By Oldrin Masowa

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) School of Agricultural Sciences hosted its first ever Agri-Career fair on 19 October on the Potchefstroom Campus.

During the event, final-year students presented the findings of their soil science research and had the opportunity to network with the agricultural industry.

“The aim of the fair is to prepare students for the world of work to expose them to new agricultural skills and technology,” says senior lecturer in Agricultural Sciences, Dr George van Zyl.

By Oldrin Masowa

Where words fail to deliver the message, music becomes the answer. The North-West University’s (NWU’s) School of Music hosted its annual Bursary Winners’ concert to recognise and honour its students for their achievements on 25 October.

Bursaries were awarded to both undergraduate and postgraduate full-time music students, as well as conservatory students who are enrolled for extra-curricular music lessons.

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) School of Management Sciences, in partnership with ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA), recently hosted a guest lecture for undergraduate BCom safety management students and lecturers at the Vanderbijlpark Campus.

Mr Dieter Sauer, AMSA senior manager for health and safety, together with Lesley Ramela, AMSA GMR 2.1 certificated engineer, presented the lecture titled “Safety Management and Legal Compliance within AMSA”.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s selection committee has recently awarded Dr Brews Soyapi, a senior lecturer at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Law, a Georg Forster Research Fellowship for postdoctoral research.

Computers are becoming essential in modern society with a tremendous influence on how humans create and solve problems. The North-West University's (NWU’s) Intelligent Systems research group is on a mission to develop next-generation solutions that will help solve transportation problems using technology.

Researchers of the North-West University (NWU) regularly work in communities to improve lives and find solutions to pressing issues. In the fight against breast cancer, a hospital in Potchefstroom has called on the expertise of the Medicine Usage in South Africa (MUSA) research entity in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

The advent of social media has had a huge effect on teaching and learning, but relatively little is known about the pros and cons of using social media in the classroom.

This is according to Dr Thamie Ndlovu, an educational technologist at the North-West University (NWU), whose PhD study investigated the use of social media as a tool for teaching and learning in higher education.

Prof Alfred Brunsdon from the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Theology recently received a C2-rating from the National Research Foundation. What makes this recognition noteworthy is the niche area of his research which is discrepancies between academic content and cultural contexts of African theology students.

More than 100 000 people in South Africa have turned to the waste-picking sector as a source of employment. This is according to Nonhlanhla Ngcobo, a PhD student and a researcher at the South African Chair in Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability in the Faculty of Law at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Potchefstroom Campus.

“The slow economic growth rate in South Africa does not bring hope to the 31% of people currently unemployed, especially those with very low levels of education and skills,” she says.

One of the most challenging anxieties of the 21st century is safeguarding food security for the world’s exponential growing population, as stipulated by goal 2 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to projections, the global food demand is expected to rise between 60 to 98% by 2050, with a population of more than 9 billion.