Top achievers choose UP

Posted on January 30, 2018

Several of the top achievers from South Africa’s matric class of 2017 are now part of the cohort of first-year students at the University of Pretoria (UP).

Jacqueline Janse van Rensburg, Gauteng’s number-one matriculant, is from Hoërskool Oos-Moot in Pretoria. She obtained nine distinctions, with the third-highest marks in Advanced Programme Mathematics in the country. She took part in the UP with Science programme and was well acquainted with the University. It seemed ‘only natural to choose UP as I already felt part of the UP family’. Janse van Rensburg is looking forward to taking her first steps into her field of interest and to embarking on this journey with students that share her interests.

Mariam Abrahim achieved a 94% overall average and opted to #ChooseUP to pursue studies in health sciences. She wants to enter a research sector of health sciences to find cures for diseases. ‘I am aware that UP is a leading research-intensive university in South Africa, and I believe that the experience Health Sciences students gain at UP will help us solve medical challenges locally and globally,’ she says.

Another top performer attending UP is Hatfield Christian School’s Simone Hoogenhout, who finished in the top 1% of the IEB candidates with eight-distinctions. She chose UP because of the excellent reputation of the Faculty of Health Sciences, and to uphold a family tradition, as both her brother and sister are currently studying at UP. The siblings follow their parents, who are both UP alumni. Hoogenhout says, ‘I’m looking forward to the diversity of people I will meet.’

Tumelo Mashigo has excelled despite having a physical disability. He was the deputy head boy of Muriel Brand School in Brakpan, where he served on the junior council. He says that he wanted to study at UP since childhood because he believed it to be one of the best universities in the country. ‘I am looking forward to joining the UP family, to explore and learn as much as I can.’

For these top students, the decision to #ChooseUP was easy because they wanted to join a world-class institution with programmes that would best facilitate their journey.

 
- Author Department of University Relations

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