North-West University (NWU) academic Prof Sithandiwe Mazibuko-Mbeje was able to indulge in a number of her passions last year when she was awarded a University Capacity Development Grant to visit Università Politecnica delle Marche in Italy.

Since October 2022, Prof Mazibuko-Mbeje has been working under Prof Luca Tiano, who specialises in oxidative stress, inflammation, metabolic disease and skin aging. This is a perfect opportunity for Prof Mazibuko-Mbeje, who is researching on mycotoxins and oxidative stress in various cell lines.

Dr Sean McCallaghan, recently appointed director for student life on the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Vanderbijlpark Campus, says his vision for Student Life is to continue creating a differentiating and inclusive environment for students.

Dr McCallaghan, who holds a PhD in business administration and management from the NWU, will assume his role on 1 March 2023, succeeding the late Jacob Simango who passed away in June last year.

Admired for his readiness to mentor and support students, his appointment has been widely welcomed by the university community.

The 2023 Budget speech was a surprise-free, pragmatic and credible response to a challenging set of global and domestic economic circumstances.

Prof Raymond Parsons, an economist from the North-West University (NWU) Business School, commented on the 2023 Budget introduced to parliament by the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana.

“Although having received some windfall tax-revenue gains, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana still had a difficult balancing act given the political and economic constraints within which he had to shape fiscal policy.”

On Friday, 20 February 2023, the North-West University (NWU) and the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate with the Vaal Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

This is to ensure that Gauteng investors and industry players in high technology sectors are supported in the development of new technologies, applied research and innovation and technical skills sets.

North-West University (NWU) staff members have demonstrated a tremendous ethic of care, kindness and support for a colleague who suffered losses due to the recent floods that wreaked havoc in many parts of the Vaal area.

Olé, Olé, Olé! Now that got the blood flowing, didn’t it? The North-West University (NWU) Eagles clawed their way to a 41-28 win over the University of Johannesburg (UJ) on Monday night in Potchefstroom after having their feathers ruffled by the visitors from Johannesburg in the first half.

In doing so, the Eagles got their 2023 Varsity Cup campaign off to a splendid start, scoring six tries to their opponents’ three. Still, as stated, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. UJ led 18-15 going into the break after Eagles’ flanker Gustav Erlank was sinbinned in the 15th minute.

On 27 January 2023 the Netherlands' education and science attaché in South Africa paid a visit to the Optentia research unit of the North-West University (NWU).

Berto Bosscha met with senior management to share information on the newly created position of education and research attaché at the Netherlands Embassy in South Africa.

According to Prof Ian Rothmann, director of Optentia, Berto also took the opportunity to learn more about education and research at the NWU.

Over the past five years, the Optentia research unit of the North-West University (NWU) has conducted various research projects about sustainable employment, specifically using the Capability Model of Work.

Prof Jac van der Klink, an extraordinary professor at Optentia, recently delivered a prestigious lecture in support of this research. In his lecture titled “The Sound of Justice”, he examined social justice from the perspective of contributive justice - in contrast to distributive justice.

On 23 February the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences will be hosting a public lecture conducted by A-rated researcher and extraordinary professor, Prof Don Kurtz.

The topic of the lecture is “Venus – Earth’s Evil Twin”.

People often refer to Venus as the beautiful, bright “evening star”, but in fact it is a rocky planet that is a near twin to Earth in size.

“However, Venus is 30% closer to the Sun, and that makes all the difference,” says Prof Kurtz.

North-West University (NWU) academic in the African Centre for Disaster Studies, Prof Livhuwani Nemakonde says the heavy rainfall experienced in South Africa in recent weeks is due to a combination of factors.

“Climatologists have indicated that this is because of the La Niña phenomenon. La Niña (Spanish for little girl) is the opposite of an El Niño (little boy), which usually predicts low rainfall for South Africa.