The Occupational Hygiene and Health Research Initiative (OHHRI) at the North-West University (NWU) has once again showcased the outstanding calibre of its postgraduate students at the Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene (SAIOH) Annual Conference 2024. This prestigious event, which was recently held in Gaborone, Botswana, gathers top talent and professionals in occupational hygiene and rewarded three NWU students for their excellence in research, publications and presentations: Monica Young, Marelizé van Ree, and Nadia Botha.

Self-directed learning can make the process of learning more enjoyable and allow students to personalise the learning experience, which is empowering and motivating.

Prof Elsa Mentz, director of the Research Unit Self-Directed Learning from the North-West University (NWU), is a true advocate for self-directed learning in higher and school education. She firmly believes that it not only enables students to take responsibility for their own learning, but also equips them with the necessary skills for both the 21st century and 4th Industrial Revolution.

They are too often forgotten and relegated to an afterthought – their plight unheard, their future uncertain. They are the women in South Africa’s low- and middle-income communities who suffer from perinatal mental health issues, and the North-West University (NWU) is putting their needs in the spotlight.

Crop production in South Africa is overshadowed by storm clouds, and not the type that farmers crave. A multitude of uncertainties combine to darken prospects for the country’s crop farmers, which include climate change, water shortages, soil degradation, disease, economic instability and infrastructure and energy restrictions.

That is why researchers at the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences of the North-West University (NWU) pursue active solutions for the country’s most critical agricultural issues.

"Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation."

These words by Noam Chomsky encapsulate the core of SADiLaR’s mission - harnessing the creative potential of language and technology to shape the future of South Africa’s indigenous languages.

The 2024 final-year Nursing students at the North-West University (NWU) recently took the spotlight as they displayed their research projects during the undergraduate research day, which took place on the Potchefstroom and Mahikeng campuses on separate days.

In a world of extreme climate change where air pollution is rife and people’s health is at stake, it has become paramount to predict the impact of chemical processes within the Earth’s atmosphere to plan measures for the future. A researcher at the North-West University (NWU) has made it his life’s labour to study atmospheric sciences.

The Speaker of the North West Provincial Legislature, Desbo Mohono, recently graduated from the North-West University (NWU) with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Agricultural Economics. The degree was conferred at a graduation ceremony held on the Potchefstroom Campus on 28 November 2024.

He has found a home away from home. Prof Paul Smit, associate professor for Labour Relations Management at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the North-West (NWU), has been elected to Life Membership of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, during their most recently held governing body meeting.

Clare Hall is a college for advanced study at the University of Cambridge.

Smit has an extensive collaborative history with the United Kingdom based university, having been a visiting fellow with Clare Hall earlier in the year.

Prof Frances Siebert from the subject group Botany at the North-West University (NWU) was recently invited to publish in the Annual Reviews journal series.

This paper is the first from the NWU’s Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management (UESM) in this highly regarded publication series on ecology, evolution and systematics.