Recipients of the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Merit Awards (VCDMA) were honoured at the Welcome and Leadership Conference, which was held from 28 to 31 January 2025 at the Future Africa Campus of the University of Pretoria. The Conference is an annual three-day event that celebrates the top academic achievers who chose to further their studies at UP. Prof Francis Petersen, UP Vice-Chancellor and Principal addressed the students and parents on the first day of the Conference.

This year, 40 first year students across all of our faculties were selected to receive the prestigeous Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Merit Award—an initiative that started in 2016 with 13 students. Today we have 486 students in the VCDMA cohort. This exceptional calibre of students is testament to the growth and success of this initiative.

To mention a few examples: in 2023, VCDMA student Gareth Griffiths was awarded the Vice-Chancellor and Principal's Medal for Excellent Undergraduate Academic Achievement in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS). In 2024, for the second year in a row, the University of Pretoria (UP) has claimed a 100% pass rate in the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Initial Test of Competence, with Gareth Griffiths achieving first place.

In 2022, Mongiwa Ntuli was awarded the VCDMA at the tender age of 14!. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Actuarial and Financial Mathematics in 2024 and will graduate this year.  She is currently the treasurer of the active VCDMA Alumni Chapter, established in 2022.

In 2023 Phumla Marareni was the top first-year female student in House Nala Residence and in 2024 she was the top senior female student in Madelief Residence and top student overall in all the UP residences, known as TuksRes.

In 2024, South Africa’s Presidency—the top tier of government—hosted 17 VCDMA students at the Union Buildings. In the same room where the President and Ministers address matters of national importance, the students engaged with decision-makers in the Presidency about solutions for the socio-economic issues affecting South Africans. The students said it gave them new insight into the country's political and governance landscape.

“Your first year is meant to challenge your perspective on life, to break down the walls of what we call cognitive entrenchment. What does this mean? It means that all the assumptions you have made up until now and all the knowledge about what you think you know will start changing. Your curiosity will guide you as you experience the thrill of new knowledge and discover new things. Down the line you could be the first person in the world to reveal or understand something that no one else has thought of, paving a path for yourself the UP WAY”, says Prof Francis Petersen, UP Vice-Chancellor and Principal.

We hope that most most of this talented group of VCDMA students will go on to do postgraduate studies at UP and be part of the FlyHigher@UP programme, which supports our students through postgraduate studies.