Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has awarded the North-West University (NWU) an overall four star rating in its latest assessment. The NWU was previously awarded three stars in 2012. 

Prof Dan Kgwadi, vice-chancellor, says this four star rating confirms the NWU’s progress in realising its dream of becoming an internationally recognised university in Africa. “This rating assists management in accurately determining our progress since our last evaluation.”

The QS rating system is a widely used international evaluation system that assesses universities. It provides students with an impartial, evidence-based rating which can assist them to select a university.

In the latest rating, the NWU were evaluated in the following categories: a specialist subject area; research; teaching, employability; internationalisation; facilities; innovation; and social responsibility.

The NWU scored five stars in the teaching, employability, innovation and facilities categories.

In the category of teaching, students reported a high level of satisfaction both in their overall experience and with our teaching-learning offering.

For employability, the university received full points in the campus employer presence indicator due to the more than 200 companies visiting the NWU’s campuses annually for employability activities.

NWU facilities are exceptional with world-class sporting facilities and a good amount of student accommodation, as well as good information technology infrastructure, student support facilities and a wide variety of student societies.

The NWU is an innovation leader, with at least 50 active patents, over 500 industrial research collaborations and at least five spin-off companies established in the past five years.

The NWU is also ranked amongst the top 5% of universities globally in the Quacquarelli Symonds ranking system.