Academic News

NWU and UNESCO chair celebrate Open Education Week with prestige lecture and webinar

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a major force driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It will have a profound impact not only on new technological advances, but also on how education and research are taken into the future.

This is why the UNESCO Chair for Multimodal Learning and…

NWU Mahikeng Campus welcomes top-rated researcher

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Mahikeng Campus is proud to welcome Prof Don Kurtz as an extraordinary professor.

Prof Kurtz is based in the United Kingdom and is an A1-rated professor, the highest such rating in the research fraternity.

The…

The NWU’s Tebogo is a Next Generation of Brave winner

North-West University (NWU) student Tebogo Matshehle Monogo was announced as one of the two winners of the Next Generation of the Brave competition facilitated by Adcock Ingram OTC in partnership with News24.

This programme aims to assist healthcare students financially, to provide…

Hate crimes law is needed to protect the LGBT community

The incidence of hate crimes against members of South Africa’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community remains disturbingly high.

This is despite constitutional protection against discrimination and the enactment of various…

Living his dream all the way over in Germany

All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. This is true for Mattheus van Niekerk, an alumnus of the NWU Faculty of Engineering.

Mattheus studied for his BEng Mechanical Engineering degree at the NWU from 2009 to 2012 on…

New book highlights migrants’ mental health challenges

Horrific scenes of migrants who have perished on the high seas while in search of a better life is a too-familiar sight on television screens, online and in newspaper pages. Extreme hunger, repressive governments and ethnic and religious conflicts are cited as among the contributory factors for the crises. A North-West University (NWU) academic…

Study shows how children benefit from physical activity in the classroom

When children are physically active, their brains and bodies benefit. This has again been demonstrated by an eight-country Brain Breaks ® study in which the North-West University (NWU) participated. From the NWU’s side, Prof Dané Coetzee at the School of Human Movement Sciences led the charge. The collective research was published in an article…

Study investigates the root of violence in schools

Teaching is often seen as a calling rather than a career. But that calling quickly turns into a nightmare when teachers are attacked by the very people they are trying to educate. Over the past few years, there have been numerous reports in the media of learners physically assaulting, stabbing and even shooting their teachers. Dr Michael…

Behind the scenes of a pandemic

“A learning experience like no other.” This is how Prof Petra Bester, director of the Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research (AUTHeR) at the North-West University (NWU), describes the unit’s exposure to the inner workings of the North West province’s efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. In the early days of the pandemic, AUTHeR…

NWU researcher investigates role of traditional medicine in skin disorders

Many people rely on traditional plant remedies to treat skin disorders, and now a North-West University (NWU) researcher has investigated why these plants are effective, paving the way for further research by the pharmaceutical industry. “The use of indigenous knowledge in providing primary healthcare, especially in most indigenous African…