The North-West University’s (NWU’s) School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resource Management (IPS & HRM) recently hosted an academic networking brunch with academics from the University of Johannesburg (UJ), WITS University and the University of Pretoria.

The purpose of the event was to build research collaborations, get more moderators and examiners, and to ensure that the school benchmarked well against other universities.

Zama Chaacha, senior administrative assistant and the initiator of the event, said the get-together was inspired by the need for younger staff to broaden their external academic networks, to learn more about the different university programmes in the IPS & HRM field, as well as the need to expand research collaborations within the school.

Dr Nelesh Danpat, deputy head of the department Industrial Psychology and People Management at UJ, says the event was a great opportunity and that they had good conversations that will open the door to further networking and collaboration.

“The event was undoubtedly a great success and we will definitely plan to have more networking sessions,” says Zama.

Academics from the University of Johannesburg, WITS University and the University of Pretoria joined NWU colleagues for a networking session.