On 27 January 2023 the Netherlands' education and science attaché in South Africa paid a visit to the Optentia research unit of the North-West University (NWU).

Berto Bosscha met with senior management to share information on the newly created position of education and research attaché at the Netherlands Embassy in South Africa.

According to Prof Ian Rothmann, director of Optentia, Berto also took the opportunity to learn more about education and research at the NWU.

Over the past five years, the Optentia research unit of the North-West University (NWU) has conducted various research projects about sustainable employment, specifically using the Capability Model of Work.

Prof Jac van der Klink, an extraordinary professor at Optentia, recently delivered a prestigious lecture in support of this research. In his lecture titled “The Sound of Justice”, he examined social justice from the perspective of contributive justice - in contrast to distributive justice.

North-West University (NWU) academic in the African Centre for Disaster Studies, Prof Livhuwani Nemakonde says the heavy rainfall experienced in South Africa in recent weeks is due to a combination of factors.

“Climatologists have indicated that this is because of the La Niña phenomenon. La Niña (Spanish for little girl) is the opposite of an El Niño (little boy), which usually predicts low rainfall for South Africa.

North-West University (NWU) Setswana lecturer and poet Ogodiseng Mokakale recently published an anthology of 60 Setswana poems, Tswina ya Poko.

Ogodiseng says teaching poetry at schools has lost its way, and that it is difficult to bring university students up to speed when they do not have a proper poetry background.

Fortunately, his passion for poetry motivates him to teach and instil a love and appreciation for poetry in his students.

North-West University (NWU) academic and director of Indigenous Language Media in Africa (ILMA) research unit Prof Abiodun Salawu has commended the South African television news channel Newzroom Afrika for expanding its horizons with the launch of its first Nguni-language news broadcast.

Prof Salawu says this is a very heart-warming development.

“I believe this would make information more accessible to Nguni language speakers, and it would go a long way.

The academic world can easily be infiltrated by dishonesty and plagiarism, especially in trying times such as the past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Good academic practice is essential for lecturers and students. 

Prof Anné Verhoef, director of the School of Philosophy at the North-West University (NWU), is an avid campaigner for academic integrity and has centred his research on establishing a Community of Practice for Academic Integrity (CoPAI).

To be compelled to pursue research and to be grateful. These sentiments are what Prof Susan Coetzee-Van Rooy, research professor at the North-West University (NWU), values when she reflects on receiving her B2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rating in 2022.

Prof Coetzee-Van Rooy is an NWU-grown B-rated scholar in languages – specifically multilingualism. Her track record proves that with the right support and guidance, humanities and social sciences scholars at our institution can obtain, maintain and systematically improve their ratings.

The British Council in South Africa has selected two innovators of the North-West University (NWU) to participate in its inaugural Strengthening Commercialisation Skills (SCS) programme. This programme is directed towards the fields of humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS).

Dr Mesuli Mbanjwa, a commercialisation manager at the NWU’s Technology Transfer and Innovation Support (TTIS) office, and Prof Henk Louw, an associate professor of Academic Literacy in the Faculty of Education, have been chosen for the programme, which kicked off on 29 November 2022.

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) research niche area Visual Narratives and Creative Outputs (ViNCO) presented a group exhibition, CLOUD MATTERS, from 2 to 4 November 2022.

Stemming from the Faculty of Humanities’ international Digital Humanities in Precarious Times conference, the exhibition showcased the impact of cloud computing and servers on the environment.

The winners of the 2022 North-West University (NWU) School of Philosophy Essay competition were recently announced.

They are:

1. Mkhize Talent Faith - essay: The effects of technology on the environment: A case of environmental degradation.

2. Melisa Siziba - essay: How madness is socially constructed.

3. Aviwe Puluma - essay: The invention and artificial intelligence of technology and its impact on the environment.