By Mzwandile Ndlovu

Three minutes and not a second more – that was the amount of time postgraduate students had to present their master’s or doctoral research in the Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT) that recently took place the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Mahikeng Campus.

Postgraduate students also had the opportunity to participate in the Visualise Your Thesis (VYT) and poster presentation competitions organised by the NWU’s Research and Postgraduate Support Department, in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning.

The event gave honours, master’s and doctoral students from different faculties the opportunity to use and build their research communication skills.

While the 3MT competition challenges postgraduate students to present their research in three minutes, the VYT competition sees students creating videos explaining their research.

In the poster competition, participants present their work visually and in words, showing main points and findings.

The keynote speaker was Gugulethu Ndlovu from the Faculty of Theology, 2024 winner of both the VYT and 3MT competitions.

She shared her experience with the participants: “The prize money was my main motivation, but I gained much more. The prize money has come and gone, but the experience, skills and connections gained through this competition will remain with me.”

Gugulethu, who is a doctoral student, showed her mettle again this year by winning the poster competition in the doctoral category.

Here are the 2025 winners:

3MT master’s category: Lizzy Machuga

3MT doctoral category: Herman Le Roux

VYT competition: Makatu Mashanyu

Poster presentation honours category: Christa Matlou

Poster competition masters category: Lizzy Machuga

Poster competition doctoral category: Gugulethu Ndlovu

Photo: Congratulations to all the winners and participants for their hard work and dedication.