Ryan du Toit, a PhD student in psychology from the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Health Sciences, will soon leave for Belgium, after he has been selected for an international priority country exchange programme.

The exchange programme comprises a fully paid scholarship, starting in September 2023 until the end of January 2024.

This initiative is part of the Community Psychosocial Research focus area’s (COMPRES) efforts to increase its global footprint.

The North-West University’s (NWU's) Optentia research unit will host a top international scientist, Prof Alexandre JS Morin, on its Vanderbijlpark Campus on 29 May 2023.

Prof Morin will present a hybrid workshop on structural equation modelling, targeted at academics and master’s and PhD students who use quantitative data-analysis techniques to study the validity of models.

By Aldrin Ngorima

A study by the University of Vienna, in collaboration with researchers from South Africa and the United Kingdom, is investigating the different emotional responses bilingual people have towards swear words in their different languages. The study will focus on English-Afrikaans bilingualism, examining the perceptions of swear words and swearing behaviors of English-Afrikaans bilinguals in South Africa. The study aims to measure complex bilingualism and understand why some words may be considered acceptable in one language but not in another.

Article by Nolwazi Xulu and Menziwa Msibi

The Faculty of Health Sciences at the North-West University (NWU), together with the subject groups Biochemistry and Physiology, the Lifestyle Diseases research niche area, and the Mahikeng Campus Health Centre hosted a diabetes drive on 10 May 2023 to raise awareness about preventing and managing diabetes mellitus.

This drive forms part of an inter-faculty registered community engagement project.

Three North-West University (NWU) academics, Dr Sifiso Sibanda, Prof Gideon van Tonder and Prof Washington Dudu are the proud editors of the book Recalibrating teacher training in African higher education institutions: A Focus on 21st-century pedagogical challenges.

The book, which critically examines the role of governments in promoting parity during and in post-pandemic education, is published in open-access format by AOSIS Scholarly Books.

According to Prof Dudu, this comes from the realisation that the pandemic has deepened the crisis.

For centuries small-scale livestock farmers have been relying on plants to ensure the health of their animals, knowledge which could benefit veterinary science.

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) ballroom and Latin dance team on the Mahikeng Campus secured no less than 24 trophies and 14 medals in the South African Dance Federation Championship Super Series that took place at the Springs Civic Centre in Gauteng on 22 April.

More than 30 well-established dance teams participated in the competition, representing community dance studios, as well as university and school teams. Ten couples competed in the Bronze, Silver, Gold Star, Rising Star, and Championship sections of the tournament.

Promoting indigenous African languages as a medium of instruction is imperative if we want to preserve our cultural heritage, improve learning outcomes and reduce language barriers. This was again evident during the 2023 BAQONDE congress, which was held at the North-West University (NWU) from 1 to 5 May.

By Menziwa Msibi

On 5 May 2023 students from the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Mahikeng Campus showed their hearts are in the right place when they reached out to help fellow students in need with their Feed a Student campaign.

The food was donated to a Meal-A-Day project.

This campaign supplements the Meal-A-Day project run across all three of the NWU’s campuses, which gives needy students a month’s supply of essentials, including clothing and toiletries sponsored by Tiger Brands.