The Mahikeng Campus of the North-West University (NWU)  held its official campus opening to kick-start the 2017 academic year on 10February 2017. The  Great Hall was the place to be as students, staff, members of the community and management attended the event.

Three strong streams indeed stood and flowed united as acting campus rectors of the Potchefstroom and Vanderbijlpark Campus - Prof Fika Janse van Rensburg and Prof Linda du Plessis respectively, shared gifts with students of the Mahikeng Campus as a token of building a unitary institution of excellence.

The Mahikeng Campus rector, Prof Mashudu Davhana-Maselesele, delivered her key note address which touched on the predicaments and achievements the campus has experienced thus far, highlighting how the campus has sailed from scars to starts given the #FeesMustFall crunch which took all South African universities by storm last year. "The start of 2016 was not smooth sailing and we all know how it turned out. Without putting emphasis on that, as a campus we managed to complete the 2016 academic year successfully and on 15January we again had the privilege of welcoming new first years from across the country. Despite severe financial challenges, we managed to reach our target for first-year students." She thanked all staff members and various stakeholders of the campus for their continious hard work.

To wrap up the day’s proceedings she ended her address with a quote from mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead: "The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order," and thanked all stakeholders for being true ambassadors and change agents in transforming and positioning the Mahikeng Campus on a global scale.