Four of the six articles published in Afrikaans scholarly journals in 2015 and which in 2016 were awarded prizes by the Afrikaans Language and Culture Association (ATKV) and the SA Academy for Science and Art in their annual competition, were authored by academics from the University of Pretoria (UP).

The ATKV annually awards prize money to the value of R60 000 for six academic articles (R10 000 per article) written in Afrikaans and published in accredited journals in a given year. Four prizes are awarded for articles published in the humanities and two for articles in the natural sciences. The SA Academy for Science and Art is responsible for the selection process.

In the natural sciences category, one of the two awards went to Prof Peet du Toit, Dr Nicoleen Coetzee, Prof William Fraser, Prof Ronél Ferreira, Ms Evangeline Nortje and the late Prof Ernst Krüger from UP for their article titled 'Kardiovaskulêre gesondheidsrisiko onder universiteitstudente in Suid-Afrika' ('Cardiovascular health risk among university students in South Africa'), which was written in collaboration with Ms Elizabeth Rudolph and Prof Yvonne Joubert from Unisa and published in the SA Tydskrif vir Natuurwetenskap en Tegnologie (SA Journal for Natural Science and Technology), 34 (1).  

In the humanities category, Prof Nerina Bosman from the Department of Afrikaans was awarded for her article 'EET en DRINK in Afrikaans – 'n leksikaal-semantiese ondersoek' ('Eat and DRINK in Afrikaans – a lexical-semantic investigation'), that appeared in the Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe (Journal of Humanities), 55 (1) in March 2015.  

Prof Andries van Aarde from the Department of New Testament Studies in the Faculty of Theology at UP, was awarded for his article titled 'Vredemakers as kinders van God (Matt 5:9): 'n Pragmatieslinguïstiese lesing' ('Peacemakers as children of God (Matthew 5: 9): A Pragmatic linguistic reading'), which appeared in the journal HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies - South Africa's oldest theological journal.

Prof Ernst van Eck, also from the Department of New Testament Studies, was recognised for his article 'Die gelykenisse van Jesus: Allegorieë of simbole van sosiale transformasie?' ('The parables of Jesus: Allegories or symbols of social transformation?'), which was published in the same journal. Prof van Eck shares this award with another UP academic, Prof Willie Burger from the Department of Afrikaans, who was awarded for his article 'Historiese korrektheid en historiese fiksie: 'n respons' ('Historical correctness and historical fiction: a response') that appeared in the Tydskrif vir Letterkunde (Journal for Literature), 52 (2), 2015.

The prize money will be awarded to the winners at an event that will take place later this year.