More than 350 undergraduate graduands from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) at Stellenbosch University (SU) pledged to serve and respect humanity and provide compassionate, effective and ethical healthcare at the annual oath-taking ceremony. This event precedes the graduation ceremony and is a proud tradition of the FMHS.

"We trust that this oath will be the guiding light of your professional career," said FMHS Dean, Prof Jimmy Volmink, referring to the pledge whereby graduands commit themselves to maintaining high ethical, moral and professional standards during their career as health professionals.

This year, 222 medical students and 139 allied health students are graduating at the FMHS.

"I would like to congratulate the class of 2016 on this achievement. What makes it even more special is that this is the largest group of MB,ChB [medical] graduates in the history of the faculty, that has achieved the highest pass rate (96%) and the most number of students graduating with distinction (13) yet," said Volmink.

At the oath-taking ceremony of the allied health students, Prof Hester Klopper, Vice-Rector: Strategic Initiatives and Internationalisation at SU, congratulated the students on successfully completing their studies and commended them for choosing a life devoted to service to others.

She encouraged them to adopt four characteristics to guide their careers: courage; equality; servant leadership; and gratitude.

"I invite you, graduates, to have courage, servant leadership and gratitude and strive towards an equal and just South Africa. You are our hope. Go out and make that difference," said Klopper.

The key-note speaker at the ceremony for MB,ChB students was the TB Proof co-founder, Dr Dalene Von Delft. She is an alumnus of the FMHS who developed multi-drug resistant TB from working with infected patients. After a challenging recovery, Von Delft started advocating for the destigmatisation of TB and safe working practices to protect healthcare workers from the disease.

The top-achieving students in the respective programmes were also announced during the oath-taking ceremony. The top academic achievers are as follows:

• Lara Puchert achieved an average of 78,9% for Occupational Therapy.
• Jolané van Niekerk achieved an average of 79% for Speech-Language and Hearing Therapy.
• Jade Tamarin Jackson achieved an average of 75,62% for Dietetics.
• Danielle Foot achieved an average of 77.35% for Physiotherapy.
• Suzanne Pretorius achieved an average of 83,05% for the MB,ChB programme.

A Dean's Prize was awarded to Chane Lisa-Mae Kulenkampff for the best student research paper, while Zibusiso Mbhele, Suzanne Pretorius and Nabeela Kajee each received a Dean's Medal for, respectively, leadership, best final-year student and best undergraduate student.