Second-year social work students from the North-West University (NWU) are annually gaining much needed practical experience by participating in mock trials.

This year second-year students from the NWU’s Vanderbijlpark Campus participated in a mock trial practical on 26 and 31 October 2022 at the Vanderbijlpark Magistrate Children’s Court.

Prof Elmien Truter, an associate professor from Social Work and researcher at the research focus area Community Psychosocial Research (Compres), says the idea to expose social work students to mock trials started around 2014.

Postgraduate students and researchers from the North-West University (NWU) won seven awards at the Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene’s (SAIOH’s) annual conference that took place from 26 to 28 October 2022 in Boksburg, and during the gala dinner the best students and research articles were awarded.

According to Prof Johan du Plessis, the director of the Occupational Hygiene and Health Research Initiative (OHHRI), no awards were given in 2019 and 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and therefore, this year awards were given for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

“We must create a future in which our children and healthy and physically active.” This, says Professor Dané Coetzee, child kinetics specialist at the School of Human Movement Sciences of the North-West University (NWU), must remain a priority. That is why, in this increasingly digital world, we must look a what worked in the past.

Dr Luce Pretorius, an academic in the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Social Work subject group, was recently invited to be a speaker at the Mine Health and Safety Council (MHSC) Tripartite Summit.

The event was attended by approximately 1 200 delegates and was also broadcasted online.

Dr Pretorius presented a session on “Mental Health in the Workplace”, which focused on mental health and the role of health and safety in the mining sector. She also spoke about collaborative strategies to address this often-overlooked theme. 

Researchers of the North-West University (NWU) regularly work in communities to improve lives and find solutions to pressing issues. In the fight against breast cancer, a hospital in Potchefstroom has called on the expertise of the Medicine Usage in South Africa (MUSA) research entity in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Can you present your thesis within three minutes? These master’s and PhD students from the North-West University (NWU) proved that it is possible at the university’s second Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.

This competition is held annually at more than 200 universities worldwide, and challenges participants to present their research in 180 seconds in an engaging format that can be understood by an intelligent audience with no background in the research area.

By Ontiretse Motingwa

“As a complicated and ever-evolving field, science requires scientists and researchers who are resilient, determined, and knowledgeable. They must also have a great willingness to learn and use new skills and scientific concepts without bias or conformity to what society deems acceptable.” This is according to Khanyisani Ziqubu, a PhD biochemistry candidate at the North-West University (NWU).

It is the diagnosis dreaded by most: cancer. Two professors at the North-West University (NWU) who were both affected in different ways by this life-threatening disease, say the emotional toll it takes can be just as detrimental as the physical havoc it causes. They offer expert advice on how to deal with it when cancer becomes a personal reality.

Prof Welma Lubbe, director of the Quality in Nursing and Midwifery (NuMIQ) research focus area in the Faculty of Health Sciences, says her journey started almost seven years ago when she discovered a lump in her breast.

By Onitretse Motingwa

“Little attention is given to the mental health of those affected by divorce,” says Dr Lebogang Philda Selahla, a North-West University (NWU) PhD alumnus.

Dr Selahla who recently obtained her PhD, conducted research on mental health issues of men and women who are affected by divorce. Her thesis is titled “Psychosocial predictors of the mental health of divorcees and efficacy of intervention”.