Meet the 2014 graduates

If 2014 graduates could give advice to their first-year self, what would it be? Six graduating students share their advice on making it through a degree and their memories of campus life.

Meet Nozipho Mpanza

"It's been quite an adjustment [moving from Durban to Cape Town], but it's been culturally liberating as well. It's such an artistic place."

Meet Sarvesh Balkaran

"The single most important piece of advice [I've received here] is probably not to take no for an answer. It's applicable to my time in student governance here at UCT, as well as in [my] life as a medical professional – sometimes you need to push through and get your way, for the betterment of your patients."

Meet Jonathon Saville

"[To survive the Faculty of Law] you have to know that you're not going to be able to read it all. You have to choose wisely what you're going to read."

Meet Yumnah Richards

"I hope the diversity [at UCT] never, ever changes. It's good to know that every second person you walk into is not from the same cultural background as you. You get to learn a lot about people."

Meet Linda Oniwe

"Sometimes you think you're not actually good enough to be here, but ... being a positive person and basically just being optimistic [really helps]. Whenever I had a downfall, I knew that the only way from the bottom was to go up on top again."

Meet Odwa Ntsika Mtembu

"It was a struggle at first [adjusting to life at UCT as a first-year] because, when I came to Cape Town, that was my first time ... I'd been to other places, but not to Cape Town. So it was a struggle to adjust to the new city, which is bigger than where I'm coming from [in the Eastern Cape]. As time went by, I got the hang of it. Then I was on top of my game."

Are you a graduate with advice to give and stories to tell? Share the excitement of #UCTGrad2014 with us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Stay tuned to UCT's YouTube channel in early 2015 to catch the next instalment from our 2014 graduates, their friends and families.