The numbers are up for graduating students

They're going to come out in their finest finery, loved ones in tow, graduation gowns proudly draped around their shoulders. And, from 12 to 18 December, they will come in their thousands. Well, 5,518* of them, anyway. Of these, the Faculty of Humanities will boast the largest contingent, well over 1,800, followed in descending order by the Faculties of Commerce (business leader Maria Ramos will speak at one of the faculty's ceremonies, on 14 December), Engineering and the Built Environment, Science, Health Sciences, and Law. (See tables below.)

And to cap it all, UCT will celebrate the graduation of over 100 PhDs.

But the graduation ceremonies will allow UCT to celebrate not just the passing out of undergraduate and postgraduate students, but a number of other notable events as well.

So, for example, UCT will award honorary degrees to five academic and public figures who through their work have made their indelible marks on society: world-renowned artist Marlene Dumas, pioneering physicist Jonathan Ellis, legal expert Nicholas Haysom, and alumni Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of the Handspring Puppet Company.

In turn, Professor John Higgins (15h00, 12 December), Dr Zelda Woodman and Dr Jeremy Wanderer (both in absentia) will be presented with Distinguished Teacher Awards, recognising their excellence in teaching.

The university will also present its Social Responsiveness Awards for 2012. These will go to Associate Professor Mohamed Adhikari (15h00, 12 December), for his service to his alma mater, Harold Cressy High School, through a number of heritage projects; and the Environmental Evaluation Unit (10h00, 17 December) for the work it does to enhance the governance of complex human-ecological systems through collaborative interdisciplinary research across natural resource sectors, mostly in poor and marginalised communities.