Professor Deevia Bhana will be presented with the Fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, during the graduation ceremonies held this week at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Westville and Pietermaritzburg campuses. In an academic career spanning 25 years, Bhana has pioneered high-quality research and also maintained a sustained focus on gender and sexuality as it is experienced in the course of young adolescent lives.
Bhana has had a substantial impact on the research landscape including generating new knowledge in the fields of young sexualities and masculinities, gender and sex education, and guiding the direction of further inquiry at a global level. She is also considered to be one of the foremost feminist scholars in gender and childhood sexuality.
In this year’s graduation, almost 65% of graduates are women. This is considered one of the highest percentages in the history of the university. There will be 6 564 undergraduate and 2 799 postgraduate degrees awarded during the Autumn Graduation Ceremonies. There are 626 masters and 276 doctoral graduates.
The university management said that it is especially proud of the 158 summa cum laude and 444 cum laude graduates who have completed their studies with distinction. It is also notable that over 71% of the total academic top achievers are women. The University will also celebrate the achievements of 101 graduates with disabilities.
Other accolades from the University include, 1462 degrees conferred by the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science, 4 772 in the College of Humanities, 1 956 in the College of Law and Management Studies, and 1 173 in the College of Health Sciences.
This year UKZN will host a marathon of 17 Graduation Ceremonies between the 3 to 12 May in Pietermaritzburg and Durban. A total of 9 363 students will take to the stage and in true ‘UKZN tradition’ claim their rightful place amongst the over 189 000 alumni. The graduation ceremonies themselves present a great opportunity for the graduates to celebrate their achievements and share this moment with their families and friends.
This year, the Distinguished Teachers Awards will also be awarded to outstanding teachers who demonstrate innovation and excellence in the areas of curriculum development, teaching methodology and assessment methods. In this category, the University will be recognising Dr Dalene Vosloo, a senior lecturer in ecotoxicology and academic leader of cellular biology in the School of Life Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science.
