UFH TO CONFER 3 161 QUALIFICATIONS WHILE CELEBRATING 42% INCREASE IN POSTGRAD QUALIFICATIONS

Alice, 16 May 2022 --The University of Fort Hare (UFH) today announced that 3 161 graduands will walk the stage later this week to receive qualifications from the institution during the 2022 May Graduation ceremony.

Ceremonies for various Faculties will be spread out across three days starting on Wednesday, 18 May and concluding on Friday, 20 May.

The University of Fort Hare will confer 2 490 undergraduate and 862 postgraduate (including Postgraduate Diplomas, Masters and PHD) qualifications later this week,  all of which are appropriately accredited.

Postgraduate qualifications made up one-third (27,2%) of qualifications that will be conferred this Fall by UFH, and the number of students graduating with postgraduate qualifications from the Institution increased by 42%, year-on-year, compared with 2021’s graduation ceremony.

The highest percentage increase was recorded at Masters level with a 313% year-on-year increase (2022: 95 vs 2021:23).  This was followed by Honours qualifications that increased 66,5% year-on-year (2022: 598 vs 2021: 359) and PHD qualifications which increased 87,5% year-on-year (2022: 45 vs 2021:24).

The Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities produced 18 PHD qualifications, followed by the Faculty of Science and Agriculture (11), and the Faculty of Education (9).   For Masters qualifications, the UFH Faculty of Science and Agriculture produced 26 graduates, followed by the Faculty of Health Sciences (20), and the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (18).

In the undergraduate graduation category, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities with 807 graduands holds the largest number of graduands from all UFH faculties. The Faculty offers various qualifications in the fields of Music, Arts, Library and Information Science, Theology, Communication, Social Science, Human Settlement, and Social Work.

 The second-highest number of undergraduate graduands are from the Faculty of Science and Agriculture (746).  The Faculty celebrates graduating 40 additional graduates in comparison to last year.  The Faculty of Education, with 711 graduands, has the third-highest number of undergraduate qualifications.

While the above figures are unaudited, UFH does not expect any major variances in the audited figures.

Earlier this year, UFH announced that its international academic quality ranking was on a rapid trajectory - this following the publication of the 2021-22 University Ranking by the Academic Performance (URAP) World Rankings programme.

URAP covers approximately 12% of all higher education institutions (HEIs) in the world, which makes it one of the most comprehensive university ranking systems in the world and the programme aims to rank international (HEIs) for their academic performance.

In the latest published rankings for 2021-2022, UFH increased its position with 153 notches from its position in 2020 - 2021.   

Globally, UFH outranked several international universities including the University of San Diego, Missouri State University, University of Richmond and the University of Seattle in the USA; the London Business School and the London Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom; the University of Mumbai in India, and the Korea University of Technology & Education in the Far East, amongst other, according to the 2021-2022 URAP World Rankings.

- Ends -