It has been 148 years since Frenchman Pierre Babolat took natural gut–derived from cow intestine – to make tennis racket strings. Now, the top-ranked male tennis player at the North-West University (NWU) is using his Babolet Pure Drive racket to run opponents ragged on courts across the country.  

In fact, 20-year-old Johann Coetzee, who studies Business Management at the NWU, has four of these weapons at his disposal to launch his preferred assaults: “My favourite shots are my serve and my forehand,” he explains with glee.

By Sandile Mahlangu

With the country having commemorated Youth Month last month, some North-West University (NWU) students celebrated the event differently this year. Four students from the university got an opportunity to embrace being a young person in our country and shared it with the rest of the world through commercial radio stations – 5FM and OFM.

North-West University PhD candidate Ntokozo Happy Msiza is one of only four young people that have been selected to represent South Africa at an agricultural summer school at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.

The bodybuilding team from the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Vanderbijlpark Campus once again emerged victorious in the national University Sports South Africa (USSA) championship for 2023.

This is the fifth time the team scooped the top spot, despite facing stiff competition from other teams.

This year the event took place at Forte Hare University in the Eastern Cape.

During the fourth Pitso for 2023, Prof Raymond Parsons shared the Policy Uncertainty Index of the NWU Business School for the second quarter, which sparked an insightful discussion on its implications for the economy. The experts delved into the current standing of the index and explored potential remedies for prevailing crises that hinder much-needed economic growth.

The North-West University (NWU) will be hosting the 2023 BRICS Network University Seminar from 5 to 6 July on the NWU’s Potchefstroom Campus.

BRICS is an acronym denoting the various global partnerships between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Learners from the StudyXpress High School in Potchefstroom got the opportunity to see for themselves what types of pollution and climate change enforcers are found in their environment. The group of learners and a science teacher recently visited the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Welgegund atmospheric measurement station for a field lecture on air quality and climate change, in a real environment and with actual measurements.

In a 4IR world, the North-West University (NWU) is ensuring that learners at disadvantaged schools are not left behind and have the tools and knowledge to meet the challenges of the ever-changing world of work.

To this end, the Faculty of Education at the NWU’s Mahikeng Campus has initiated a community project, “A service-learning project for schools’ pedagogical integration of ICTs”.

In an era where food insecurity is a pressing concern, community gardens offer a practical solution by increasing access to fresh, nutritious food. These gardens empower individuals and communities to take control of their food production, reducing dependence on expensive and often unhealthy store-bought alternatives.

All this is captured in the 2023 Nelson Mandela Day theme, which centres on food and nutrition and urges everyone to “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”.

LEGO® bricks in the classroom are proving irresistible to learners and pre-service teachers alike, who discover that play and learning are not so different.

Researchers in the Faculty of Education at the North-West University (NWU) are using the brightly coloured plastic bricks for the practical component of pre-service teacher training programmes. They hope to inspire change and progress in teaching methods within the university student body and the broader community.