Your past academic year leading up to this celebration of your achievements has been unprecedented in its challenges, as you all know only too well.
Foremost in everyone’s lives amid your academic priorities has been the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the globe and is ominously still here with us today – as it will be for the significant future. It is in the interests of safety – yours, ours, and our respective loved ones, and in observing the stipulated health protocols, that our graduations are again being held in the virtual space.
Tazden Sewell
PHD Agrometeorology
‘Stay hungry for knowledge and don’t wait for other people to tell you what you need to learn or do. Think of this period of study as a preparation for when you enter the working world. Learn as much as you can and take advantage of free student learning opportunities to further your studies independent from your main course.’
You did it!
Dear Graduands
Congratulations to the graduating class of 2021 and welcome to all of you to this virtual Graduation Ceremony. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic we are constrained in meeting face to face, but know that recording and honouring your success virtually has the same significance and meaning as it would have, had we been able to gather in person.
No matter where you find yourselves in the months ahead, in the years ahead, wherever you may be in the country, and whichever twists and turns your careers take over the coming decades, your graduation today brings with it two distinguishing features.
You have completed your degrees and diplomas in the middle of a life-threatening pandemic that continues to disrupt every aspect of life.
Education is a right and not a gift. On behalf of the Student Representative Council (SRC) we congratulate you on your success. A great achievement under very difficult times in our country. You do our generation proud.
‘Working with my supervisor (Professor Michael Savage) has allowed me to grow and become independent. He is such a good supervisor, even if I was struggling he never gave me the solution but helped me find a solution to the problem by myself. This has made me believe in myself.’
Zoleka Ncoyini
PhD Agrometeorology