“The slightly better news on the unemployment front is a welcome trend, as it comes after a prolonged period of persistent deterioration in South African employment levels in recent times.”

In commenting on the latest unemployment figures for the first quarter of 2022, Prof Raymond Parsons, economist from the Business School of the North-West University (NWU), says to a large extent this development follows South Africa’s strong economic recovery in 2021 from the pandemic lockdowns, and should be viewed in the light of the inevitable time lags.

The battle against the scourge of fraud and corruption plaguing South Africa is raging and the country needs a brave new generation of forensic accountants ― of whom there is currently a dire shortage ― if it wants to win the fight.

Disadvantaged youth are at the forefront of the push against corruption through a new partnership that will address the shortage of forensic accountants. The partners are the NWU, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund (TEUF) of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).

The North-West University (NWU) is proud to be a value-driven institution and is currently busy with a campaign to relaunch the values that guide staff, students and other stakeholders.

The campaign kicked off in March 2022 with a cook-off held for the University Management Committee (UMC) and an official launch in the form of a gala evening.

The process leading up to this official launch started a while ago, however, and a lot of hard work has been done to reach this point.

Kicking-off the process

World Intellectual Property Day is annually celebrated on 26 April, under the auspices of the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). This year’s theme was “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future”.

This year, the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Technology Transfer and Innovation Support (TTIS) office – who are the custodians of intellectual property (IP) at the university – led the celebrations at the three NWU campuses with fun-filled educational events between 20 April and 12 May.

Ikateleng, a long-running scholar support project of the North-West University (NWU), has received another R2,9 million from the Eskom Development Foundation.

To celebrate the generous donation, the foundation’s CEO, Cecil Ramonotsi, recently joined the NWU’s acting vice-chancellor, Prof Linda du Plessis, at the Ikateleng Centre at the Dr Molefi Oliphant Secondary School in Bophelong.

It is with great sadness that the North-West University (NWU) has learned about the passing of lecturer and political analyst, associate professor Barry Rhulani Hanyane.

He died on Wednesday, 11 May at the Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg after being sick for some time.

Prof Hanyane from the Faculty of Humanities’ School of Government Studies was a revered and esteemed specialist with a keen research interest in public management and administration.

The acting vice-chancellor of the North-West University (NWU), Prof Linda du Plessis, clearly sets the example after she was awarded her second doctorate in 2020, and has also been praised for the quality of her study by two international academic institutions and associations.

The North-West University (NWU) continues to shine in global rankings. In the latest rankings, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) placed the NWU in the top 4,5% of universities in their 2022/2023 edition of the Global 2000 list. This is an improvement from being in the top 4,7% in last year’s ranking.

This outstanding achievement was published on 25 April on the cwur.org website. The NWU was ranked according to academic performance among 19 788 universities worldwide.

Phenyo Mokgothu

The Technology Transfer & Innovation Support (TTIS) Office at the North-West University (NWU) will be hosting events at all three NWU campuses to celebrate World Intellectual Property (IP) Day this year.

Bertie Jacobs