Moratorium on municipal positions a possible answer to qualification crisis – NWU expert

On Wednesday, 19 September 2018, the Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene revealed in parliament that more than half of South Africa’s municipal managers and chief financial officers (CFOs) do not have the minimum qualifications as required by legislation.

During the parliamentary session, Nene said that only 94 of the 193 accounting officers…

New extraordinary professor to investigate resilience during prestige lecture

The Optentia Research Day that has the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Vanderbijlpark abuzz with excitement, will welcome a familiar face “back home”. Prof Linda Theron, previously part of the university’s Faculty of Education, will join Optentia as an extraordinary professor.

She will deliver her prestige lecture entitled “…

Change necessitates innovation and growth – Prof Linda du Plessis

Radical change is at the order of the day.

This is according to Prof Linda du Plessis, deputy vice-chancellor of the North-West University (NWU) responsible for institutional planning and operations on its campus in Vanderbijlpark, during the recent NWU Leadership Summit hosted in Johannesburg.

As one of the keynote speakers, she…

Robust debate during 4th annual NWU Leadership Summit

Each and every one of us, as active citizens in South Africa, need to speak out about the serious lack of authentic leadership. Having said this, the challenges facing the country – such as unemployment, crime, gender-based inequalities, inadequate infrastructure and issues pertaining to land reform – can only be addressed when leaders are…

NWU researcher speaks at Indiana University

Prof Etienne Barnard, a research professor at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) research niche area Multilingual Speech Technologies (MuST), recently travelled to the United States for a research visit to the Indiana University Bloomington.

He was invited to give a colloquium talk at the School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering…

Library heeds national call to foster entrepreneurial culture

Did you know that South Africa has alarmingly low levels of entrepreneurial activity in spite of its high unemployment rate? One of the reasons for this negative trend can be ascribed to a fear of failure – or simply put: a lack of preparatory entrepreneurial skills training.

With this in mind, the library on the North-West University’s (…

Faculty takes the lead in empowering young female students

It was the late Kofi Annan who said that the empowerment of women is the most effective tool for the development of any nation. With this in mind, members of the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Education in Vanderbijlpark are hard at work to ensure that no young lady needs to skip class because of her period and a lack of sanitary…

NWU supports annual CANSA Relay for Life

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Vanderbijlpark and the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) celebrated a momentous milestone when they took hands to host the sixth annual Vanderbijlpark region CANSA Relay for Life event from 15 to 16 September 2018.

The event once again saw participants and supporters from across the…

SEW2018 sets student entrepreneurship on centre stage

For the second year running the North-West University (NWU) – in collaboration with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) – hosted a very successful Student Entrepreneurship Week.

The Student Entrepreneurship Week (SEW) initiative came about in 2017 and represents a national campaign for entrepreneurship development which…

Social work students have their day in court

“I’m nervous, but I am prepared.” These are the words of a second-year social work student, ready to face a real attorney in the children’s court.

As part of a simulation, the second-year social work students on the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campus in Vanderbijlpark visits the children’s court every year to gain practical experience.…