The North-West University (NWU) and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) signed a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Friday, 10 March 2023.

This MoU was signed by Prof. Daryl Balia, deputy vice-chancellor for information technology and Potchefstroom Campus operations, alongside Ms Shirley Mlombo, SAHRC provincial manager.

The areas of cooperation for this collaboration include but are not limited to Information sharing, research,advocacy programmatic cooperation, policy formulation, enhancing capacity, investigations and special projects.

Dr Nicolaas Buitendag, a postdoctoral fellow at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Law, recently launched a book titled States of exclusion: A critical systems theory reading of international law.

This open-access scholarly book published by Aosis scrutinises the inclusivity or lack thereof in the historical development of international law.

In the seven-chapter book, Dr Buitendag challenges and problematises the thoughts of many that sovereignty is a good thing that allows communities to take part in international politics.

Rare diseases are more common than you might think. It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Not to the 4,1 million South Africans who have been or will be affected by rare diseases in their lifetime. For many it can be a death sentence, for others it is a life-altering diagnosis. Not only is the North-West University (NWU) committed to ensuring that rare diseases are detected as early as possible, but it also has a myriad of initiatives to combat their effects.

A delegation from Kogakkan University on the island of Mie, Japan, visited the Vanderbijlpark Campus of the North-West University (NWU) from 20 to 24 February 2023 to demonstrate their new team-teaching style – Lesson Study Approach (LSA).

This teaching style, developed by Kogakkan University, is aimed at preservice teachers as part of their work-integrated learning, and incorporates the advantages of both cooperative and individualised teaching.

For children up to seven years old to reach their full potential, early childhood education is essential. Across Africa, many caregivers are grannies and mothers without formal qualifications. Filling this gap is one of several areas for fruitful collaboration between researchers from the North-West University (NWU) and their counterparts in countries such as Zimbabwe.

Dr Marinda Neethling and Dr Susan Greyling of the Faculty of Education visited Zimbabwe in December to collaborate and foster friendships in the field.

Operational risk has been identified as the primary source of reputational risk for South African banks. This is according to new research by Prof Suné Ferreira-Schenk, Finance and Investment professor at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences of the North-West University (NWU).

Though banks have been subject to operational risks for decades, there are compelling reasons to anticipate that operational risk will only increase in the future as regulators demand greater transparency and banks rely more on increased digital technology automation.

Poor service delivery is a problem throughout South Africa, but one North-West University (NWU) academic, Prof Costa Hofisi, is doing something about it. Using his research expertise, he has set his sights on contributing to service delivery improvements in the public sector.   

His research focuses on the extent to which the public sector will be successful in responding to citizens’ demands and improving the quality and innovativeness of public services.

Students’ low performance and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, particularly among women, who are underrepresented in the scientific community, have been a major concern in many countries. This is exacerbated when one views the 2020 UNESCO report, which shows that women account for only 28% of engineering graduates, 40% of computer science graduates and 33% of researchers around the world.

Researchers have found an important piece of the puzzle in the formation of massive stars, also known as protons (stars with a mass that is about eight times or more greater than that of the sun). In the first-ever observational evidence, they have determined that accretion discs around forming protostars have spiral arm structures.

This significant discovery changes the way scientists look at big stars and will likely result in them specifically observing these kinds of arms in the forming discs of massive stars in future studies.

The Indigenous Language Media in Africa (ILMA) research unit of the North-West University (NWU) wants to find out why businesses in African language media are unstable, and what can be done about it.

The research unit hosted an event on 23 February 2023 to engage with relevant stakeholders to discuss the survival, management and economics of African language media.

The director of the ILMA research unit, Prof Abiodun Salawu, says it is important that the university does research that betters the community and is meaningful to them.