Wrongly spaced words in thesis title

Question

My problem relates to the "and graduation" part of the title below and would like more space between the two lines in the title. I'm using a template, could it be that that the "vertical space" between the lines was set in the thesis.cls file? If there is a quick/easy 'hack' to put in the preamble, that would also be appreciated.

My code is as follows:

\documentclass[a4paper, 11pt, oneside]{thesis}
\begin{document}
\frontmatter     
\begin{titlepage}
\newcommand{\HRule}{\rule{\linewidth}{0.5mm}} 
\center 


%--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -
%   HEADING SECTIONS
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\begin{center}
%\includegraphics{UCT}
\end{center}
\textsc{\LARGE University of Cape Town}
\leavevmode
\\[1.5cm] 

%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%   TITLE SECTION
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\HRule \\[0.5cm]
{ \huge \bfseries The Determinants of Student Retention and Graduation}\\[0.4cm]
\HRule \\[1.5cm]

%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%   AUTHOR SECTION
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\noindent
\begin{minipage}{0.3\textwidth}
\begin{flushleft} 
\large
\emph{Author:}\\
Christopher \textsc{Rooney}\\ % Your name
\href{mailto:chris.rooney1@gmail.com}{chris.rooney1@gmail.com}
\end{flushleft}
\end{minipage}
\hspace{\fill}
\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{flushright} 
\large
\emph{Supervisor:} \\
Dr.\ Corn{\'e} \textsc{Van Walbeek}\\ %Supervisor's Name
\href{mailto:Cwalbeek@gmail.com}{Cwalbeek@gmail.com}
\end{flushright}
\end{minipage} \\ [2cm]
\begin{center}
  {\large A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the\par}
  {\large degree of Masters in Applied Economics (Development Stream) \par}
        \bigskip
        \bigskip
        \bigskip
        \bigskip
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%   DATE SECTION
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

{\Large \today \par}

%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\vfill % Fill the rest of the page with whitespace
\end{titlepage}
\end{document}