidate receives an academic qualification from more than one institution at the same time.

Zenzele Mdletshe from the OIA explains that a student will register at two different institutions at the same time, with the goal of obtaining one qualification. “Upon completion, the home institution will issue a joint degree certificate while the host institution will issue a degree supplement. For both Josefsson and Swanepoel, the UFS was the home institution.”

The UFS also awarded two joint degrees in 2020.

Social change, inequality, and land issues

Josefsson, who was born in Sweden, matriculated at Ljusdals Gymnasieskola in 1997. She obtained both her Environmental Science and Development Studies degree and her cum laude master’s degree in Environmental Science at Södertörn University. As an exchange student, she spent one semester in 2006 at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and two years later started her career as an environmental consultant in Cape Town.

She proceeded to do her PhD, and as part of her academic journey towards completing her doctoral degree, she joined a group of doctoral students from South Africa and the Netherlands, whose research fell under a project titled ‘Farm Dwellers, the Forgotten People? Conversions to Conservation in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape’. The Dutch science-funding organisation, NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development, funded the research.

Based in the Department of Geography at the UFS, she continued with her research and started fieldwork in KwaZulu-Natal in 2013. During and after her fieldwork, she wrote several articles, which – together with an introductory chapter – formed the body of work submitted for her doctorate.

Josefsson received her Doctor of Philosophy, specialising in Geography. The title of her study is: Battles over boundaries and belonging: violence, wilderness and spatial reconfigurations in the conversion of farm landscapes in KwaZulu-Natal, and highlights the ground-level politics of land issues. Her research is an important contribution to the wider debate around social change, inequality, and land issues in South Africa.

Her thesis was examined by the UFS according to South African examination procedures, and then by a body of examiners appointed by Radboud University. She defended her thesis during a Zoom session with Radboud University in October 2021.

Josefsson, who has worked on various projects in Southern Africa and South Asia, is currently working as a programme coordinator for a climate services project in the SADC region.

Rethinking commercial ranching in rural Southern Africa

Completing school in Bloemfontein, Swanepoel obtained her BA at Stellenbosch University, and her BA Honours in Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. In 2013, she received her master’s degree in Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University.

Seven years later, she successfully submitted her PhD dissertation in Social Anthropology at the UFS. Her PhD forms part of a co-tutelage agreement with the University of Cologne.

Swanepoel, who is working in social compliance, received the Doctor of Philosophy with specialisation in Anthropology. The title of her dissertation is: In the land of the jackals: Postcolonial aridity in Southern Namibia. She investigates multispecies relations in a changing Namibian Boer community.

Her dissertation suggests the need to rethink commercial ranching in rural Southern Africa. “Given the glocal increase in aridity, this research shows the limitations of engaging with the decolonisation of land and the impact of climate change in ways that perpetuate the relation between nature and culture.”

She was invited to rework her dissertation into a book.

Advantages of joint degree

According to Mdletshe, there are several advantages to a joint degree. “The students involved in this programme have a chance of pursuing an international academic programme while enrolled at the UFS.”

He adds: “The students will also have a chance to be mentored and guided by supervisors from different institutions, bringing different perspectives. Such programmes will not only expose students to different lifestyles and cultures – as they will travel to the host institution from time to time – but it will also introduce them to different methods of teaching and learning.

He believes that with the input of international institutions, the joint degree will give students a competitive edge.

“We encourage students and academics who are interested in this programme to contact Kagiso Ngake (ngakekm@ufs.ac.za) or myself (mdletshezp@ufs.ac.za) in the Partnership Office at the Office for International Affairs,” says Mdletshe.

News Archive

Professor launches his book, opposition parties attend

2011-03-22

Prof. Hussein Solomon
Photo: Stephen Collett

“We are good in opposing people, but we’re less good in opposing ideas.” This was how Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS) introduced the book launch of Against all Odds: Opposition Politics in Southern Africa.

The event was hosted in collaboration with the publisher under the title: Are opposition parties in South Africa in a crisis? This formed part of a series of dialogue sessions, organised by the Centre for Africa Studies, in the run up to the local elections.

Amongst those interested who attended the evening in the Senate Hall of the CR Swart Building on the Main Campus were various politicians, students, staff en a panel consisting of academics and the respective provincial representatives of the ANC and DA.

Dr Mcebisi Ndletyana from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), acted as arbiter.

Proff. Hussein Solomon, author of Against all Odds: Opposition Politics in Southern Africa, also lecturer at the UFS, as well as Dirk Kotzé, Head of the Department of Political Science at Unisa, delivered enriching lectures on the stance and positioning of opposition parties.

Prof. Hussein, who spoke first, circumscribed the context of the political climate in the country, based on his book. “The problem that political science encounters is that everybody becomes experts on the internet, while they have no experience of what is happening in South Africa.” He said that when political parties in the country are under discussion, voters often allow myths and/or stereotyping to influence their concept of it. ‘’If there are no opposition parties, there is no democracy and people are deprived of their vote.”

Prof. Kotzé stated in his speech that it was not only opposition parties who had to make the government watch its step, but also the status that the country acquired, amongst others, from its connections, i.e. collaborative agreements such as BRICSA and the country’s inclusion in the G20. He left the audience with a question about how they were going to become involved in politics, and with his rhetoric question referred to options like social networks and movements.

Mr Sibongile Besani, the ANC'S secretary in the Free State, said the DA grew due to it’s swallowing of other parties; something he claims is taking the country backwards. He also described the use of personalities by opposition parties as means of association a weakness. He added that voters will continue voting for the ANC because they can associate themselves with the party’s vision.

In contrast, Mr Roy Jankielsohn, provincial leader of the DA, said voters and parties unite under their core vision for the country as like in the case of the ANC during the liberation struggles.

During the question-and-answer session, which followed after Mr Jankielson’s speech, Prof. Kwandiwe Kondlo, upon completion and summary of the discussions, stated firmly that the opposition parties are in a crisis. “The start of the solution is to recognise the problem. That is why our democracy finds itself in the state in which it is; because the opposition does not fulfil the role that they are supposed to fulfil.“ Prof. Kondlo is the head of the Centre of Africa Studies at the UFS.

He concluded by stating that the economic basis in the country was not transformed. “We cannot say that people determine their futures if they posses nothing. Opposition parties must start to communicate at this level in order to table something new. Our democracy must become more inclusive at political and material level.”

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