Two from NMMU among Top 10 in national accountancy exam
Suzaan van den Bergh, 22, was placed joint seventh in the country, while Daniel Alfond, 22, came ninth in the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants' (Saica) Initial Test of Competency exam in January.
NMMU's class of 2014 BComm Accounting honours graduates recorded an impressive 93% pass rate - far higher than the national pass rate of 76% from the 2,480 graduates who sat the exam.
These are the best results the 10-year-old NMMU and one of its predecessors, the University of Port Elizabeth, have had in the first round of the biannual exams.
Van den Bergh, who shared seventh place with University of Cape Town student Nicolai Puglia, said she was honoured to be placed among the Top 10.
"It's a great feeling when hard work pays off. I'm also very excited to be representing NMMU as I feel we have an excellent accounting programme. All the lecturers in the programme are CAs themselves [so] they know what it takes to be successful."
Van den Bergh, who is doing her articles at Deloitte in Cape Town, said hard work, determination, a good work-life balance and family and friends' support helped her achieve her goals.
Alfond - who, after failing a test in his second year, decided to write all his exams dressed in a suit to remind him just how serious his studies were - described his achievement as unreal.
"I feel I have a good idea of what my strengths and weaknesses are, so that helped me because I knew what I had to focus on and when to ask for help."
Alfond, who is doing his articles at KPMG in Port Elizabeth, also attributed his success to his lecturers, who he said gave plenty of good advice and set challenging exam papers that helped him cope with the national exam.
School of Accounting director Professor Frans Prinsloo said these results were arguably the best NMMU - and UPE - had ever achieved in the first part of Saica's qualifying examinations.
"We are very proud of our BCom Accounting honours graduates of 2014.
"These results confirm the high quality of the programme offered by NMMU . and also represent the culmination of a strategic repositioning of NMMU's chartered accountancy programme."