The Vice-Chancellor’s Prestigious Achiever Award was recently launched and has already identified its first recipient. The annual award will be bestowed on deserving students who have shown academic excellence and embody the CPUT graduate attributes.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Chris Nhlapo says the purpose of the award is to financially aid CPUT students who have achieved excellent results throughout their academic studies and can make a contribution to society by completing their Masters and/or Doctoral studies.
“This award is not a replication of existing interventions. Rather it is a way of ensuring that Dean and Vice-Chancellor medallists remain connected to CPUT and come back to complete their Masters and Doctorates with us, later becoming professors,” says Nhlapo.

The first recipient of the award is Mechanical Engineering Doctoral candidate Zamavangeli Mdletshe whose research topic is developing and testing a renewable energy-based thermal desalination system. Zamavangeli was identified by her supervisor Dr Velaphi Msomi who encouraged her and her mother to allow the talented student to continue on to Masters and later her doctoral studies.

“She wanted to go to work and was so shocked when I asked her to consider doing her Masters. She received funding from the NRF and started in 2016 and within 14 months she was completed and graduated with Cum Laude,” he says.
“At her graduation, I asked her mother to give her another three years to complete her doctoral degree and she agreed.”

Unfortunately the previous funding opportunity was no longer on offer and Zamavangeli was in danger of dropping out until Msomi responded to a staff email about the Vice-Chancellor’s Prestigious Achievers Award.
“I wrote to the VC and I was so shocked when he wrote back to me almost immediately. We discussed Zamavangeli and her situation,” says Msomi.

The event was also attended by former VC and Dean Medallists and their loved ones. 

Former VC Medallist Anthony Ezeonwuka thanked Nhlapo and CPUT for investing in talented students.
“More financial support can make things easier, it would motivate more students to be like Zamavangeli and be the best they can be,” he says.

Click the following link to apply now -http://www.cput.ac.za/…/le…/vc/vice-chancellors-bursury-fund

Written by Lauren Kansley
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Three new Master’s and four returning PhD students are the proud recipients of this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s (VC) Prestigious Achievers Award.

Their names were announced at a virtual award ceremony held recently. The grateful students who received the awards are: Bimpe Omolara Alabi (Doctor of Engineering in Civil Engineering), Justine Angadam (Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Health), Zamavangeli Mdletshe (Doctor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering), Melody Ruvimbo Mukandi (Doctor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering), Namhla Matwa (Master of Sport Management),  Anza Ramatsia (Master of Sports Management) and Nontsikelelo Noxolo Tafu (Master of Food Science and Technology). 

The VC Prestigious Achievers Awards committee chairperson, Prof Janet Condy said at the end of a very critical review of all the applicants, “we selected three new Master’s students... Despite being mindful of transformation issues, trying to balance gender and race, in the end we had three females, all three from South Africa,” Condy continues.

“So, to all the students who have been awardees,  your hard work, commitment and achievements are inspirational to all of us and you are a shining beacon to all the staff and students at CPUT.”

The Doctoral students are awarded R120,000.00 per year for three years, depending on the receipt of good progress reports. Master’s students are awarded R100,000.00 for two years, also depending on the receipt of good progress reports.

The Vice-Chancellor, via the VC Prestigious Achievers Awards CPUT website, receives abundant applications from academically performing students to fund their education. The aim of this award is to financially assist CPUT students in completing their Master’s or Doctoral studies, who have achieved excellent results throughout their academic studies and who show a potential contribution to our society.

This award which was started in 2019 is conferred every year to deserving students who have shown academic excellence and an embodiment of the CPUT graduate attributes. Speaking at the event, Vice-Chancellor, Prof Chris Nhlapo said the CPUT management aimed to build future academics who will contribute to the transformation of the higher education sector. “This is a momentous occasion on the calendar of CPUT,” Nhlapo enthused.

“We must celebrate excellence and make sure we support the excelling students.”

Prof Janet Condy said they assessed the 2020 recipients and budget to make a decision to continue to support the current four Doctoral students (R120 000 per annum) and three new Master’s students (each receive R100,000 per annum).

Alabi, one of the recipients, said: “Many thanks for this opportunity, I will always be grateful.” Ramatsia, another recipient, said: “I would like to extend my gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor and the donors. I hope this initiative continues its impact on students.”

Condy added that the person who has made “this experience possible is Advocate Dianne Yach, who is the Chairperson of the Mauerberg Foundation Fund, but unfortunately she is ill so will not be with us today”.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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