Service delivery issues came under the spotlight when the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Vanderbijlpark Campus recently hosted the annual Alumni and Friends Business Breakfast in partnership with the NWU’s bhive Business Enterprise Development Centre (EDC).

This year’s event was themed “Stabilising South Africa through fast-tracking service delivery”, and featured a panel discussion led by internal and external experts who spoke about service delivery issues.

Dr Marelize Vergottini, a senior lecturer in social work at the North-West University (NWU) recently presented a group work framework that is focused on positive discipline for addressing behaviour issues among primary school students from grades 5 to 7.

This was during a social work practice seminar for school social workers hosted by the Gauteng Province Social Development Department on 3 March.

North-West University statistics lecturer Dr Piet Ntema recently presented a paper at the 17th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED2023) in Spain.

He presented the paper from his PhD thesis titled “Feature selection of student(s) at risk of dropout using administrative data at a university in South Africa”. He was among six other participants from South Africa who presented at the conference.

Dr Nicolaas Buitendag, a postdoctoral fellow at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Law, recently launched a book titled States of exclusion: A critical systems theory reading of international law.

This open-access scholarly book published by Aosis scrutinises the inclusivity or lack thereof in the historical development of international law.

In the seven-chapter book, Dr Buitendag challenges and problematises the thoughts of many that sovereignty is a good thing that allows communities to take part in international politics.

North-West University (NWU) Prof Gilbert Motsaathebe was once again invited to be a judge for the Vodacom Journalist of the Year national awards. The awards ceremony took place late last year.

These premier awards recognise the best journalists across the country and across media platforms in various categories such as investigative journalism, politics, lifestyle, features, and innovation. Judges are chosen based on their experience and expertise in journalism and the contribution that they have made to the journalism profession.

A delegation from Kogakkan University on the island of Mie, Japan, visited the Vanderbijlpark Campus of the North-West University (NWU) from 20 to 24 February 2023 to demonstrate their new team-teaching style – Lesson Study Approach (LSA).

This teaching style, developed by Kogakkan University, is aimed at preservice teachers as part of their work-integrated learning, and incorporates the advantages of both cooperative and individualised teaching.

Operational risk has been identified as the primary source of reputational risk for South African banks. This is according to new research by Prof Suné Ferreira-Schenk, Finance and Investment professor at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences of the North-West University (NWU).

Though banks have been subject to operational risks for decades, there are compelling reasons to anticipate that operational risk will only increase in the future as regulators demand greater transparency and banks rely more on increased digital technology automation.

Poor service delivery is a problem throughout South Africa, but one North-West University (NWU) academic, Prof Costa Hofisi, is doing something about it. Using his research expertise, he has set his sights on contributing to service delivery improvements in the public sector.   

His research focuses on the extent to which the public sector will be successful in responding to citizens’ demands and improving the quality and innovativeness of public services.

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Vanderbijlpark Campus recently celebrated the completion of the new Lecture Hall Complex as part of the official academic opening that took place on 23 February 2023.

Positioned at the heart of the campus and designed by multi-award-winning architects Mathews & Associates Architects, the building, comprises four lecture halls – three 252-seaters and one 386-seater – providing a total of 1 142 seats. The building has added 22% more capacity on the campus.

The North-West University (NWU) kicked off the student entrepreneurship season with bootcamps on the Vanderbijlpark and Potchefstroom campuses on 15 and 16 February.

Volunteers from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, NWU Business School, Technology Transfer and Innovation Support Office (TTIS), and bhive Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) presented the bootcamps, which were sponsored by the TTIS.

These bootcamps comprise a two-day programme on how to develop an idea or solution into a social or commercial business and pitch it to investors.