About this report
Becoming greater than before
With the Covid-19 pandemic still raging in 2021, we continued to pull out all the stops to ensure that the NWU's business of teaching-learning, research and community engagement continued successfully.
Early in the year, we realised the need to be greater than before and build on what we had accomplished during 2020, when we first faced the pandemic. We understood that the NWU and its community have the potential to push the boundaries of greatness if we stand and work together.
As a result, Greater than became the theme running through all our activities in 2021 and is now also the golden thread weaving the story we tell in this integrated report.
In our Greater than story, we show how we mobilised and affected our resources, skills and relationships, known as our "capitals", for the greater good.
There are six capitals: intellectual, human, social and relationship, manufactured, natural and financial. (Read more about our capitals.)
Although we aim to increase value in all instances, our capitals can also undergo either a net decrease or experience no net change. In such cases, value is eroded or preserved.
Despite our aim to become greater as an institution and empower our stakeholders to become greater, we realise that changing circumstances in our internal and external environment may hamper our efforts to increase value at all times.
We include these instances – where value is maintained or even eroded – in our integrated report, as we aim to tell our value creation story in a balanced way.
Our story is for you
The story of how we as a university became greater and also empowered others to become greater than before, is intended for you, our stakeholders.
We see our stakeholders as those individuals or groups whom we affect through our activities and services, and whose actions can also affect our ability to successfully implement our strategy and achieve our goals.
This integrated report talks mainly to our primary stakeholders. They are our students, alumni, Council, staff, the Department of Higher Education and Training, our peers, our collaboration partners and our business communities (as future employers of our students.)
However, we believe that our story will also be of value to the other stakeholders.
It is important to mention to you that Dr Bismark Tyobeka had been appointed by the NWU Council as principal and vice-chancellor of the university on 1 June 2022.
How we tell our story
At the beginning of our story, we give an overview of the NWU and explain how we interacted with our external environment and specifically how we experienced and reacted to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Also in this report you will find a graphic of our business model, followed by the risks and opportunities that affect us, and how we are dealing with these. The section on our strategy tells you where we want to go to and how we intend to get there, while the section on how we performed against our capitals tells the story of what we did to achieve our strategic objectives.
How to navigate our story
We use different icons to show the connectivity between the various sections in our integrated report.
Intellectual
These include our processes,
procedures, policies, strategies,
and knowledge-based intangibles
emanating from our teaching
and learning and research and
innovation activities
Human
Staff and students (internal
stakeholders)
Social and Relationship
Relationships with external
stakeholders
Manufacturing
Manufactured/manufacturing
Tangible infrastructure and assets
Natural
Environmental/natural resources
Financial
Funds that we obtain and spend
according to budget
Goal 1: Promote excellent learning and teaching and reposition the NWU to attain the size and shape required by the market direction decisions
Goal 2: Strengthen research and innovation with a strategic focus on impactful globalisation
Goal 3: Integrate and align community engagement with teaching-learning and research to develop a culture of active citizenship
Goal 4: Develop a clearly differentiated student value proposition with a focus on creating an inclusive environment aimed at developing students holistically through structured and unstructured co-curricular programmes which are relevant, desirable and meet students' needs
Goal 5: Attract, develop and retain excellent staff and create an equitable staff profile
Goal 6: Develop and implement a digital business strategy to create a competitive advantage for the university and ultimately unlock alternative revenue streams
The following enablers support our goals and our intention to be greater than before:
Govern, lead and manage in an agile, collaborative and integrated way towards an optimally digitised university environment
Establish a holistic and integrated university technology platform to provide a solid foundation for a digital future
Cultivate and deliver stakeholderfocused platforms to create and grow intentional experiences and brand equity
Ensure financial sustainability and optimal performance with due consideration of macro-economic conditions and a drive towards digital transformation
Materiality of the report content
We use the concept of "materiality" to decide what information to include in this report. As set out in the International Integrated Reporting Council's (IIRC) Integrated Reporting Framework, we see material matters as issues that:
- substantively affect the university's ability to create value over the short, medium and long term; and
- are important to any stakeholder wishing to make an informed assessment of the NWU's ability to generate value.
How we identify relevant matters
In this report, we discuss the factors with the greatest potential to impact our ability to create value. Identifying these material factors was the work of our integrated reporting task team, led by the NWU's registrar and including the deputy vice-chancellor for planning and the chief strategy officer in the office of the vice-chancellor. The team identified those matters with the highest potential to impact our ability to create value.
In the process, we took the following frameworks into account:
- The NWU's *Annual Performance Plan (APP) that puts the strategic plan into action;
- The common strategic assumptions that underpin our strategy; The **institution-wide risk register;
- The IIRC's Integrated Reporting Framework; and
- The Department of Higher Eductaion and Training's (DHET's) reporting regulations.
| * | The goals, enablers and strategic assumptions, as included in the APP, resulted from the process the University Management Committee members use to identify material matters to be included when drawing up or revising the APP. |
| ** | Our key risks and opportunities are the result of an institution-wide identification and prioritising process, as described here. |
We also considered any factors in our external environment that substantially affect our ability to create value.
In addition, materiality was informed by the issues our stakeholders raise during their interaction with the university. These are described in the section on how we engage with our stakeholders, in the table under the subheading: Issues raised.
Reporting period and scope, and suite of reports
Our integrated report reflects the performance of the NWU across our three campuses for the period 1 January to 31 December 2021.
Information about our performance is both financial and non-financial. This includes facts about our non-financial performance, risks and opportunities and the internal and external factors that substantially influence our business. Where material, we discuss the real and potential impact of these matters on our ability to create value.
| Reporting cycle | Annually in December |
| Contact point for questions | marlene.verhoef@nwu.ac.za |
|---|---|
| Suite of reports | Our integrated report is the primary vehicle for reporting to our stakeholders. It is supplemented by the following:
|
| Our reporting framework | This integrated report has been prepared in accordance with the IIRC's International Integrated Reporting Framework and the DHET's Regulations for Annual Reporting by Higher Education Institutions (published in June 2014 and incorporating principles from the King IV Report). |
Assurance
Internal and external assurance providers give us assurance about the effectiveness of the internal controls at the NWU. Their input has been incorporated into this report.
We have also made sure that our reporting is accurate by taking the following steps:
- After compiling the integrated report, we submitted it to the University Management Committee. The committee considered the completeness and accuracy of the content and provided feedback where necessary, which was then incorporated into the integrated report. Only then did we submit the report first to the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and then to Council for approval.
- The student and staff data in this report was obtained from our Institutional Planning and Strategic Intelligence Department, which is also responsible for submitting NWU data to the Higher Education Information Management System (HEMIS).
The summarised, audited consolidated financial statements we link to in this report are part of the audited consolidated financial statements, prepared in accordance with the IFRS and independently audited by our external auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Our auditors also independently audited the information in our performance assessment report. The financial statements, including the auditors' report, can be obtained from the NWU website here.
More information about combined assurance can be found in the governance section of this report.
Council approval
Council and its subcommittees are responsible for overseeing the integrity and completeness of this integrated report.
Council confirms that it has reviewed the contents of the report and applied its collective mind to the preparation and presentation of this report.
Furthermore, Council believes that it has appropriately considered the accuracy and completeness of the material matters, as well as the reliability of the information presented in this report.
Council has sufficiently considered and materially presented these matters in accordance with the Integrated Reporting Framework of the IIRC.
Council approved the 2021 integrated report on 23 June 2022.
MR BERT SORGDRAGER
CHAIRPERSON OF COUNCIL
MR THABO MOKGATLHA
CHAIRPERSON OF THE AUDIT, RISK AND
COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE
