Several lecturers from the Global, Innovative, Forefront, Talent (GIFT) Management research niche area in the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (FEMS) will soon depart for Hungary, courtesy of funding received from the European Union’s Erasmus funding programme.

According to Prof Anna-Marie Pelser, associate research professor and GIFT director, funding was sourced in January 2020, but unfortunately, the war between Russia and Ukraine delayed the finalisation of the funding grant.

“We were informed in November 2022 that we qualified to be granted the Erasmus funding by the University of Miskolc (UM) in Hungary. The fund is for three years - from June 2022 until July 2025,” she says.

The UM signed an MoU with the NWU in January 2020 and suggested that the NWU jointly apply with them for the Erasmus funding opportunity, as they have successfully applied for this funding with other universities for years now. The NWU is the first university in Africa to ever qualify for such a prestigious funding.

Value and contribution of the Erasmus funding to GIFT

“This international collaboration will assist GIFT to meet its obligations by making substantial positive contributions to the faculty, thus synchronising and fulfilling its mission to be in line with that of the NWU - to produce high-quality, relevant, and focused research and international collaboration,” explains Prof Pelser.

Structure of the exchange programme

Under this three-year programme of collaboration, five lecturers and four students from the NWU will visit the UM, and in return, the same number of lecturers and students from the UM will also visit the NWU.

Further additional Erasmus funding was also granted and is valid for only five months. A total of four lecturers and two students will benefit under this funding. The same number of lecturers and students from the UM will again reciprocate this exchange.

“The exchange programme sees the lecturers from both countries visiting a host university for one week, while the master’s students will visit for three or four months,” says Prof Pelser. Lecturers and students from the NWU’s three campuses will be represented.

Tentative programme of events
The tentative programme is still being worked on to incorporate more activities:

• Meeting with the dean
• Talent management workshops with the head of Hantos College and students (main talent management organisation).  
• Meeting with the student competition manager, who will give insight into their science talent management competition.  
• Meeting with the leader of the Pro-skill project (a major project) who will share his experiences.
• A guided city tour
• Meeting with faculty colleagues who have similar areas of expertise or research topics.

First batch of beneficiaries of the funding

These pioneer staff members will be leaving for Hungary and will pave the way for others to follow.

• Prof Ntebo Moroke, Deputy Dean: Research and Innovation
• Prof Dan Metsileng, Deputy Director: School of Economic Sciences
• Dr Dorcas Lesenyeho, Deputy Director: School of Industrial Psychology (IPS) and Human Resources Management (HRM)
• Prof Anna-Marie Pelser, Director: GIFT research entity

About GIFT

GIFT is a research niche area that focuses on talent management which deals with recruiting, developing, training and the retention of employees.  
The entity aims to innovate, develop, and implement research knowledge from a multi-disciplinary perspective to provide a holistic and integrated understating of talent management in the following areas:

• Global and strategic talent management
• Innovative talent management technologies (e-talent management)
• Forefront talent risk management and assessment
• Talent value proposition and talent branding

Prof Anna-Marie Pelser, director of the NWU research niche area GIFT, says the NWU is extremely thankful to be selected as part of the Erasmus funding programme.