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Dr Shezree Tiel graduates top of her class

13 December 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo Charl Devenish

As she achieved the goals she had set for herself, Dr Shezree Tiel, one of the latest graduates from the University of the Free State (UFS) Faculty of Health Sciences (FoHS), developed the courage to not only define her goals, but aim for even more. This is the reason she graduated not only summa cum laude, but as the top student in her year group.

Dr Tiel was one of 459 students who graduated on Friday (8 December 2023) during the FoHS’s December graduation ceremony. She graduated with a MBChB degree and is one of eight students to do so summa cum laude. During her five years of studies to become a medical doctor, she was the top student in each of her year groups.

“I feel very excited and still in disbelief, because it has been my dream since first year to graduate cum laude, but there were moments I felt I may have to accept that it may not be possible. So, I am very delighted that despite all the challenges I faced, my dream was realised,” she said.

According to her, she decided to study at UFS as it is the only university in South Africa that offered a five-year medical degree.

Building healthier and happier communities

Talking about how she achieved this, Dr Tiel, who will be doing her community service year in her home province of Mpumalanga, said what was consistent throughout her years of study, was the need to avoid a uniform approach to studying. Instead, she continued, she embraced different ways to learn.

Said Dr Tiel: “I embraced different ways to acquire knowledge and used these to identify a method of study that would be best suited for each module, chapter and sometimes each day. Everyday courage, resilience, patience, and perseverance played a vital role in accomplishing all my achievements. In spite of all of this, I will always attribute my achievements to my trust in Christ.”

Her desire to make the best possible use of every opportunity she gets to gain knowledge and the hope to use that knowledge to be useful to people and communities, motivated her on her journey to become a doctor. She decided to study medicine because she aspired to work with people in the pursuit of building healthier and happier communities. She believed that medicine would provide a great foundation and platform to accomplish this.

Though she is yet to decide in which field she would like to specialise one day, she believes it would be in internal medicine because it has always been one of her favourite rotations. “I do hope whichever one I go into will provide me with an opportunity to teach because that is one of the things I delight in.”

News Archive

SA must appoint competent judges

2009-05-08

At the inaugural lecture are, from the left: Prof. Teuns Verschoor, Acting Rector of the UFS, Judge Farlam and Prof. Johan Henning, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the UFS.

Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Ian Farlam has called on the South African government to appoint and continue to appoint competent, fair and experienced judicial officers to sit in the country’s courts.

He also emphasised the need to have an efficient and highly respected appellate division, which rightly enjoys the confidence of all.

Judge Farlam was speaking at the University of the Free State (UFS) where he delivered his inaugural lecture as Extraordinary Professor in Roman Law, Legal History and Comparative Law in the Faculty of Law.

He said there were important lessons that emanated from the study of legal history in the Free State, particularly including the lesson that there were courageous jurists who spoke up for what they believed to be right, and a legislature who listened and did the right thing when required.

“This is part of our South African heritage which is largely forgotten – even by those whose predecessors were directly responsible for it. It is something which they and the rest of us can remember with pride,” Judge Farlam said.

Addressing the topic, Cox and Constitutionalism: Aspects of Free State Legal History, Judge Farlam used the murder trial of Charles Cox, who was accused of killing his wife and both daughters, to illustrate several key points of legal history.

Cox was eventually found guilty and executed, however, the trial caused a deep rift between the Afrikaans and English speaking communities in the Free State.

Judge Farlam also emphasised that the Free State Constitution embodied the principle of constitutionalism, with the result that the Free State was a state where the Constitution and not the legislature was sovereign. He said it was unfortunate that this valuable principle was eliminated in the Free State after the Boer War and said that it took 94 years before it was reinstated.

Judge Farlam added, “Who knows what suffering and tragedy might not have been avoided if, instead of the Westminster system, which was patently unsuited to South African conditions, we had gone into Union in 1910 with what one can describe as the better Trekker tradition, the tradition of constitutionalism that the wise burghers of the Free State chose in 1854 to take over into their Constitution from what we would call today the constitutional best practice of their time?”

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za
8 May 2009

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