Our human capital influences and is influenced by all our other capitals. Staff and students are the two major stakeholder groups that make up the university's human capital.
The infrastructure and support we offer our staff enable them to undertake research and teaching activities that increase the value of our intellectual and social and relationship capital. Similarly, when we provide students with various forms of support and high-quality study and residence facilities (manufactured capital), they are able to succeed academically and in other aspects of student life, which creates value for the university and strengthens our other capitals.
Student tuition fees increase our financial capital, and students increase our social and relationship capital when they graduate and contribute to society.
In this section, we highlight the prominent role our staff and students play in the NWU value chain.
Our human capital activities mainly affect our staff and students, although their families are also indirectly affected by our activities.
Almost all material matters affect our staff and students.
(Click here to see what the icons used in this section stands for.)
Our main risks are uncertainties in the higher education sector, the demand for organisational change, risks related to academic matters, compliance matters, risks relating to student life, IT risks and operational risks. Almost all of these risks have a bearing on our staff and students.
Click on the icons below to read more about each material matter.
Teaching and learning, research, community engagement
Student value proposition
Develop and retain excellent staff and create an equitable staff
and student profile
Govern, lead and manage; information and communication technology; and
financial sustainability
Caring for our students
When NWU students graduate, they should be ready to enter the labour market as highly qualified, skilled people who are able to contribute to the economy of South Africa.
This goes beyond acquiring technical and professional skills. The world of work is changing rapidly – even more so since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out – and it is crucial for the workforce of the future to be well-rounded, versatile and adaptable global citizens, ready to explore ways in which they can contribute towards the knowledge economy, expand their skills and evolve to become leaders in their fields of expertise.
This is why social, cultural, arts and sport activities are such an important part of student life at the NWU. As a direct result of the pandemic, we moved these activities to online platforms, along with physical and psychological health and wellbeing services, while retaining traditional mechanisms of delivery where possible. Our agility in adapting our service delivery and student engagement ensures that our students have the life skills needed in a changing world. More information is available in the vice-chancellor's report.
Academic support
Information on how we help prospective students to gain access to the university and, once enrolled, to complete their studies successfully, can be found in the section on our value chain and in the section on our intellectual capital under student access and success.
Career-related support
Our Career Centre's first NWU virtual fair attracted 48 companies and 2 771 students. We also offered CV training to 4 222 students and held our first virtual work readiness seminars, in which eight companies from various industries gave presentations.
The centre's social media outreach increased significantly, receiving 17 052 Facebook likes and attracting 17 749 followers.
Caring for our staff
Building staff capacity
Our staff continue to benefit from internal and external skills development opportunities, as well as formal training. These interventions build our employees' capacity and support their career development, which in turn increases our human capital.
About 20% of our training spend was used for in-house training, mainly in people skills, leadership and diversity management skills, and business etiquette. We also presented an employee learnership to staff with a Grade 12 certificate as their highest qualification.
We provide financial aid in the form of study discount benefits so that our staff and their dependants can study at the NWU. In 2020, we spent over R27,8 million on these benefits, which reached 1 003 people. Of these, 502 were staff members and 610 dependants. Altogether 422 were historically disadvantaged South Africans and 625 were female.
These development programmes support our strategic goals and the internal success model which form part of our overall NWU strategy.
Information about our various incentivising initiatives, such as the annual awards for teaching excellence, is available in the section on our value chain.
Empowering our researchers
In developing and motivating our researchers, we leverage opportunities that come with being part of the larger research community in South Africa.
In 2020, such opportunities included five research integrity webinars with speakers from the National Research Foundation (NRF), the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA) and the NWU itself.
Emerging researchers are encouraged to further their studies. During the year, they received study funding support of over R3,5 million from our University Capacity Development Programme. In addition, NWU staff busy with their master's and doctoral studies received support worth R2 613 675 through the NWU Staff Discount Scheme and R1 005 838 in Emerging Researcher grants.
In 2020, 227 researchers attended 12 research capacity-building workshops on supervision and article writing.
Our annual Research and Innovation Excellence Awards fulfilled a dual role: recognising outstanding researchers for their contribution and inspiring others. You can read more about these in the section on our value chain.
We affirm that our students remain our primary stakeholders, and we continuously refine the services, programmes and offerings available to them to ensure that they receive the necessary support and opportunities to positively grow into well-rounded and socially responsible individuals.
In addition to the academic support and career advice that we provide, our students have access - both physically and in the online environment - to various wellness support services and skills development programmes.
Our campus healthcare centres, together with counselling and social welfare services, support our students' overall physical and psychosocial wellbeing.
The campus disability rights units ensure that the needs of students living with disabilities are efficiently addressed, while social welfare projects such as the Meal-a-Day programme support students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.
In parallel with these programmes and initiatives, we provide crisis interventions to identify and support at-risk students through Thuso.
Such interventions proved instrumental in supporting our students to cope with the stresses brought about by the pandemic. Through this programme, registered psychologists provide services that promote the psychological wellbeing of students so that they can flourish in their studies and personal lives. Despite the limitations imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to explore and implement new ways of providing our students with psychosocial support services using online, telephonic and SMS platforms.
Dropout rates
Our student-to-staff ratio decreased from 31,93 to 29,17 in 2020. Our first-time entrant dropout rate decreased from 10,8% in 2019 to 9,1% in 2020.
How much value we created, compared to previous years
| Dropout rate | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| First-time entrant dropout rate for contact degrees | 11,11% | 9% | 10,78% | 9,1% |
How much value we created, compared to our target
| Target | Definition | Actual | |
| Academic staff full-time equivalent ratio: students | 26,6 | Based on HEMIS data and refers to the enrolled student full-time equivalent divided by the permanent instruction/research professionals full-time equivalent. | 29,17 |
| First-time entrant dropout rate for contact degrees | Below 15% | First-time entering students in contact degree qualifications who register in the reporting year but do not return in the next year. | 9,1% |
Our employees matter
Our wellness offices support the all-round wellbeing of our staff through services that encompass biopsychosocial and spiritual facets.
We have a comprehensive employee wellness assistance programme, Care Ways, for NWU employees and their immediate families. The programme provides access to experienced counselling professionals who assist with personal, family and work-related problems. This free service is available 24 hours a day.
Our campus healthcare centres offer health services to staff, while our campus disabilities offices provide support for staff living with disabilities, in line with our Disability Policy. We also host an HIV and AIDS workplace programme and a toll-free emergency number that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Campus Protection Services and the Occupational Health and Safety Policy and Office contribute towards a safe and secure working environment.
See how we explore, expand and evolve
Through our employee assistance programme, staff and their immediate families have access to free telephonic financial and legal advice, as well as face-to-face counselling for any psychosocial concerns.
Exploring new possibilities and expanding the ways in which we support our staff members, People and Culture has initiated the Wellness Fridays webinar series to equip staff with skills to relieve stress and anxiety. The virtual sessions are held every Friday and tackle different topics.
Staff profile
Striving to create an equitable staff profile, we are guided by our employment equity plan for the period from January 2016 to December 2020. Vacancies had to be frozen to manage staff costs amid the financial constraints brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and this had an adverse impact on our ability to reach the employment equity targets.
How much value we created, compared to previous years
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| African (%) | 33,5% | 34,5% | 35,9% | 37,5% | 38,3% |
| Coloured (%) | 5,7% | 5,7% | 6,3% | 6,5% | 6,6% |
| Indian (%) | 1,2% | 1,3% | 1,3% | 1,5% | 1,6% |
| White (%) | 59,6% | 58,5% | 56,5% | 54,5% | 53,4% |
| Female (%) | 56,9% | 56,9% | 56,8% | 57,2% | |
| Male (%) | 43,1% | 43,1% | 43,2% | 42,8% |
How much value we created, compared to our target
| 2020 target | Actual | |
| African (%) | 37,5% | 38,3% |
| Coloured (%) | 86,4% | 6,6% |
| Indian (%) | 1,5% | 1,6% |
| White (%) | 54,4% | 53,4% |
STATEMENT ON CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
"The university is committed to principles of collective bargaining, progressive discipline, restorative justice and alternative dispute resolution as far as possible, in order to address conflict situations."
"During 2020, the NWU successfully dealt with potential conflicts that could possibly harm the institution's reputation, at the lowest level. This includes, among others, bargaining forums with recognised trade union(s), internal disciplinary procedures, grievance procedures and mediation processes."
"The main focus is always to act in the best interest of the institution, while creating a 'win-win situation' for all, as far as possible."
Statement approval obtained from the NWU Council on 17 June 2021
STATEMENT ON WORKER AND STUDENT PARTICIPATION
"The Recognition Agreement between the NWU and SAPTU was revised in August 2019. In terms of this agreement, all employee issues of mutual interest will be addressed through the University Bargaining Forum, either by means of negotiation or consultative processes. In order to be a recognised trade union at the NWU, a trade union must meet the membership threshold of 30% across the university."
"An Organisational Agreement between the NWU and NEHAWU regulates the relationship between the parties in terms of the Labour Relations Act. We have ongoing Management and Trade Union Consultative Forum meetings."
Statement approval obtained from the NWU Council on 17 June 2021Good governance is important in supporting and protecting our human capital. This is part of the responsibilities of the Council and some of its committees, such as the Remuneration Committee, the People and Culture and Employment Equity Committee and the Student Oversight Committee.
We also have several policies that provide guidelines for the fair and just people management of the university, thereby protecting and increasing our human capital.
These include policies on conflict of interest, governance oversight and management control, human rights, remuneration, performance management, staff learning and development, employment equity and disabilities, to name a few.
When it comes to information and communication technology, our IT department is a key enabler of student success and the effectiveness of our staff. As such, access to IT resources and services must be equitable. We have achieved this by adopting a centralised approach to system delivery and a decentralised model for service delivery. This combination ensures that our systems are well maintained and that staff and students on all three campuses have the necessary hardware and software, as well as access to helpdesk services for daily support.
Lastly, it is our responsibility to make sure that our university stays financially sustainable. This ensures that our current staff and students, as well as future generations, will have a financially stable institution at which to work and study. More information about how we do this is in the section on our financial capital.
See how we explore, expand and evolve
Millions of citizens were unable to earn a living during the lockdown, leaving tens of millions of dependants not knowing where their next meal would come from.
This crisis encouraged our engineers to adapt their way of thinking and explore several possible solutions.
Taking their innovations to a higher level, NWU spin-off company CFAM Technologies developed a food auto bank – a recycled shipping container filled with dried porridge and placed in a strategic location in a residential area.
Coupons bearing a pin number are sent to cellphones, and when keyed in on the auto bank's digital keypad, a bag of dry porridge is delivered via the chute. (Read more)
