Committee work supporting Council
As indicated earlier, the Council committees assist us with our performance as Council.
All these committees are formally constituted, have terms of reference and consist of a majority of Council members who are neither employees nor students of a public higher education institution. They are chaired by external independent members with the necessary expertise and skills.
Click here for meeting dates and attendance, and here for the composition of the committees.
Self-evaluation of Council
Over time we, as NWU Council, have established a practice of self-evaluation of Council and Council committee activities at the end of each year.
In preparing for the review, we oversaw the development of a quality manual based on the norms prescribed by the DHET Governance Scorecard. The manual documents all aspects relevant to achieving, sustaining, monitoring and quality-enhancing all levels of activity of the NWU Council and was approved on 19 March 2020.
External review of Council
An external review panel interviewed persons and groupings over a period of two days. The panel members were Professor Jairam Reddy (chairperson and external evaluator), Mr Hugh Amoore (external evaluator), Professor Mandla Makhanya (external evaluator) and Dr Joe Tshifularo (internal evaluator/ former member of NWU Council).
The external evaluation panel focused on various relevant matters and made commendations and recommendations. On 19 November 2020, we adopted the final external review report.
The recommendations flowing from both the selfevaluation process and the external review would be considered at the Council workshop in March 2021. As Council we expressed our view that adopting the report would not mean agreement with all recommendations, some of which would be easy to implement while others would require serious engagement.
Discussion of the external evaluation report’s recommendations and the development of an improvement plan is one of our priorities for 2021.
STATEMENT ON SUSTAINABILITY
"Material matters of a social and environmental nature are as important as financial and economic issues in determining the overall value created by the NWU."
“The five-year strategic plan and the business plan for implementing the strategy are integral to ensuring our sustainability. The five long-term goals and the four enablers of the NWU strategy 2015 to 2025 underpin the commitment of the university in this regard.”
Statement approval obtained from NWU Council on 17 June 2021.
Ethics in action at NWU
STATEMENT ON ETHICS AND VALUES “The NWU Code of Ethics commits the university to the highest standards of integrity, behaviour and ethics in dealing with all its stakeholders and society at large.
“We expect Council members and staff to observe the NWU’s ethical obligations in order to conduct its business through the use of fair and commercially competitive practices.
- Ethics in all endeavours
- Academic integrity
- Academic freedom and freedom of scientific research
- Responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency
- Embracing diversity.”
