He may have just begun his tertiary education but the Eastern Cape’s top matricutant Matthew Walker is already working towards his latest long-term goal: to graduate at the top of his class.
The Alexander Road High matriculant, now a first year BCom (Accounting) student at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, has a healthy track record of setting and achieving tough personal goals.
At the start of high school, he set himself a long-term goal to be the dux of his school – the top academic achiever – in Grade 12.
He achieved his goal – and went one better, becoming the top academic achiever in the Eastern Cape. “I’m not afraid of hard work,” said the 19-year-old, who aims to become a Chartered Accountant. “I’m sure I wasn’t the brightest at school, but I was the hardest working… I started studying way before anyone else.”
His top-class matric results – with more than 90% achieved for each subject and an overall aggregate of 94% – landed him one of NMMU’s prestigious Vice-Chancellor Scholarships, worth R75 600 for each year of study, provided his results remain outstanding.
As a primary school pupil, Walker dreamed of becoming a cardiologist – but his subsequent doubt about whether or not to pursue a career in medicine sealed his decision to pursue accounting, his other area of interest.
He is not the first in his family to be attending lectures at NMMU – his father studied law there, graduating cum laude. This fact – and the School of Accounting’s reputation as one of the best in the country – sealed his decision to study at NMMU. “I didn’t want to go anywhere else.”
Of this year’s 30 scholarship recipients – or VC Scholars as they are known – half have enrolled for BCom Accounting degrees at NMMU. There are two others from Alexander Road High, with the rest coming from schools in Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, East London, Mossel Bay and George.
School of Accounting Director Prof Frans Prinsloo said: “We are very happy to have students of Matthew’s calibre on board. We are keen to draw the country’s top learners to our institution and our programmes.”
Prinsloo said the School of Accounting was determined to develop the leadership potential of its VC Scholars through its mentorship and leadership programme – a non-academic intervention that runs in parallel with the Scholarship. “This programme is unique among South African accounting departments. We believe that it is vitally important to develop the leadership skills of our top students, who are the leaders of the future.”
In the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (Saica’s) Qualifying Examinations – a prerequisite for BCom (Hons) graduates to become Chartered Accountants – NMMU’s pass rate is typically over 90%. “Saica has singled out the teaching and learning model followed by NMMU’s School of Accounting as the benchmark for other academic departments in this country to emulate.”
Alan Straton
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