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Jubilation and celebration for thousands of graduates
6 February 2012
Graduation ceremonies are the highlight of our academic calendar: celebratory and memorable occasions for the hundreds of graduands and their families.
UCT staged no fewer than 12 ceremonies over six days, 12 to 17 December, keeping our teams hard at work, even on the Day of Reconciliation on 16 December (for which we were most grateful!)
We made a number of special awards: honorary doctorates to Dr David Potter and Mary Burton, the Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Leadership in Africa to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the first Chancellor's Award to Di Oliver, and the President of Convocation Medal to Professor Richard van der Ross. (These stories appear in the newsletter.)
Our graduation ceremonies have grown steadily in number and size over the years. In 2010, for example, we capped 5 062 students over the December graduations, up almost 400 from the 4 768 in 2009. (And 4 489 in 2008, and 4 507 in 2007.)
In December 2011 some 5 250 students were in line to graduate.
Of these, 1 808 hailed from the Faculty of Humanities, 1 378 from the Faculty of Commerce, 782 from the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment (EBE), 580 from the Faculty of Science, 534 from the Faculty of Health Sciences, and 167 from the Faculty of Law.
"Every single graduation is a success story. It represents years of hard work from the student, and the dedicated support and encouragement of a host of 'backroom people' - from family and friends to lecturers, tutors, demonstrators and supervisors," said Gerda Kruger, executive director of the Communication and Marketing Department.
But of course, being a research-led institution, we took particular pride in the hundreds of students who officially capped their postgraduate studies. (Many will push on again in 2012 and among these, we hope, will be the next generation of scholars.)
For example, UCT graduated 89 Doctors of Philosophy and the total number of PhDs awarded for 2011, including the June graduates, tallied to 152.
The faculty breakdown for December's PhD graduates is: 27 from Science, 24 from Health Sciences (including seven from the Department of Medicine, as recorded in this newsletter), 15 from Humanities, 10 from Engineering & the Built Environment, seven from Commerce, and six from Law.
The Faculty of Humanities capped the largest numbers of students finishing diplomas and certificates (436) and honours degrees (347); while EBE graduated the biggest cohort of master's students (144).