There are words that tie the tongue in knots. They confound the abilities of the learned; they separate the novice from the expert at spelling bees. They even change lives. At the North-West University (NWU), one of these words is “pharmacoepidemiology”, and it refers to a field that is enriching the health of the population of southern Africa.

It is again time for students to don their judicial robes for the popular annual NWU-Juta Mock Trials competition.

This year’s competition promises to be especially exciting, with the semi-finals and final taking place on 6 and 7 August respectively in the North West High Court in Mahikeng. The opening function will be hosted on 4 August.

“This will also be the first year that all four our semi-finals will take place simultaneously, bringing all the action to the courtrooms at the same time,” says Adv René Koraan, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law.

The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) at the North-West University (NWU) hosted a successful fourth workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL) in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

A group of linguistics and language practice students from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) recently attended an online workshop with staff from the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) to learn more about the career possibilities in the field of digital humanities.

This one-day externship – an online internship – took place on 14 June 2023 via Zoom, and offered the students a different perspective on the types of careers they could follow once qualified.

It has been 148 years since Frenchman Pierre Babolat took natural gut–derived from cow intestine – to make tennis racket strings. Now, the top-ranked male tennis player at the North-West University (NWU) is using his Babolet Pure Drive racket to run opponents ragged on courts across the country.  

In fact, 20-year-old Johann Coetzee, who studies Business Management at the NWU, has four of these weapons at his disposal to launch his preferred assaults: “My favourite shots are my serve and my forehand,” he explains with glee.

By Sandile Mahlangu

With the country having commemorated Youth Month last month, some North-West University (NWU) students celebrated the event differently this year. Four students from the university got an opportunity to embrace being a young person in our country and shared it with the rest of the world through commercial radio stations – 5FM and OFM.

Learners from the StudyXpress High School in Potchefstroom got the opportunity to see for themselves what types of pollution and climate change enforcers are found in their environment. The group of learners and a science teacher recently visited the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Welgegund atmospheric measurement station for a field lecture on air quality and climate change, in a real environment and with actual measurements.

In an era where food insecurity is a pressing concern, community gardens offer a practical solution by increasing access to fresh, nutritious food. These gardens empower individuals and communities to take control of their food production, reducing dependence on expensive and often unhealthy store-bought alternatives.

All this is captured in the 2023 Nelson Mandela Day theme, which centres on food and nutrition and urges everyone to “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”.

LEGO® bricks in the classroom are proving irresistible to learners and pre-service teachers alike, who discover that play and learning are not so different.

Researchers in the Faculty of Education at the North-West University (NWU) are using the brightly coloured plastic bricks for the practical component of pre-service teacher training programmes. They hope to inspire change and progress in teaching methods within the university student body and the broader community.

Lize-Mari Loots, a first-year BSc dietetics student at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Potchefstroom Campus, recently earned recognition as one of the top students in the prestigious National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Brilliants Programme.