Nominations open for VC’s Excellence Awards 2025

Dear colleagues

Each day at the University of Cape Town (UCT), we witness remarkable acts of dedication, innovation and passion among our colleagues. These moments, often carried out quietly behind the scenes or within dynamic teams, are the building blocks of our university’s continued excellence.

As we prepare to honour these contributions, we encourage you to reflect on the people and teams who have inspired you through their commitment and impact. Let’s come together to celebrate their extraordinary efforts by nominating them for the upcoming UCT Staff Awards.

In a world where challenges continue to emerge, UCT remains steadfast – resilient and determined in its commitment to excellence. Drawing from the experiences of 2024, the university has strengthened its leading role in higher education, powered by the dedication and hard work of each member of our valued staff.

It is you – our committed staff – who are the daily driving force behind UCT. Your innovation, dedication and passion not only sustain UCT’s success but also extend far beyond our campus.

As we look back on the past year, we are reminded that excellence is not a destination, but a continual process of growth. As author Angela Duckworth once said: “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” It is through sustained effort and perseverance that true excellence emerges.

Over the past year, the university’s leadership has expressed recognition for your contributions in various ways. The upcoming UCT Awards in November 2025 will offer another opportunity to celebrate those who have gone above and beyond in their service to the university.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards committee affirms that UCT’s strength lies in its collective spirit – teamwork, collaboration, shared purpose and strong leadership. These principles are the foundation of our community’s well-being and the long-term success of the university.

We invite you to nominate individuals or teams who have made a profound impact – whether through transformative change, outstanding service, or by embodying the spirit of global citizenship.

We particularly encourage nominations from our professional, administrative support and services (PASS) staff for the Global Citizenship Award and the Service Excellence Award. All staff engaged in transformation work are invited to apply for or nominate colleagues for the Transformation Award.

Nominees can be individuals or teams.

A brief outline of each of the categories is as follows:

• Service Excellence: Celebrates and recognises outstanding service by staff. For these awards, “service” is interpreted broadly and includes activities, initiatives, practices and/or projects that have contributed to the delivery of exceptional or significantly improved services to UCT’s staff and students, or exceptional voluntary service to the university’s management, governance or statutory committee structures. This award category aligns with the four Service Excellence dimensions of people and culture; policies and processes; solutions and systems; measurement and performance.
  
  Applications for the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Service Excellence will be considered based on exceptional service involving substantial project(s) or activities, an exemplary single project/activity over a shorter timeframe, or exceptional voluntary service to the university’s management, governance or statutory committee structures. For the purposes of this policy, voluntary institutional citizenship is defined as voluntary participation in and representation on the various university management, governance or statutory committee structures. This work is not written into the position description nor performance objectives (nor is implied) and is not an inherent requirement of the position that the staff member is appointed to.
• Global Citizenship: Recognises individuals or teams who have demonstrated excellence in living out the UCT mission through areas of service, the pursuit of knowledge, the dignity of the human being, and contributions to the common good (an award for PASS staff).
• Transformation: Aligns with the strategic plan of the university and our vision for excellence, transformation and sustainability. It is aimed at recognising and encouraging individuals, teams or any collective to take an active role in driving institutional culture change at UCT (an award for all staff).

We are proud of the incredible work done across UCT, and through these awards, we hope to highlight the individuals and teams who continue to inspire and lead by example. Let’s take this opportunity to honour their contributions.

The deadline for submission is Friday, 24 October 2025.

• Read more on the guidelines and criteria for the awards.
• Download the nomination form.
• Submit a nomination.

Sincerely

Professor Mosa Moshabela
Vice-Chancellor

Read previous communications:

• From the UCT Executive
• Campus Announcements