First-year students at the Mahikeng Campus of the North-West University (NWU) were received with open arms as new ambassadors of the NWU family.
The vice-chancellor, Prof Dan Kgwadi, officially met with first years at a meet-and-greet on 23 January, highlighting some of the opportunities, predicaments and responsibilities that lie ahead of their journey and stay at the NWU.
In his address, Prof Kgwadi expressed his excitement towards the new recruits. His message not only centred on a form of welcome but he also shared his sentimental personal experiences and upbringing as a form of reference, igniting a mood of hope, restoration and inspiration.
He also touched on the various challenges affecting the progression of the Mahikeng Campus, mainly being circumstances or situations prevailing at a particular time or underlying a particular event leading to a large proportion of students dependent on the national funding scheme. Contextualising the funding crunch, he emphasised the importance of studying very hard in order to penetrate and attract funding from the private sector in order to ease the burden on the university and the government at large.
First-year students were also reminded that taking up the offer to study with the university meant adhering to rules and regulations which result in a peaceful, harmonious and conducive environment for teaching and learning. The vice-chancellor’s welcome address was followed by a #KnowYourCampus campaign whereby students were granted the opportunity of engaging with personnel from the campus’ extra-mural activity fraternity such as: The Album Newspaper, Campus Radio station, Protection services, Health Centre, and the Career, Counselling and Guidance Centre unit.
The first-year orientation and registration programme which is still currently under way enables the new recruits to experience university life first-hand through academic sessions, library tours, human rights talks, community engagement tours and educational discussions which included the responsible use of social media.
To sum up all the educational occurrences, the orientation and registration programme will be wrapped up by a Mr & Miss Orientation pageant followed by an ox braai officially welcoming the first years to the NWU Family.
