The University of the Free State (UFS) yesterday became the first university in South Africa to award a masters degree in Physics to students who have completed the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP).

The aim of the programme is to train a new generation of astrophysics and space scientists that are comparable to the best in the world.  The programme is presented in collaboration with six other universities in the country and national facilities such as the South African Astronomy Observatory (SAAO), the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO) and the Hartebeeshoek Radio Observatory (HartRao).

Prof Peter Dunsby, lecturer at the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town and coordinator of the NASSP programme; Ms Elmé Breedt (from Pretoria) and Mnr Edward Jurua (from Uganda) who obtained the masters degree in Physics and completed the NASSP programme and Prof Pieter Meintjes, lecturer at the UFS Department of Physics and promoter of the two students.

The degrees were awarded during the UFS's spring graduation ceremony.