NWU value chain
In 2023, our value-creation story was about empowering our stakeholders and taking them along on a challenging but exciting journey to find greatness without boundaries.
Along the way, we went through the four stages of our business model and value chain: our input, activities, output and outcomes.
At each stage, we accessed, used and transformed our capitals. For instance, as part of our input, we used our sources of income (financial capital), skilled staff (human capital), buildings and equipment (manufactured capital) and academic programmes (intellectual capital) to create value for our students (human capital).
Our students are our fellow travellers on the quest to unlock infinite greatness for ourselves and for our stakeholders. By making them an integral part of our value chain, we assist our students to become critical thinkers and change makers (our output) who eventually enter the labour market and society as value creators themselves (our outcome).
Other stakeholders also benefit from our pursuit of greatness. Through community engagement and research, we touch lives, find solutions to real-life problems and change the world for the better.
In the following discussion of our value chain, you will see how we employ our various capitals as inputs and, through our activities, convert them to outputs and outcomes.
Our students
Our students are an invaluable input into our value chain. The pie charts below reflect the composition and size of the student body in 2023 as compared to 2022:
Investing in our students
Following an intensive student recruitment programme, we received more than 181 000 applications, with 43 000 applicants having a 30+ admission points score (APS).
The NWU’s financial aid offices administered R2,814 billion in financial aid in 2023.
Government funding accounted for
80% of this and the NWU contributed R250 million (9%).
The remaining 11% was from
other external sources.
For more information about our academic support activities for students, turn to the section Increase student access and success.
Our staff
A significant input into our value chain is our staff complement.
The following table reflects how our number of permanent academic staff compares with those of other South African higher education institutions (Please note that this is based on 2022 audited HEMIS data):
| Institution | Total |
| University of KwaZulu-Natal | 1 176 |
| University of Cape Town | 1 192 |
| University of Witwatersrand | 1 211 |
| University of Pretoria | 1 269 |
| University of Stellenbosch | 1 295 |
| University of Johannesburg | 1 328 |
| North-West University | 1 678 |
|---|---|
| University of South Africa | 1 823 |
Investing in our staff
In 2023, we had 4 236 permanent staff members, comprising 1 692 academics and 2 544 support employees.
Across the year, we invested in the skills, wellbeing and career progression of our people.
As the 4IR and 5IR are reshaping the workplace, many staff development interventions focused on building digital competencies for the NWU’s Digital Transformation Strategy.
Through the annual academic promotions process, 161 academic promotions were approved, 46 more than in 2022. Black academic staff accounted for 40% of these promotions, up from only 33,7% in 2021.
Across academic levels, black females have experienced the lowest rate of promotions over the past four years, and we are intensifying our efforts to build a pipeline for these promotions.
Committed to an ethic of care in all we do, the NWU continued to prioritise a nurturing and supportive working environment. We initiated an integrated health and wellness reporting strategy that entails combined reporting by the NWU Wellness service providers, Employee Wellness, group life insurance and medical aids. This is an effective way to analyse trends for decision making and the design of targeted interventions.
Greatness without boundaries
Women leaders are shaping the landscape of higher education worldwide. The NWU, which is part of this trend, launched its first Women in Leadership programme in 2023.
The goal is to identify and nurture women with high potential, ensuring a steady supply of qualified candidates for leadership positions. The programme also aims to close the gender gap in the talent pool and facilitate long-term succession planning.
Members of the audience listen as one of the speakers urges them to equip themselves with knowledge, take ownership of their careers and become the visionaries who will drive change.
Funding as input
Research funding
Research funding of around R103 million was received in 2023 from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the South African Medical Research Council. The table below shows the number and value of external grants awarded to the NWU in 2022 and 2023.
| Grant programme |
2022 Number of awards |
2022 Total amount |
2023 Number of awards |
2023 Total amount |
| SAMRC funding | 6 | 3 021 613 | 26 | 2 082 501 |
| Thuthuka | 24 | 2 687 136 | 22 | 1 916 295 |
| Other grant-holder awards | 186 | 34 225 887 | 222 | 38 962 439 |
| Grant-holder linked bursaries | 21 | 2 348 333 | 16 | 2 620 000 |
| Block grants | 2 | 360 000 | 0 | 0 |
| Freestanding bursaries | 351 | 49 270 027 | 343 | 53 714 262 |
| Freestanding postdoctoral bursaries | 12 | 2 950 000 | 12 | 2 896 250 |
| Freestanding postdoctoral funding | 12 | 590 000 | 12 | 674 998 |
| SKA student bursaries | 1 | 144 700 | 2 | 365 354 |
| SKA student equipment | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SKA student travel grants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 615 | 110 497 696 | 655 | 103 232 099 |
|---|
In a significant funding change, the grant-holder linked bursaries and block-grant bursaries are being phased out. Students will only receive freestanding bursaries in future.
Funding for technology transfer and innovation
Only three innovation projects were supported in 2023, one pre-seed project and two Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) Seed Fund projects.
More information about our efforts to increase research funding can be found under Six goals to realise our strategy.
International funding
The NWU received R38,9 million in international funding in 2023, a substantial improvement on previous years. The table below shows the international funding each faculty received.
| International funding for research |
2021 Actual as confirmed by faculties (R) |
2022 Actual as confirmed by faculties (R) |
2023 Actual as confirmed by faculties (R) |
| Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences | 1 334 758 | 703 261 | 0 |
| Faculty of Education | 290 082 | 0 | 434 228 |
| Faculty of Humanities | 3 657 783 | 3 418 090 | 3 490 006 |
| Faculty of Engineering | 360 170 | 2 220 050 | 0 |
| Faculty of Health Sciences | 13 343 911 | 10 798 764 | 21 674 775 |
| Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences | 12 623 339 | 9 985 580 | 12 844 763 |
| Total | 28 808 147 | 23 707 655 | 38 893 772 |
|---|
Teaching-learning activities
Our new Teaching-Learning (TL) Model takes the HyFlex concept to an institution-wide level, with the student as the focal point. The introduction of NWU Student, the new student information system, is part of this.
Block teaching, where students have the opportunity to focus on group projects, was successfully used in the faculties of Economic and Management Sciences, Engineering and Health Sciences.
We are continuing with academic programme alignment.
For more information, refer to the section on how we performed against our strategy and increased our intellectual capital.
Greater student access and success
In August 2023, we started a systematic process to translate information from FYN (the First-Year Experience site on eFundi) into Setswana and Afrikaans, aiming to enhance inclusivity for all students. A total of 10 070 first-year students collectively paid 83 406 voluntary visits to FYN.
We continued supporting students through peer mentoring, reading development, supplemental instruction and the First Year Navigator tool.
Promoting continuing education
The fully automated short course administration system was launched in April 2023, giving participants a single secure portal to manage their process from application to certification. This includes online payments and integrated external credit providers that reduce the risk of the NWU incurring bad debt. It also allows more participants access to short courses with flexible payment options.
Focusing on academic and professional development
In 2023, we presented the Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) Programme to targeted academics and professional staff, with a particular emphasis on black African South Africans and female staff.
In addition, 1 865 academics from all eight faculties and professional staff participated in webinars, workshops and online training.
Fifteen female academics participated in Women in Leadership courses.
Research activities
Most research at the university was conducted through our 60 research entities, which include eight Research Chairs, eight hosted research entities, and five Centres of Excellence, among others.
In 2023, 10 research entities were successfully evaluated externally, and two evaluations were postponed for 2024.
The current NWU research landscape is shown in the following figure:
Teaching-learning output
Among first-time entrants, the dropout rate for contact degrees decreased from 10% in 2022 to 9% in 2023 and remains low in comparison to sector norms.
However, fewer students than in 2022 completed their degrees in the minimum time.
There was a slight improvement in the ratio of students to academic staff, with one academic staff member available for every 28,59 full-time equivalent students.
The following graph shows the number of graduates per field of study for 2022 and 2023:
The following table shows how our graduate numbers compare with those of other South African higher education institutions (based on 2022 audited HEMIS data):
| Institution | Total |
| North-West University | 13 735 |
|---|---|
| Tshwane University of Technology | 15 271 |
| University of Johannesburg | 12 128 |
| University of Pretoria | 13 553 |
| University of South Africa | 54 273 |
Teaching
Excellence Awards
There was a significant increase in the number of academics participating in the Teaching Awards process.
In all, 161 participants from all three campuses participated. The Faculty Teaching Awards had the highest participation, with 114 candidates.
The inaugural Team-Teaching Award received excellent submissions, indicating its success as a new category.
This year’s recipients of the University Teaching Excellence Award (UTEA) were Prof Mignon van Vreden (top) of the Faculty of Humanities and Dr Viné Petzer from the Faculty of Education.
Research output
The quality and quantity of research at the NWU continue to improve, as shown in the following table:
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| Journal articles | 1 264,32 | 1 366,3 | 1 342,10 |
| Conference proceedings | 38,84 | 66,9 | 91,5 |
| Books and chapters | 233,43 | 222,90 | 272,6 |
| Total article equivalents published | 1 536,59 | 1 656,1 | 1706,2 |
| Master’s degrees conferred | 722 | 698 | 695 |
| Research master’s | 521,605 | 509,962 | 519,076 |
| Research master’s weighted | 521,605 | 509,962 | 519,076 |
| Doctoral degrees conferred | 251 | 264 | 213 |
| Doctoral degrees weighted | 753 | 792 | 639 |
| Total weighted research output | 2 811,1914 | 2 958,062 | 2 864,276 |
| Postdoctoral fellows | 215 | 212 | 205 |
| Publication units per permanent academic staff member | 0,93 | 0,99 | 1,02 |
* Please note that there is a two-year lag with regard to the research output.
NWU Research and Innovation Excellence Awards
At the annual NWU Excellence Awards in November 2023, awards were presented in various categories, including the Vice-Chancellor’s Award, and awards for the most productive senior and emerging researchers, creative outputs and top inventors.
Prof Ruan Kruger from the Faculty of Health Sciences was named the Most Productive Senior Researcher.
The first links in our value chain are our inputs and activities, as discussed in previous sections of this report. The next stage of the value chain consists of our outcomes, which are intended to create longer-term value.
This future focus means that sustainability is an integral element of our outcomes. After we have taken care of immediate and medium-term needs, there must be sufficient capitals left to use for future value creation.
Financial stability is a good example of an outcome that supports our sustainability. When the NWU is financially stable, we are able to generate other outcomes, such as delivering skilled graduates to enhance the knowledge economy of the country.
Our research output is also an outcome. It strengthens our reputation (another outcome) so that we can attract high quality scientists, further building our human capital and ensuring our future sustainability. In addition, the third leg of our core business, namely community engagement, creates outcomes by empowering people to improve their lives in a sustainable way.
PROF BISMARK TYOBEKA
CHAIRPERSON OF SENATE