Our external environment
Various factors in our external environment affect our capitals and consequently our ability to create value for ourselves and our stakeholders.
Examples are:
- emerging trends such as the "great resignation", "quiet quitting" and "quiet hiring", which have an impact on our staff; and
- the lifting of the National State of Disaster on 5 April 2022, enabling the move to more contact classes and on-campus activities.
The 2022 academic year commenced with Covid-19-related restrictions on in-person attendance of contact sessions. Lecturers provided students with material such as study guides and recorded lectures or videos.
During the second semester, once the restrictions were lifted, most faculties could return to full contact teaching and learning. Each module had at least one contact session per week.
Below, we discuss other material factors in our external environment, link them to our strategic goals and risks, and explain the impact on our ability to create value.
- TRANSFORMING SOCIETY
- INSTABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
- 4th Industrial Revolution
- Staff shortages
- FEE-FREE MODEL
- Fee regulation
- State funding
- External research FUNDING
- Demand for IP reduced
- RECRUITMENT CHALLENGES
- CURRICULUM CHANGE
- DISTRUPTIONS: BASIC SERVICES
Societal roles
Student life is a journey of discovery – personally, academically, culturally and socially.
Increasingly, students are voicing support for social movements focused on eradicating prejudices and discriminatory practices, including racism and gender-based violence. Students are also exploring reconceptualised gender roles and norms and speaking up about service delivery, sustainable transformation and cultural reforms.
There is still much to do to achieve the level of diversity, social cohesion and sustainable transformation to which we aspire. The NWU comprises people from diverse socio-economic, cultural, religious, racial and other backgrounds and, as we pursue equity, social justice and redress, we have become aware of additional layers of complexity.
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed troubling inequities in relation to students’ access to technology and basic infrastructure, and the impact of these on students’ access and success.
Strategic matter affected:
development of a clearly differentiated student value proposition (goal no 4)
Capitals affected:
human, social and relationship, financial
Risks involved:
2 and 5 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Our student value proposition centres on inclusivity and belonging. Anything that could stand in the way of this could potentially lead to conflict and erode the relevance of our student value proposition. We therefore consider it crucial to be able to identify potential conflict timeously and to take appropriate action to deal with any inequities as inaction can be perceived to further exclude affected students.
Our strategic response
We proactively develop and implement measures to build social capital, awareness and partnership within the student community.
Our integrated interventions and platforms facilitate social change in existing curricular and co-curricular programmes, and we continuously refine our governance model and policy directives on social change.
Purpose-driven engagement and effective communication channels inform our decision-making and policy development processes, preparing us to respond to projected changes proactively and with agility in maintaining a relevant and valuable student experience.
Social instability
Instability within the higher education sector influences the way our students receive and respond to university programmes and messages. A further barrier is lack of understanding of how the higher education sphere functions nationally and institutionally.
Strategic matter affected:
development of a clearly differentiated student value proposition (goal no 4)
Capitals affected:
human, social and relationship, financial
Risks involved:
2 and 5 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Any stakeholder resistance to university responses and offerings could delay and frustrate the development and implementation of sustainable resolutions that advance the business of the university.
Our strategic response
We have an inclusive communication and consultation strategy for staff, students and community stakeholders. This communication goes beyond co-curricular offerings and includes efficient and interactive service delivery across the NWU, enhancing stakeholder understanding and strengthening the university’s value proposition.
4th Industrial Revolution
Higher education is playing a cardinal role in developing the skills needed for rapidly changing economies. This entails teaching Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills to student, adapting academic administration and student support systems and services and equipping staff with new skills. Universities will increasingly be competing for scarce ICT innovation skills across the student life cycle.
Technologically speaking, standalone systems and software are being replaced with agile, integrated systems. The NWU’s learning management system (LMS), eFundi, was reviewed during 2022.
Strategic matter affected:
all goals and enablers
Capitals affected:
all capitals
Risks involved:
2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 – refer Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
The 4IR offers opportunities to make discoveries that will propel us forward in creating value. The NWU is focused on seizing these opportunities, which lie in implementing ICT innovation to support core business, broaden access to tertiary qualifications through online teaching and learning and being part of global trends such as the multiversity, the unbundled university and the blockchain university.
Our strategic response
When the Covid-19 pandemic struck and the shift to online learning came, we were able to accelerate our digital journey in teaching and learning, student support and workplace practices.
We have already automated the management of students’ work-integrated and service-learning placements and introduced Robotics Process Automation for repetitive processes.
We are also preparing to implement a leading-edge student information system and a new digital workplace environment that will improve workplace efficiencies.
A team of education technologists is assisting staff to integrate technology into their teaching strategies, and online assessment (with or without proctoring) has become part and parcel of the suite of assessment methods used.
The NWU has implemented HyFlex teaching and learning, which uses a combination of in-person contact sessions and live streaming. In the distance education environment, we are phasing out paper-based programmes and textbooks, and instead serving students via the eFundi LMS. Online suppliers deliver electronic material directly to students, wherever they are.
Given global technological advances in the LMS sphere, the NWU will consider options for a new LMS in 2023.
Staff shortages
South Africa has a finite pool of academic staff, especially senior staff from designated groups and in the scarce and critical skills. The university takes these limitations into account in its human-capital planning, policies, procedures and processes.
Strategic matter affected:
teaching and learning (goal no 1), research and innovation (goal no 2) and community engagement (goal no 3)
Capitals affected:
intellectual, human, social and relationship, financial
Risks involved:
2 and 3 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Our ability to recruit and retain high-calibre academic staff is the cornerstone of our reputation for excellent teaching and learning, innovative research and community engagement with impact. It is essential that we attract enough demographically diverse staff with the requisite skills and experience, otherwise our reputation might suffer, along with our capacity to implement functional multilingualism. An overreliance on temporary staff has adverse implications for our core business capacity.
Faced with lower subsidy income and the cap on student fees, we have taken special measures to contain employment costs, such as placing a moratorium on positions. As it is crucial to avoid compromising academic service offerings, we apply our minds carefully when making any decisions about academic positions.
Our strategic response
Line managers have been tasked with identifying and fast-tracking professionally qualified academics from designated groups.
Our integrated talent management strategy provides incentives and professional development pathways to attract and retain scarce skills, particularly among black academics.
Enhancing our staff value proposition is a priority. In 2022, we looked at ways to use savings from the use of technology to enhance remuneration and continued conducting individual remuneration reviews to ensure fair, market-related pay.
Financial Aid
Since 2015, the number of students qualifying for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has increased six-fold, from 4 837 to 26 595 in 2022.
This has placed great pressure on our financial aid administration processes and cash flow. In 2022, as NSFAS was unable to make an upfront payment to universities, the Council decided to advance allowances totalling R257,7 million to NSFAS students.
Delays in approving NSFAS applications caused teaching-learning complications during the first semester of 2022. Some students with provisional registration had their registration revoked when NFSAS failed to approve their applications on time. Other students whose funding was later confirmed lost several weeks of the academic year and had to catch up.
Strategic matter affected:
teaching and learning (goal no 1), financial sustainability (enabler 4)
Capitals affected:
financial, human, intellectual
Risks involved:
1, 3, 5 and 8 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Students who would previously not have been able to afford to go to university can now do so because of fee-free higher education for households earning under R360 000 a year. This has also brought temporary financial stability to the sector.
The other side of the coin is that it has become more complex to manage enrolment targets and administer registrations.
However, the greatest risk to value creation is still the potential unsustainability of the NSFAS model and the proposed fee regulation framework.
Our strategic response
In 2022, we used effective administration and communication to manage the challenges linked to higher numbers of NSFAS students. We advanced interim allowances to students, kept staff and students informed about financial aid issues and maintained good relations with NSFAS and the DHET.
An internal working group was set up to manage the impact and minimise any disruptions caused by possible late approvals in 2023.
Fee regulation
In addition to increasing NSFAS funding, the DHET is formulating a fee regulation framework. This has the potential to significantly influence the financing model of the NWU.
In the interim, the Minister again recommended CPI-related increases in fees for 2022.
We implemented a tuition-fee increase of 4,23%, which was below the CPI of 6,9% of 2022.
Strategic matter affected:
financial sustainability (enabler no 4)
Capitals affected:
financial, intellectual, human
Risks involved:
1 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Our financial stability could be at risk if the increases permitted under the planned fee regulation regime do not reflect our cost structure and internal inflation rate. This may ultimately affect the quality of the services we provide.
The regulations as they stand also have the potential to erode the autonomy of universities.
Our strategic response
We are pursuing a multifaceted strategy to maintain financial stability and the quality of our services. We are part of the consultations on the proposed fee regulation framework and are also diversifying our income streams, managing our budget process and improving operating cost efficiency.
State funding
State funding of higher education continues to decline in real terms.
The Rand value of the block grant allocated to the NWU for 2022 increased by 9,6% but the value of the earmarked grants allocated to universities decreased by 29,8%.
Although the block grant (used to fund universities’ operational costs) has increased, this will be offset by the lower-than-needed increase in tuition fees and the anticipated growth in funded units.
Strategic matter affected:
teaching and learning (goal no 1), research and innovation (goal 2), student value proposition (goal 4) staff profile (goal no 5), financial sustainability (enabler 4)
Capitals affected:
human, financial, intellectual
Risks involved:
1, 3 and 8 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Continued funding shortfalls would force us to respond with budget cuts and we would then not be able to fund all operational and strategic activities. In the short and medium term, however, the funding provided by the state does contribute to financial stability. On the other hand, it is not yet clear what effect the economic downturn will have on future state funding.
Our strategic response
Amid the current economic and funding uncertainties, we are practising prudence. We prioritise wisely when allocating the funds available while reviewing current activities and investing continually in opportunities to improve cost effectiveness and support efficiency and cost reduction.
In the longer term, our strategy is to become less dependent on state funding by diversifying income generation.
External research
In the past few years, most government and industry funding agencies have experienced budget cuts, limiting their ability to fund and support research.
Postgraduate funding, which was already limited, has declined further. At the same time, the implementation of the new NRF funding instrument has meant that fewer students are being funded, even though the amount per student has increased.
Strategic matter affected:
research and innovation (goal no 2)
Capitals affected:
financial, intellectual, human, social and relationship
Risks involved:
3 and 7 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Dwindling external research funding may adversely affect our research productivity and the standing of the university in higher education rankings. So far, research journal outputs have not been affected; international conference proceedings have declined, however, because of pandemic-related restrictions on travel.
Our strategic response
We provided R1 499 455 in mobility grants to our researchers, along with R716 815 in research mentorship, including assistance with NRF rating applications. We also contributed R626 664 to the salary component of the research chairs.
Demand for (IP) reduced
As in the previous year, there was less private sector interest in licensing our intellectual property (IP) and technology, mainly because of tight economic conditions. For the same reason, we experienced a reduction in early-stage, seed and venture capital funding for NWU start-ups.
Strategic matter affected:
research and innovation (goal no 2)
Capitals affected:
financial, intellectual, human, social and relationship
Risks involved:
3 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
The low uptake of our IP and technologies could result in lost income and reduced licensing and spin-off activities.
Our strategic response
Patents are more likely to be successfully licensed when the inventions concerned are backed up by trialled and tested prototypes. It is important for us to secure suitable translational research funding for prototype development and demonstration.
We are focusing on developing and maintaining good relationships with funders and on understanding industry’s needs and challenges so that we can respond with relevant solutions and innovations.
(For more information, see Creating value through innovation and technology.)
Int. students
International postgraduate student enrolments continued to decline in 2022.
Among the reasons for this were stricter visa requirements for international students and heightened competition among universities for good postgraduate students from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other African countries.
The DHET requires universities to prioritise South African students for postgraduate studies and this could also be a contributing factor. Furthermore, many international students were unable to resume or complete their studies in 2020, 2021 and 2022, owing to the pandemic.
Strategic matter affected:
research and innovation (goal no 2)
Capitals affected:
financial, human, social and relationships
Risks involved:
3 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Enrolments of international students decreased from 6% of the total cohort of postgraduate students in 2016 to about 3% in 2022, which may affect our global rankings. Reduced uptake also affected the postdoctoral fellowship programme as funds were underutilised.
Our strategic response
Offering higher levels of administrative assistance to international students may make it easier for them to study at the NWU. We now have global engagement offices on all three campuses.
University access
Decolonisation of the curriculum is a priority in higher education. The NWU is committed to transforming its curriculum and aligning its student experience with its Strategic Goal 1 on systematic curriculum transformation and renewal.
Strategic matter affected:
teaching and learning (goal no 1)
Capitals affected:
intellectual, human, social and relationship, manufactured, financial
Risks involved:
2 and 3 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
Despite the Covid-19 national state of disaster, which was in place until April 2022, we continued creating a welcoming and engaging academic environment through curriculum development as well as extra-curricular activities.
Our strategic response
We pursued the following strategies:
- providing in-depth academic orientation for students, along with work-integrated learning (WIL) and service learning (SL) to foster an ethic of care and social responsibility;
- introducing NWU students to different intellectual traditions, including indigenous knowledge systems;
- involving students in a range of individual and collaborative learning and assessment activities; and
- hosting awareness weeks on race, gender and language.
There was a marked increase in team teaching and student interaction across the three campuses, using online platforms.
Curriculum change
The unprecedented number of power failures through load-shedding significantly affected all activities at the NWU when staff and students returned to the campuses.
The Mahikeng Campus also had to deal with water shortages as the municipal supply was inadequate.
Strategic matter affected:
teaching and learning (goal no 1), research and innovation (goal no 2)
Capitals affected:
intellectual, human, manufactured, financial
Risks involved:
2 and 3 – refer to Material risks and opportunities impacting on value
Effect on value creation
The NWU used its emergency generators more often and at higher cost than anticipated. Equipment failures were experienced due to damage caused by fluctuating supply.
Significant academic and research time was lost through power outages and assessments had to be reset and rescheduled.
Water was supplied to the Mahikeng Campus to serve the basic needs of staff and students.
Our strategic response
The NWU began introducing solar power on all three campuses. Long-term planning includes the expansion of solar generation.
We sank boreholes on the Mahikeng Campus and are planning to increase the number of water reservoirs on all three campuses.
This how we keep the lights on
Given the current load shedding crisis in South Africa, emergency generators are without a doubt some of the most important and sought-after machines in the country. Unfortunately, it is also expensive to keep them running.
During load-shedding, large diesel generators at central plants on our campuses provide emergency power to the whole campus.
Hendrik Esterhuizen, the director of Engineering Compliance at the NWU, says the cost of emergency power is anything from eight to 16 times more than normal electricity from Eskom.
Our systems were installed in 2008 for Potchefstroom and Vanderbijlpark and in 2012 in Mahikeng. “Diesel generators have a life expectancy of 20 to 25 years. We have very good maintenance plans in place to ensure the units are available 24 hours a day,” says Hendrik.
