by Phaphama Tshisikhawe
The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is gearing up for its highly anticipated 2024/2025 Academic Excellence Awards, scheduled for 5 November 2025. The prestigious ceremony will serve as a platform to launch the institution’s bold vision of becoming South Africa’s leading entrepreneurial university.
TUT’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Tinyiko Maluleke, described the event as a rapturous ode to the tenacity of the most diligent, prolific, innovative academics in any given year. He added that the upcoming event will recognise, encourage and inspire both the 2024/2025 recipients of the awards, as well as those who aspire to receive these awards in the future.
TUT’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Tinyiko Maluleke (right), with Dr Emily Mabote, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Digital Transformation, who received an award for ‘Service Beyond the Call of Duty’ in 2024.
He added: “With pride we welcome the brand-new cohort of the 2025 exceptional awardees – they are the epitome of the entrepreneurial university we are becoming. Do not go gentle into that good night,” he urged the awardees, quoting Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, one of the most ferocious poets of the 20th century's famous words.
Prof Maluleke emphasised the importance of global benchmarks and urged academics to strive beyond institutional recognition: “While internal TUT recognition is an important springboard, what every academic should pursue relentlessly, is to be recognised for their excellence by institutions and entities external to TUT – such as the Sunday Times Book Prize, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, the NRF Awards, the Grammy Awards, the national and international academies of science, up to the Nobel Prize committee. That is the future that beckons.”
The event marks a defining moment in TUT’s transformation, positioning the university as a hub of academic excellence and a leader in entrepreneurship-driven education and innovation.