Despite the many challenges that students had to face during the Covid-19 pandemic, the prospective chartered accountants at the North-West University (NWU) did exceptionally well in their ITC (Initial Test of Competence).

The results from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) put the NWU in the fourth position countrywide out of 18 universities, with only a one per cent difference between the second and fourth positions.

Ninety-five per cent of the NWU’s SAICA first-time candidates and 100% of the NWU's ICAN (Namibia) first-time candidates passed the April 2021 ITC exam. The average first-time pass rate for the country is 70%.

When all candidates are considered (not just first-time writers), the NWU achieved the third highest pass rate and achieved the second-highest total marks in the country for the exam.

According to Prof Nico van der Merwe, programme leader of Chartered Accountancy, 124 candidates from the NWU passed the SAICA and ICAN exams. “This is by far the highest number in the history of the NWU and it would be safe to say that we can now be considered as one of the 'big' universities when it comes to CA numbers.”

The NWU delivered two SAICA Top 10 candidates, namely Christi-Ann Judeel (second) and Natasha de Wet (fifth), as well as two ICAN Top 5 candidates, Simaneka Shikongo (first) and Paulus Amuthenu (third).

Nico says their Thuthuka (SAICA bursary) students achieved an 89% pass rate, and the NWU delivered 26 African, Coloured and Indian first-time passes – also the highest number in the history of the NWU.

He thanked all his colleagues in the School of Accounting Sciences who had worked together as a team to make such great results possible.