“UWC is the home of winners!”, said UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tyrone Pretorius, proudly as he opened the first graduation session. He told graduands in the Jakes Gerwel Hall: “Last night was an amazing night for the University… our rugby team emerged as Champions of the Varsity Shield.”

Arguably, no one had that winning feeling more than Reece Bocks, an erstwhile member of the UWC Rugby team who graduated with his Bachelor of Education Degree on Friday. 

Mariam Sasman was speechless when asked how she was feeling after she was capped with her Doctor of Philosophy degree. Her thesis - A Capability Analysis of academic support of NC (V) students at public TVET colleges in the Western Cape - made use of evaluative and effective reasoning to determine how students’ freedoms are enhanced and if free agency is enhanced in student experience at TVET colleges.

Sasman also designed an Academic Student Support Framework to converge the efforts of functionaries and lecturers in TVET colleges.

AUTUMN GRADUATION 2023 INFORMATION

Prof Pretorius told the graduands that they “are our hope for the future.” 

“We know it looks bleak out there: rising costs of living, bleak economic prospects and rampant corruption are some of the ills that haunt us as a country. Despite all this, UWC has stood proud and determined to overcome its historical deficit,” he said.

In true UWC fashion, some doctoral and master's graduates have completed groundbreaking research that is set to improve the world - and in some cases, the galaxy.

These include Mpendulo Sibiya's master's thesis, The Interstellar Medium Scaling Relations in Cosmological Simulations. It tested how well computer simulations of the evolution of galaxies in the cosmos reproduce or predict the physical properties of galaxies seen in their observations with telescopes. 
 
Bakani Ncube’s research, The Implementation of the African Union Model Law on Medical Products Regulation and the Establishment of the African Medicines Agency, is relevant to public health and improving access to medicines on the African continent through harmonisation of medicines regulation and the establishment of the African Medicines Agency.

The seven-day graduation programme – the biggest after the COVID-19 pandemic­ – will see more than 4 000 undergraduates and postgraduate students being capped. Among them are 76 PhDs, 236 master's and 635 honours graduates. Furthermore, 2 726 degrees, 351 advanced or postgraduate diplomas, 99 higher certificates and 36 postgraduate certificates will be awarded.
 

For more images of Education graduands, all taken by by Jeffrey Abrahams/UWC Media, scroll through the gallery below: