“What is in a name?” William Shakespeare wanted to know.  A young researcher from the North-West University (NWU) knows exactly how important a name is. She is currently believed to be the youngest gnathiid taxonomist in the world, at the forefront of describing these parasites and identifying their names – or the lack thereof.

Dr Anja Erasmus thrives on recording the tiny sea species and listing important information used to identify them. She is one of only a few active gnathiid taxonomists in the world ― the others being in the Philippines, Japan, Australia and Europe.

The eight-year-old Byderhand project of the subject group Creative Writing at the North-West University has been selected to form part of an international hypertext creation exhibition that will take place in Rome soon.

“This is singular international recognition for the subject group Creative Writing, and particularly for the garden-verses arm of the Byderhand project in the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden,” says Prof Bernard Odendaal.

Exhibition offers a glance at hypertext works of more than three decades

On 17 August, Professor Marius Smit from the Faculty of Education delivered his inaugural lecture, titled The symphony of seeds and harvest – harmonising the law, policy, and interventions to cultivate quality education.

In his lecture Prof Smit said that the harmonisation and proper robust application of the law, good policies and interventions can orchestrate an education system that will improve the quality of education in the country.

He illustrated this by highlighting the following points:

The Career Centre at the North-West University (NWU) recently hosted a campus work-readiness session on the Potchefstroom Campus.

Work-readiness sessions have become an integral part of the NWU’s goal to provide companies with the platform to highlight and provide information on job openings and the corporate culture.

The new Covid-19 subvariant EG.5 – also known as Eris – has made its way into South Africa with the first case reported in Gauteng in mid-August.

This after it crossed the borders of China, the United States, South Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Spain.

Dr Hazel Mufhandu, senior lecturer and virologist at the North-West University (NWU), tells us more about Eris.

Without quality oversight, output suffers. Without transparency, deception thrives. Misinformation and misinterpretation are propagated to become the norm as fiction becomes indistinguishable from fact. In a developing country such as South Africa that faces a multitude of challenges, this cannot be allowed.

An example of this is an economy that is increasingly struggling to awake from a prolonged slumber caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, rolling blackouts and widespread corruption in institutions fundamental to the health of the country.

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) People and Culture unit and Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) recently collaborated to host the launch of the university's first Women in Leadership Programme.

The programme launch, themed "How to thrive as an influential woman leader in higher education", took place at Vanderbijlpark Riverside Sun Hotel.

The North-West University (NWU) Eagles netball team keep proving that teamwork makes the dream work during the 2023 FNB Varsity netball tournament.

“The watershed 15th BRICS Summit that took place in Johannesburg had, to its credit, several runs on the scoreboard by the time it concluded last week.”

Prof Raymond Parsons, economist from the North-West University (NWU) Business School, says while the outcomes were inevitably a complex amalgam of politics, economics and business, the overall BRICS profile and agenda have been taken to the next level.

By Phenyo Mokgothu and Lerato Tshweu

North-West University (NWU) Eagles defender Kgopotso Moshapo has emerged as the saviour of his team, delivering clutch performances in two consecutive games during this year's Varsity Football season.

With remarkable headers, he not only secured victory over the Central University of Technology (CUT), but also salvaged a crucial draw against the University of Free State.