This year, North-West University (NWU) students showed their mettle during the on-campus qualifying round of the 2023 Hult Prize competition.
This international competition challenges young people to solve the world’s most pressing issues through social entrepreneurship. Every year, the best team globally receives $1 000 000 in funding to make their idea a reality.
Local municipalities in North West have not achieved clean audit reports due to the mismanagement of financial resources. This is according to a research study conducted by Dr Auchalie Mothupi in his PhD studies at the North-West University (NWU).
The title of Dr Mothupi’s thesis was “Developing an accountability framework to enhance management of local municipal finance in the North West Province”.
The early diagnosis of inherited metabolic diseases not only helps to prevent patients from having a lifetime of suffering, it also saves lives.
Metabolic diseases have a variety of life-threatening consequences, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The symptoms of some of these diseases are well-known and do not need intense specialised knowledge to identify. There are also the rare, inherited metabolic diseases that are much more difficult to identify. This is where the Centre for Human Metabolomics (CHM) of the North-West University (NWU) comes in.
The benefits from widespread and equitable access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) in South Africa are touted as having the potential to change the course and trajectory of this country for the better.
Researchers at the North-West University (NWU) share this view and are adamant that schools can serve as a base from which to address the growing digital divide, particularly between well-resourced and impoverished schools.
Contrary to the consensus view expressed by many economists that the repo rate would be raised by only 25 basis points (bsp) on 30 March, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) decided by a 3:2 vote to raise interest rates again by 50 bsp.
In commenting on the decision to increase the repo rate, Prof Raymond Parsons, economist from the North-West University (NWU) Business School, says the MPC majority view sees the risks to inflation on the upside – shaped by both domestic and global factors.
On the surface there is little commonality between the two. One is a predominantly homogenous first-world country with a population of 10,5 million people where you are more likely to see the northern lights than a lanky giraffe. It occupies an area of 447,425 km2 . The other is almost thrice as large. Its contours encapsulates 1,221,037 km2 and within it a diverse population of 60,6 million people live in a developing country at the foot of Africa.
Entrepreneurs should deal with challenges in their own communities, conduct thorough research, and protect their intellectual capital on their way to monetising their unique ideas.
They received this advice recently when the North-West University (NWU) hosted the 4th annual Intellectual Property and Technology Commercialisation Colloquium under the theme: “Driving innovation and positioning Intellectual Property Commercialisation for post Covid-19 pandemic.”
They may sit in opposite hemispheres, but in the global village, borders and boundaries are no inhibitors to cooperation. The South Africa Sweden University Forum (SASUF) is evidence thereof.
From 29 to 31 March, SASUF is hosting its Sustainability Forum at the University of the Western Cape in conjunction with its 40 partner universities – including the North-West University (NWU) - from across Sweden and South Africa.
By Phenyo Mokgothu and Mafumane Tlhapi
The North-West University (NWU) GoAllOut and Golden Key student chapters on its Mahikeng Campus attempted the Guinness World Record for the longest line of sanitary pads on 25 March 2023.
Spanning a distance of 6 km, a total of 60 000 pads were laid in line to advocate against period poverty. This attempt has now been sent to Guinness World Records to evaluate.
Prof Frank Winde, a professor in environmental science at the North-West University (NWU), recently presented a Water Policy Brief at the United Nations (UN) Water Conference that took place at the UN Headquarters in New York.
This was the first global water conference in nearly 50 years and stakeholders across the globe were welcome to attend. Officially known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028), the gathering attracted more than 6 600 delegates from 150 countries.