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UFS celebrates 96% South African Institute of Chartered Accountants IAC pass rate

01 September 2025 | Story Tshepo Tsotetsi | Photo Dr Reabetswe Parkies

BAccHons and PGDip graduates — Prof Frans Prinsloo, Head of the UFS School of Accountancy, with some of the proud 2024 BAccHons and PGDip (Chartered Accountancy) graduates who contributed to the School’s outstanding 96% pass rate in the June 2025 Initial Assessment of Competence (IAC).

The University of the Free State (UFS) has once again affirmed its position as one of the country’s leading institutions in accounting education. In the June 2025 Initial Assessment of Competence (IAC) by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), UFS graduates from the 2024 BAccHons and PGDip (Chartered Accountancy) programmes achieved an exceptional 96% pass rate. This performance stands well above the national throughput of 76% across both the January and June sittings, confirming the university’s reputation for producing work-ready Chartered Accountants (CAs).

This achievement in the IAC – previously known as the Initial Test of Competence (ITC) – not only showcases the quality of teaching and learning at UFS but also echoes the recent SAICA endorsement visit, during which evaluators commended the School of Accountancy for cultivating confident, competent graduates ready to contribute to both the profession and the South African economy.

Driving excellence through vision and innovation

Reflecting on the results, Prof Frans Prinsloo, Head of the School of Accountancy, emphasised that this success confirms the School’s long-standing commitment to excellence and innovation. “Exceeding the national average by such a significant margin reinforces that our programmes are developing highly competent and sought-after Chartered Accountants. This achievement places UFS among the leading institutions in South Africa for producing high-quality graduates,” he said.

Prof Prinsloo attributed the outcome to the unwavering dedication of staff who, as highlighted by SAICA’s endorsement team, “go above and beyond” to support student success. He also pointed to a range of initiatives that have created an enabling environment for achievement, from a humanising pedagogy that prioritises student voices and dynamic learning communities, to early intervention strategies and an academic trainee programme that provides peer support through consultations and small-group sessions. “We are not just delivering a curriculum; w are fostering a culture of learning, growth, and achievement,” Prof Prinsloo added.

Prof Phillipe Burger, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, said the results reflect the faculty’s broader vision of preparing leaders who can excel in both business and society. “We are preparing leaders for tomorrow, and education is the key to that. Corporate leadership requires technical expertise, but also resilience, adaptability, and the ability to work as part of a team. All of this we pack into our CA programme,” he explained.

Prof Burger also highlighted the faculty’s national role in shaping the profession through ongoing collaboration with SAICA and industry, ensuring that graduates remain relevant and highly employable. He noted the remarkable growth in the faculty’s accounting programmes, with the BAcc enrolling four times as many new first-year students this year compared to five years ago, alongside a significant increase in the average Admission Point (AP) scores of incoming students. “This growth, combined with rising admission standards, is testament to the quality of our programmes and the confidence that students and parents have in what we offer,” Prof Burger said.

As UFS celebrates this milestone, both leaders agree that the achievement belongs not only to the graduates but to the entire learning community. The outstanding 96% pass rate signals the university’s continued success in producing Chartered Accountants who are academically excellent, ethically grounded, and ready to make an impact in South Africa and beyond.

News Archive

“You cannot find Ubuntu in a culture of dominance” – Dr Mamphela Ramphele during second Leah Tutu Gender Symposium

2015-02-28

From the left are: Samantha van Schalkwyk, Zanele Mbeki, Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela and Dr Mamphela Ramphele.
Photo: Johan Roux

Video message from Mrs Leah Tutu

Session 1: Keynote address by Dr Mamphela Ramphele
Ndiyindoda! Yes, you are a man

Session 2: Professor Robert Morrell from the University of Cape Town
South African Gender Studies: Setting the context

Session 3: How can we engage young men to act against violence against women?
Panel discussion by Lisa Vetten (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research), Despina Learmonth (Psychology Department, University of Cape Town) and Wessel van den Berg (Sonke Gender Justice)

Session 4: Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
Self-defence as a strategy for women’s resistance: Reflections on the work of Susan Brison

Engaging men to act against gender-based violence in the Southern African context.

This was the theme of the second International Leah Tutu Symposium, hosted by the Gender Initiative of Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Studies of the University of the Free State (UFS) on Tuesday 24 February 2015.

What does it mean to be man? How can men become active in the fight against gender-based violence? And when does one say: enough is enough? Questions like these set the tone as highly-respected individuals such as Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Prof Rob Morrell, Lisa Vetten and Andy Kawa took to the stage in the Odeion on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Leah Tutu
Unfortunately, Mrs Leah Tutu could not attend this year’s event, but she still managed to send sparks of wit and insight into the auditorium. In her video message, Mrs Tutu referred to the fact that our country has “consigned discriminatory legislation to the rubbish bin of the past”, but we continue to inhabit a divided society.

“We have a constitution and bill of rights that should have sounded the death knell for patriarchy. But women are unsafe across the land,” Mrs Tutu said. “Our freedom cost too much to be left out in the rain,” she urged.

Ndiyindoda! Yes, you are a man
In Dr Ramphele’s keynote address, “Ndiyindoda! Yes, you are a man”, she scrutinised the dominant masculinity model that has supported an alpha-male mentality for millennia. A mentality that celebrates dominance, power and control – where the winner takes it all. How then, can we expect our young boys to embrace the value system of a human rights culture?

“Gender equality is at the heart of our constitutional democratic values. Yet, our society continues to privilege and celebrate the alpha male as a masculinity model,” Dr Ramphele said. This dissonance can only produce conflict and violence.

We encourage our young men to be gentle, communicative, caring people who show their emotions. And when they do, what do we as women do? Do we encourage them?

“Or do we join those who call them wimps, moffies, sissies? How do we respond when they are ridiculed?” Dr Ramphele asked. Are we, as mothers, fathers and grandparents willing to socialise our children to acknowledge a diversity of masculinities as equally valid in our society?

The new man and the new woman of the 21st century need to be liberated from the conflict-ridden dominant masculinity model. They need to be able to shape their identity in line with a value system of human rights as enshrined in our constitution.

Perhaps Dr Ramphele’s message could be summed up by one sentence: You cannot find Ubuntu in a culture of dominance.

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