Page Content: "I was so looking forward to Russel conferring the degree on me."
These were the words of Dr Beryl Botman, wife of the late prof Russel Botman, former Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University (SU), after the first doctoral graduation ceremony on Wednesday, 10 December. A total of 56 doctoral candidates from the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Education, Law, Theology and Economic and Business Sciences received their degrees at this ceremony.
Dr Botman, who was awarded a doctoral degree in Education Policy Studies, said: "I feel like half a person today. My best half is not here to share in this day with me. We both looked forward to this occasion."
Their daughter, Roxanne, said it is a bittersweet day for the family, "but we know my father was with us today. And we are glad that we could be with my mother on this journey".
Among the guests at the ceremony was Mr Mandla Mandela, grandson of former president Nelson Mandela. He came to support a friend, Dr Craig Moffat, who obtained a degree in Political Science.
The first joint doctoral degree in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences was also confered during Wednesday's ceremony. This is only the fourth joint degree awarded by SU. Stefanie Baumert, Programme Officer at the German Research Foundation in Bonn in Germany, received the degree jointly awarded by SU and the University of Leipzig.
Prof Jan Botha from the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at SU, explained: "Across the world, joint degrees are becoming more common. In the past, we saw many doctoral students going overseas to work on their dissertation during research exchange visits, however now students want to receive recognition for the work they do at universities elsewhere in the world. One of the ways to give that recognition, is to award joint degrees."
Botha supervised Baumert's dissertation along with Prof Matthias Middell, the Director of the Global and European Studies Institute (GESI) at the University of Leipzig.
Also among the candidates were Marie-Anne Staebler and Gibson Ncube, who obtained their PhDs in French. These are the first PhD degrees in French, awarded in more or less 17 years since the French department was built up from scratch into one of the strongest in the country, and a PhD in French was reinstated.
After Wednesday's ceremony, Prof Yusef Waghid, Distinguished Professor in SU's Faculty of Education can boast a house full of doctors. His son Zayd was awared his PhD in Educational Policy Studies on Wednesday, while his other son, Faiq, who now works at SU's Centre for Learning Technologies, received his PhD in Curriculum Studies in 2013. Prof Waghid's daughter, Sian, in turn is a graduate of SU's Medical Faculty.
Prof Waghid said he is very proud of his children's accomplishments, but added that as a parent it is important to stay humble. He said as long as they do their bit for society and try and make a difference, he is happy.
On Wednesday morning a total of 729 students received their degrees in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the third SU graduation ceremony. "No investment yields a greater return than an investment in education," said Prof Arnold Schoonwinkel, Vice-rector: Learning and Teaching. He added that students at this graduation will understand this concept very well.
A Chancellor's Award was awarded to Prof Nic Terblanche of the Department of Business Management. Among other things, he has developed this department to become one of the foremost research-driven departments of its kind in South Africa.
- Visit www.sun.ac.za/graduation for more information.
- The ceremonies are streamed live at www.sun.ac.za/streaming.
- Visit Stellenbosch University's Facebook page and tag yourself in photographs.
- Tweet using the hashtag #SUgraduation and mention @Matiesstudents and @StellenboschUni in your tweet.
Photographer: Anton Jordaan.
