Nurturing talent at Wits
- Wits University
Providing full first-year bursaries and investing in high school programmes ensures a stream of excellent results for Wits.
Two flagship programmes of the University, which aim to reward and support young talent, welcomed new recruits on Saturday, 13 May 2017.
Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Adam Habib hosted a breakfast in honour of the top performing 2016 matriculants who selected Wits as their academic home in 2017.
Twenty first-year students were awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship in recognition of their exceptional achievement in matric. Ten are Equality Scholarships recipients drawn from Quintile 1 and 2 schools, which are non-fee paying schools.
Equality scholarships are an attempt by Wits University to address inequality in our society and afford academically talented students from poor backgrounds an opportunity to flourish.
The scholarships are renewable for each year of the first undergraduate degree, provided that academic performance is of a high standard.
Another long-term Wits flagship programme, the Targeting Talent Programme (TTP), aimed at improving the performance of high school learners, held a concurrent family workshop to welcome learners to the programme.
Designed as a pre-university enrichment programme, the TTP aims to increase the academic, social and psychological preparation of academically talented learners, primarily from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, for admission to South African universities.
The TTP is a talent pipeline development programme open to Grade 9-12 learners across South Africa.
Zena Richards, Head of the Student Equity and Talent Management Unit which manages the TTP, expressed delight that the learners enrolled in the programme have consistently produced good results.
“TTP learners perform significantly better than their peers in all key subjects especially Math and Science. They also tend to do better in university and exhibit positive academic and social qualities,” says Richards.
The TTP was launched in 2007 with a cohort of 267 Grade 10 learners from three provinces.
Over the years, the programme has expanded and now enrolls nearly 2300 learners from nine provinces.
The programme receives generous support from the BP SA Education Foundation Trust, the Industrial Development Corporation, the Department of Science and Technology, and Primedia.
