North-West University (NWU) extraordinary professor Linda Godfrey has been elected as an International Fellow of the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) in the United Kingdom.

This is the second key role she has had within the ambit of the RAEng. For the past four years, Prof Godfrey has served on the Board of the Academy’s Safer End of Engineered Life Programme, which aims to improve safety in the decommissioning of engineering products, structures and infrastructure.

North-West University (NWU) alumnus Andries van Heerden is the chief executive officer of Afrimat Limited, a JSE-listed company that supplies iron ore, anthracite, phosphate, construction materials and industrial minerals across Southern Africa.

“I started as a first-year mechanical engineering student in Potchefstroom in 1984,” he recalls. His studies took him to the NWU’s Vaal Campus, where he graduated in 1988.

Reflecting on his time at university, he says: “I think my dream to become a successful entrepreneur was really born during the two years in Vanderbijlpark.”

On 10 June 2025, Prof Mzubanzi Bismark Tyobeka, principal and vice-chancellor of the North-West University (NWU), led a senior academic delegation on a strategic two-week mission to Brazil and Peru. The objective: to deepen global partnerships in higher education and research.

North-West University (NWU) is playing an important role in the newly launched Palladium Global Science Award, a major international initiative recognizing research in advanced palladium-based materials. With a substantial prize fund of $350,000, the award supports innovation in one of the most critical fields of materials science.

Professor Dmitri Bessarabov of NWU has been appointed to the international jury, joining a panel of renowned scientists tasked with evaluating submissions from researchers, startups and academic teams worldwide.

The annual Beer and Cheese Day, hosted by the School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the North-West University (NWU), is more than just a social gathering – it is a way to ignite the students’ creativity and entrepreneurial spirits.

Refilwe Ngwaku hails from the humble dusty streets of Soweto, where she believes that there are few role models. From a young age, her dream was to be different, to become the change she wanted to see. Her goal was to show that success can come from any background.

Refilwe can still picture the school corridor where, as a primary school learner in Dobsonville, Soweto, she saw a group of older students wearing t-shirts that read “Kutlwanong ProMaths”. It wasn’t the clothing that struck her – it was what the words stood for.

“It is the power of a girl with a book that is the best weapon for progress ... Because with educated women comes prosperity.”- Deborah Rodriguez.

The North-West University (NWU) has officially joined the growing national STEM MentHER initiative, a mentorship-driven programme aimed at empowering young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Opportunities for international research experience are one of the many benefits of the newly expanded research and teaching partnership between the North-West University (NWU) and Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz (HSZG) University of Applied Sciences in Germany.

The two universities, who have had an engineering collaboration for over two decades, have deepened their partnership following a three-week visit by HSZG’s Prof Frank Worlitz to the NWU’s Potchefstroom Campus in April this year.