Women are putting roots down in agriculture

Women form the backbone of many rural economies and play an important role in poverty reduction and food security according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Dr Morategi Mojanaga, North-West University (NWU) alumna and chief animal health technician at the Gauteng Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, says women…

Putting edible insects on the menu

While many people cringe at the thought of consuming bugs, entomophagy – the term for eating insects – has been practised for hundreds of years in South Africa.

In the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, flying ants, grasshoppers, mopane worms, African metallic wood-boring beetles and edible stinkbugs are delicacies.

However…

The plastic problem: NWU researchers highlight major data gaps

Our oceans are choking on plastic debris. In fact, marine plastic debris is one of the most pressing environmental concerns facing the world today, with devastating effects for both humans and the environment.

But just how big a culprit is South Africa?

Prof Henk Bouwman, from the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of…

NWU takes on pandemic on many fronts

The disruptive Covid-19 pandemic has not sidetracked the North-West University’s (NWU’s) researchers and academics from using their expertise to the benefit of society.

NWU staff and students have been involved in various pandemic-related projects. These range from involvement in communities to finding workable solutions in the fight…

Prof runs 1 100 laps to help alleviate hunger

On the morning of 24 April, Prof Dewald van Niekerk, laced up his running shoes and started running around his house in Potchefstroom. The time was 10:30. When he finally stopped to unlace his shoes, twenty-four hours and ten minutes later, he’d circled his house 1 100 times to clock a distance of 110km.

Dewald, together with…

New NWU voice for popular radio programme

The North-West University has for years been an informative and entertaining presence on the very popular weekly environmental radio programme, Omgewingspraatjies. This tradition continues with a new expert following in the footsteps of his NWU colleagues.

Ruhann Steyn, a researcher and lecturer who is currently also busy with his…

NWU hopes to stem CORONA’s surge

COVID-19. A denomination for a world epidemic that will live in infamy. In 1918 one-third of the world’s population became infected with a virus we now call the Spanish Flu. Millions died. More suffered. Endless story of those fateful years will forever be told.  

COVID-19 is the newest iteration of an age-old foe that…

Teaching and learning go online as NWU takes education to people

The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally disrupted teaching-learning activities in South Africa and across the globe. It also challenges how we think about education and assessment, in general.

“Disruptions are opportunities to reflect on assumptions made about teaching, learning and learners,” says Prof Robert Balfour, the North-…

NWU and Makwassie Spruit Enterprises sign MOU

With the youth unemployment rate in South Africa reaching a record time high, the North-West University (NWU) is pulling out all the stops to ensure that its students are employable after attaining their qualifications.

During 2019, 20 BSc Agriculture students spent numerous hours at Makwassie Spruit Enterprises, a large farming…

NWU alumnus’ project impresses at Royal Academy of Engineering

North-West University (NWU) Alumnus Sydwell Sihlangu recently attended the Leaders in Innovation Fellowship training programme on technology commercialisation from 18 January to 1 February 2020 at the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom.

This academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across…