Our human capital

At the NWU, we are proud of individuals who are not only experts in their fields but also creative thinkers and problem solvers. This is the calibre of human capital that can drive productivity, innovation and growth, student engagement and collaboration.

Our human capital includes faculty and staff who teach, do research and provide administrative support, as well as students who engage in learning and research. Together, their contributions lead to increased financial, physical, intellectual and social and relationship capital.

Skilled employees can build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, leading to increased trust, collaboration and opportunities for the NWU, while also enhancing our reputation and brand.

Our staff and students play a prominent role in the NWU value chain, as outlined in this table.

Material matters (goals and enables) involved

Almost all material matters affect our staff and students. These matters include teaching and learning, research, community engagement, student value proposition, staff and student profile, ability to govern, lead and manage, information and communication technology, and financial sustainability.

Material matter:

Teaching and learning; research; community engagement

Caring for our students

Graduates entering the labour market require a combination of technical, professional and life skills to adapt to the future world of work and contribute as responsible global citizens.

We promote the holistic and all-round development of our students by offering them opportunities to participate in social, cultural, arts and sport activities.

In addition, student leadership and peer helper programmes help in creating a caring and inclusive environment for a diverse student community.

More information on how we care for our students is available in the vice-chancellor’s report.

Academic and career-related support

Faculties assist students to prepare for assessments, while academic peer mentors and supplemental instruction facilitators assist with academic support.

Career and course counselling is available through Student Counselling and Development (SCD), as are psychometric assessments and leadership and personal development.

SCD also continued to provide support services and programmes, including emotional support (therapy or counselling), HIV testing and counselling, and various social support initiatives. Our Disability Rights Unit supported students living with disabilities, for instance with certain concessions and extended writing time during exams.

All students in contact or distance programmes can access these services via the SCD website or the 24/7 psychological crisis line.

Caring for our staff — building staff capacity

In 2023, about 54% of our training spend was used for various in-house training programmes on digital transformation, emotional intelligence, report writing skills, courageous conversations, diversity training and the launch of the Women Leadership programme.

Semi-skilled employees benefited from learnerships on end-user computing.

We hosted 181 interns through the Presidential Stimulus Programme, in partnership with Universities South Africa (USAf).

In 2023, we spent over R29,7 million on study discount benefits, enabling 869 staff and their dependants to study at the NWU and Unisa.

Empowering our researchers

For our researchers at all levels, we run internal capacity-building workshops. As part of the larger research community in South Africa, we leverage external development opportunities on key topics such as research ethics and integrity, article writing, grant writing, postgraduate supervision and preparing for NRF rating applications.

In 2023, the Library Information Services (LIS) offered advanced data and research skills to postgraduate students and researchers at all levels. Topics included understanding open research practices and policies, navigating the publishing landscape, and mastering research data management.

During 2023, training costs were covered through the Informal Research Development project grant, amounting to R1 860 312,80, and the Enhancement of Researcher Profile project grant, totalling R716 815. Both grants were awarded under the Universities Capacity Development Grant (UCDG).

During 2023, 38 staff members received funding of R1 394 659 from our UCDG to complete their master’s or doctoral studies, while a UCDG contribution of R2 000 000 to the NWU Staff Discount Scheme was made to support 97 staff members enrolled for their master’s or doctoral studies.

Material matter:

Student value proposition

We create an inclusive environment where students can access holistic support, from wellness and skills development to academic support and career advice.

Specialist units and programmes are on hand to support our students’ well-being. They include the campus healthcare centres, campus disability rights units and social welfare projects such as the Meal-a-Day programme for students in need.

The Thuso (Help) Crisis Line is staffed by registered psychologists. Students can choose from face-to-face or online counselling and therapy.

Co-curricular programmes in the arts, sport and student media platforms further strengthen our student value proposition.

Dropout rates

Our student to staff ratio increased from 28,45 to 28,59 in 2023. Our first-time entrant dropout rate dropped from 9,79% in 2022 to 8,86% in 2023.

How much value we created, compared to previous years:

How much value we created, compared to previous years:

We provide a wide variety of support services to our students, ranging from wellness and skills development to academic support and career advice.

Material matter:

Develop and retain excellent staff and create an equitable staff and student profile

Our employees matter

Our wellness offices support the all-round well-being of our staff, from biopsychosocial to spiritual needs.

We use an outsourced service provider, Life Health Solutions, to provide professional counselling services for NWU employees and their dependents, 24 hours a day.

Employee wellness works closely with the Campus Health Care Centres to offer health services to staff, and People and Culture has established a health forum for incapacity guidance and support.

Campus Protection Services and the Occupational Health and Safety Department contribute to a healthy and safe working environment.

Staff profile

Guided by our employment equity plan for 2021 to 2023, we strive to create and maintain an equitable staff profile.

How much value we created, compared to previous years:

How much value we created, compared to our equity targets:

COUNCIL STATEMENT ON CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

The NWU is committed to the principle of fairness which encompasses both substantive and procedural fairness. We strive for proactive resolution of potential disputes and our approach to discipline is of a progressive nature and not punitive. Our grievance procedure stipulates that grievances should be resolved at the lowest point of origin and as speedily as possible. It is worth mentioning that there were no major disputes between the university and unions organised within the NWU.

As there is currently no union that enjoys recognition, engagements with all the three unions are through the Management-Employee Consultative Forum. The engagement meeting with these unions is arranged separately for each union and relevant information is shared with them.

Statement approval obtained from
the NWU Council on 13 June 2024.

NWU Wellness often organises events to raise awareness among staff about the dangers of high blood pressure.

COUNCIL STATEMENT ON WORKER AND STUDENT PARTICIPATION

On worker participation: There is currently still no union with recognition within the NWU, and an interim structure, called the University Consultative Forum, was established to deal with matters that were previously dealt with by the University Bargaining Forum (UBF).

The current situation is that the three unions (NEHAWU, SAPTU and Solidarity), organised within the NWU, enjoy organisational rights. It seems this situation is likely to persist for some time as none of the three unions is close to attaining the mandatory 30% threshold for them to enjoy recognition rights.

On the other hand, the University Management Committee on Cost-of-Living Adjustment (UM-CCOLA) was established after the de-recognition of SAPTU, which used to have a Recognition Agreement with the NWU. The Recognition Agreement entitled SAPTU to be part of the University Bargaining Forum on Cost-of-Living Adjustment (UBF-COLA), which was the forum where the annual negotiation on salary increases took place.

The committee comprises University Management Committee members and co-opted members from the People and Culture and Finance portfolios, owing to their relevant expertise.

On student participation: The NWU Statute forms the basis for ensuring student participation in statutory structures, with student representation further guided by the Institutional Rules on Student Governance and the Constitution of the Student Representative Council (SRC).

In accordance with these rules, the SRC President, after consultation with the SRC, designates members of the SRC and SCCs to become, among others, full members of the NWU Council, some subcommittees of Council (such as the Student Housing Committee, the Student Life Oversight Committee and the Human Rights Committee), as well as the Senate, the Institutional Forum and the Committee for Student Support Services.

The NWU enjoys an extensive student leadership and governance model, with approximately 1 100 student leaders elected annually to various student leadership structures that further ensure student participation throughout all levels of the university, including faculties, university residences, sport and art.

Statement approval obtained from
the NWU Council on 13 June 2024.

Greatness without boundaries

Developing tomorrow’s leaders today

Shaping the leaders of the future, the NWU held its first-ever Student Leadership Summit on 6 October 2023 and launched the Student Leadership Academy.

NWU principal and vice-chancellor Prof Bismark Tyobeka said the university’s vision is to have a long-lasting positive impact on society by nurturing future leaders and change-makers.

He expressed his excitement about the launch of the Student Leadership Academy. “By launching this leadership programme, we are clearly demonstrating our commitment to nurturing these emerging leaders.” (Read more )

More than 150 student leaders, representing various student leadership structures on all three campuses, attended the Student Leadership Summit and the launch of the NWU’s Student Leadership Academy.

Material matter:

Govern, lead and manage; information and communication technology; and financial sustainability

An important part of the responsibilities of the Council and Council committees is supporting and protecting our human capital through good governance.

The committees concerned are the Remuneration Committee, People and Culture and Employment Equity Committee and Student Life Oversight Committee.

For the fair and just people management of the university, we have policies on conflict of interest, governance oversight and management control, human rights, remuneration, performance management, staff learning and development, employment equity and disabilities.

The IT Department upholds the broader values of the NWU and demonstrates its commitment to serving the entire community with fairness and precision. Our ICT systems are well maintained across the three campuses and all staff and students have the hardware, software and helpdesk support they need.

Financial sustainability is always a priority for us. Making sure that our university stays financially sustainable is in the interests of our current staff and students, as well as future generations. Read more about how we do this is in the section on our financial capital.

Our social and relationship capital

Advancing societal progress and contributing to sustainable development through active community engagement are central to our standing as a university with a commitment to social justice and an ethic of care.

We align community engagement, or CE, with teaching, learning and research to nurture intentional relationships with local, national and international stakeholders, including community organisations, businesses and governmental bodies.

These relationships are collaborative. We exchange knowledge and resources in ways that are mutually beneficial and ultimately contribute to more sustainable, just and healthy communities.

Material matters (goals or enablers) involved

Our relationships with external stakeholders affect all our university goals. In sharing knowledge to the benefit of society, we use our communication, marketing and stakeholder engagement activities to reach out and engage.

Creating value together

Our students benefited from work-integrated learning and communities from knowledge sharing.

We enhanced the impact of community engagement activities by aligning them with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The figure below shows how our community engagement activities are aligned with the SDGs.

Engagement alignment with
Sustainable Development Goals in 2023

SDG 4, Quality Education, was associated with the highest number of community engagement activities. This was followed by SDG 3, Good Health and Well-being, and SDG 17, Partnerships to achieve the goals.

The figure below shows the main categories of community engagement activities in 2023. We have seen good growth in engaged scholarship at the NWU.

Clustering of activity types according
to definitions in the Community Engagement Policy

We kept our database of legitimate, trusted service learning partners up to date for service placements.

We also updated our list of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), public benefit organisations (PBOs) and religious organisations that could assist with student placements.

When students have WIL and SL opportunities, they grow academically and acquire planning, negotiation and collaboration skills.

At this stage, SL elements in the curriculum are limited in comparison with WIL, which emphasises learning rather than service to community partners.

That said, many of our faculties are increasing their focus on SL. More information on the projects our faculties undertook, is available here.

In addition, the NWU established a virtual science shop and hosted a Youth Learning Festival.

At the virtual science shop, community members are matched with university units or experts who share their scientific knowledge about issues such as gender-based violence or food security, and help them find solutions.

The NWU’s first Youth Learning Festival, which aimed to develop the assets of unemployed youth from Khuma and Mandawana communities, saw 17 stallholders offering workshops on digital coding, entrepreneurship, career guidance and environmental preservation, among other things.

Material matter:

Research

In 2023, NWU researchers and inventors conduced engaged research on real-life challenges such as load-shedding, alternative heat sources and water quality management.

Funding for our engagement efforts remains a challenge. With the assistance of the NWU's fundraising team, we could actively pursue avenues such as corporate and government-funded engaged research and targeted stakeholder engagement. This could unlock new funding sources, diversify our portfolio and amplify the impact of our research.

Through a collaboration with Emile Coetzee, an NWU historian in the Faculty of Humanities, South African company Value Apps Pty Ltd developed the Road Trip SA app to help travellers uncover places of interest across southern Africa.

The app has over 3 000 listings, photographs, historical explanations and precise locations for easy navigation. It is an invaluable resource for students studying history, tourism and heritage management, and promotes domestic tourism.

Material matter:

Student value proposition; develop and retain excellent staff

Our staff and students contribute to society through volunteering in many different ways, from establishing community gardens and running the meal-a-day programme to address food insecurity to collecting sanitary pads for distribution at schools.

Here are a few examples of the community engagement activities students and support staff undertook in 2023:

The GoAllOut organisation’s student chapter at the NWU launched the Pad the Way project to combat period poverty. So far, it has collected 100 000 sanitary pads for girls at schools in the Mahikeng area.

At Bert’s Bricks Primary School in Potchefstroom, a backyard garden was launched. This was a partnership involving the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), the NWU's Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, the Social Anthropology subject group, Assupol, Sanlam, the North West Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, and the North West Department of Education.

The Vanderbijlpark Campus’s Student Campus Council (SCC) organised a "Hang a Hug" event where students and staff donated jackets that were hung on trees around the campus for those in need during winter. Over 150 jackets were collected.

A total of 16 966 kilograms of clothing and shoes were collected for donation to schools, children's homes and non-profit organisations through the annual Barefoot Day event of the SCC at the Potchefstroom Campus.

Challenges and future outlook

Closer working relationships with partners are planned for the coming year. Our aim is to work together to set targeted objectives to address our partners’ needs and engage with NWU experts who can assist with challenges identified.

While technology and online education offer avenues for skills development among communities hard hit by poverty, inequality and unemployment, the digital divide impedes progress. We plan to donate 156 redundant computers to deserving community partners.

Entrepreneurship, environmental responsibility and digital literacy are central to our focus on advancing the SDGs and the African Agenda 2063. We are committed to contributing to societal progress through development and sharing expertise.

Our natural capital

Safeguarding natural resources such as water, soil and clean air is key to the sustainable operations of the university and our ability to create value. Such resources are under threat from climate change and pollution, bringing sustainable consumption to the fore in everything we do.

Material matters (goals or enablers) involved

Without natural resources as inputs, we cannot realise any of our goals or implement our enablers.

The material matter “to promote sustainability” (part of goal three in our APP) is particularly relevant here.

Our policies and strategies to protect our natural resources include the NWU Environmental Sustainability Policy and the Environmental Sustainability Guidelines that were introduced in 2022.

We used these to refine our NWU Environmental Strategy in 2023. Our full environmental and sustainability policy framework can be viewed here.

Our strategy focuses on measuring and reporting our consumption of natural resources, encouraging behaviour change, optimising the efficiency of current installations, adopting resource-saving technologies for new buildings, and using alternative energy sources and waterwise solutions.

The strategy outlines five pillars that support the NWU’s values, as shown in the figure below:

Five pillars of the environmental sustainability strategy

Measure, verify and report

• Actively do energy measuring on a full-time basis
• Verify utility bills for usage, tariffs and correct charges
• Enable internal chargebacks to residences and internal energy supplies
• Report on energy consumption
• Issue and generate the data required for energy performance certificates
• Measure the NWU carbon footprint

Behavioural change

• Promote energy and water conservation
• Use technology to promote behavioural change
• Use information to promote behavioural change
• Use visuals of energy usage to change behaviour and encourage savings
• Stakeholder engagement

Optimise current installations

• Retrofit what we have with more energy and water-efficient equipment
• Change and improve equipment to minimise losses
• Improve controls
• Use intelligent controls and time‑of‑use controls
• Install real-time controls to verify the systems and their functionality
• Engage actively with municipalities (service providers)
• Advocate for university exemption from load-shedding

New installations (construction projects)

• Install energy-efficient products and equipment
• Use alternative energy and cooling solutions
• Design buildings that support energy and water efficiency
• Adopt all energy savings initiatives as per the SANS10400
• Design and construct buildings to use natural ventilation to reduce energy consumption of mechanical ventilation systems

Alternative energy sources and waterwise solutions

• Use green energy sources
• Use grey water and rainwater harvesting
• Install water-saving devices
• Prepare an emergency water plan
• Install reservoirs to carry the campuses through short water supply interruptions
• Register boreholes to be used for alternative supplies
• Undertake strategic projects to validate reliability of new technologies and secure buy-back periods
• Provide our own water treatment plants

Material matter:

Teaching and learning; research; community engagement

In 2023, we conducted our first formal carbon footprint calculation, focusing on carbon emissions for 2022. Here is a summary our carbon footprint for 2022.

NWU carbon footprint FY22: 134,751 tCO2e

We implemented a fully automated energy management system in 2023 and did assessments of water quality, water treatment process gaps and water usage.

Large solar plant installations commenced in late 2023 and will continue in 2024. We tested waste-to-landfill reduction options and appointed service providers to do off-campus waste recycling for each campus.

For hazardous waste disposal, we use a thermal desorption process and aim to achieve a zero-to-landfill operation.

The NWU undertook a campaign to encourage staff and students to reduce their electricity usage.

Electricity consumption (kWh) January to December 2023

The graph below shows that renewable energy sources installed in 2023 have started to decrease of the university’s dependence on grid electricity.

Future outlook

We will continue our efforts to address environmental sustainability – especially in reducing the NWU’s carbon footprint.

A long-term sustainable and renewable energy-generation solution is to install solar photovoltaic electric generation facilities across the NWU. Our goal is to source a minimum of 30% of energy from renewable sources by 2024.

However, energy efficiency is also about people’s behaviour. We aim to achieve a 10% behaviour-related reduction in energy use in 2024.

Other energy-saving measures include installing energy-efficient lighting in our buildings, for instance, occupancy and dimmable lights.

The results of water treatment, quality and usage assessments in 2023 highlighted the significant need to address water saving and water quality supplied by local authorities. We aim to install water treatment plants for each campus between 2024 and 2026.

We realise that clean drinking water may become the next big challenge and will continue to focus strongly on water supply, quality and consumption.

Greatness without boundaries

NWU celebrates World Environmental Day

The theme for World Environment Day on 5 June 2023 focused on solutions to plastic pollution under the campaign #BeatPlasticPollution.

Prof Bismark Tyobeka, principal and vice-chancellor, challenged students and staff to stop using plastic water bottles and bring their refillable water bottles with them to class and work.

“The NWU is committed to environmental sustainability and is on a drive to reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.

Click on the image to watch Prof Tyobeka inviting NWU staff and students to become part of the #BeatPlasticPollution campaign.

Our financial capital

Our financial capital comes from state funding, debt and revenue generated through our operations and investments. We use this capital to provide services and maintain and improve our infrastructure to create value for the NWU and our stakeholders.

The key to maintaining financial health and stability is to manage our income and spending, as set out in our three-year rolling budget.

Material matters (goals or enablers) involved

Enabler 4 (financial stability) is our main focus, but all our goals and other enablers contribute as we need money to achieve and implement them.

Material matter: Ensure the financial sustainability of the NWU

We plan well and allocate resources to support our core business strategies. This is crucial for our long-term financial sustainability.

Improvements in how we manage our finances include compiling a detailed three-year rolling budget and strengthening financial risk management. We update the financial risk factors of our Financial Impact Model and mitigation plan whenever new, relevant information becomes available.

Our income predictions are realistic and we budget for affordable expenses, using approved principles.

In calculating the high-level expense budget, we took into account the financial health indicators from the DHET and the NWU’s 2023 budgeted cash-flow expense ratios, as follows:

Financing our strategic initiatives

We use our dedicated strategic fund to invest in specific strategic projects, which are carried out over and above the activities and resources in the normal operating budget. The University Management Committee approves the allocation of strategic funds.

COUNCIL STATEMENT ON BORROWINGS

The NWU did not enter into any new long-term borrowing agreements in 2023.

Statement approval obtained from
the NWU Council on 13 June 2024.

Read more about these strategic projects in the section on our strategy.

Strategic funds allocated per goal/enabler
APP link	Rand value of allocation R’000	% of allocation
Goal 1	19 115	32,5%
Goal 2	17 104	29,1%
Goal 5	19 400	33,0%
Enabler 4	3 200	5,4%
Grand total	58 819	100%

Financial overview

This financial overview is a joint report by the chairperson of the Finance Committee of Council and the executive director for finance and facilities.

It presents a summary of our financial results for 2023, provides information about the budgeting and budgetary control processes followed, and gives an overview of financial achievements.

Conclusion

During 2023, the NWU again added material value to the economy, and was able to achieve its financial goals.

The NWU provides affordable higher education, resulting in 12 358 students receiving degrees and diplomas during 2023 and ready to become part of the South African work force and knowledge economy.

Our Financial Aid offices administered a total of R2,8 billion in bursary funds during 2023. A part of this was earmarked to support and enhance academic performance, with students receiving bursaries to the amount of R250,1 million from our own funds.

The cash flow investment in property, plant and equipment amounted to R530,9 million (2022: R416,0 million and 2021: R353,4 million) from DHET infrastructure and efficiency funding, as well as funding from own reserves.

Although not all projects have been completed in 2023 and some macro-maintenance being carried forward to 2024, out total assets increased by 10,9% (2022: 12,5% and 2021: 14,9%).

We were able to maintain a sound solvency position and optimal liquidity levels during the 2023 financial year to ensure that the NWU remains a going concern.

Council and management are committed to maintaining this financial health, despite the university’s reliance on state subsidies and tuition fee-related income, with the latter income totalling 71,1% of turnover (2022: 76,2% and 2021: 77,1%).

The NWU's financial results from recent years provide a solid foundation for navigating future uncertainties and challenges.

In the near future: opportunities and challenges in executing our strategy

We are vigilant in monitoring developments around the funding of higher education. Internally, we continue to diversify and optimise our income streams, improve operating cost efficiency and effectiveness, optimise the use of infrastructure, and manage our mitigation plan and cash with great care.

It is of the greatest importance that the higher education and NSFAS funding model should support the financial sustainability of universities.

We reiterate our commitment to working with the DHET to ensure a well-functioning and sustainable NWU and, more broadly, the stability and sustainability of the South African higher education sector. The NWU has been participating actively in the modelling of the future funding design and will continue to do so.

Future outlook: how to maintain financial sustainability

Internally, our focus will continue to be on diversifying and optimising our income streams, improving operating cost efficiency and effectiveness, optimising the use of infrastructure, and managing our mitigation plan and cash with great care.

We reiterate our commitment to working with the DHET to ensure a well-functioning and sustainable NWU and, more broadly, the stability and sustainability of the South African higher education sector.

Greatness without boundaries

Investing in our students

The NWU’s financial aid offices administered R2,8 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.

A part of the university’s contribution was earmarked to support and enhance academic performance, with students receiving bursaries to the amount of R250,1 million from NWU funds.

R46,8 million (19%) of the funds allocated for financial aid was used for student academic merit awards. The success rate of our merit bursary holders was 96,7%.

Greatness without boundaries

Celebrating the ‘river of knowledge’ – our new Tsebonokeng Hall

Tsebonokeng is an apt name for the new multipurpose hall on the Vanderbijlpark Campus. This Sesotho name means river of knowledge – a description that fits this venue, situated on the banks of the Vaal River, like a glove.

Tsebonokeng Hall, which was officially opened on 29 May 2023, has state-of-the-art architecture and can seat more than 1 700 people.

Using digital technology, the versatile building can be repurposed for a variety of events, ranging from graduation ceremonies and examinations to conferences, workshops, social and indoor sports events and public lectures.

Laser beams simulate the lines of the courts for different sports codes without leaving permanent markings. (Read more)

The new Tsebonokeng Hall proudly takes its place in a long line of infrastructure developments on the Vanderbijlpark Campus.

Our manufactured capital

This capital is the physical infrastructure that supports our core business activities and enables us to provide services to our stakeholders. Manufactured capital consists of buildings and infrastructure, as well as teaching technology, research equipment, IT systems and infrastructure for teaching, research and community engagement.

By putting our facilities and infrastructure to work, we increase our intellectual, human and social and relationship capital and support the execution of our strategy.

Material matters (goals or enablers) involved

Our manufactured capital has a bearing on material matters such as teaching and learning, research, community engagement, student value proposition, our ability to govern, lead and manage, information and communication technology, communication, marketing and stakeholder engagement and financial sustainability.

Safety on and around our campuses

Both the Mahikeng and Vanderbijlpark campuses implemented the “Purple Route” Safety and Security project in 2023 to ensure the safety of students, staff and visitors.

At the Vanderbijlpark Campus, the project commenced on 1 June 2023, covering two routes, each with two security officers.

The Mahikeng Campus opened its “Purple Route” on 16 October 2023, also with two routes and two security officers for each route.

While the Mahikeng and Vanderbijlpark municipalities had committed to supporting the Purple Route projects, there was a lack of follow-through.

Infrastructure development

We spent R393 million for capital works, macro maintenance and minor works across the university in 2023. This funding was from the DHET and our own funds.

The following table provides a spending breakdown:

DHET grant funding

The overall expenditure for 2023 on DHET Infrastructure Efficiency Grant (IEG) funding cycles was R122 983 999.

We completed our largest student accommodation project to date in 2023, consisting of six clusters with a total of 1 728 beds on the Mahikeng Campus. Its successful completion demonstrates the university’s goal of providing safe accommodation on and around its campuses.

Accommodation for our students

Student housing on and near the three campuses consisted of 48 university-owned residences and four leased accommodation facilities operated as formal residences. This accommodation had the capacity to accommodate 12 743 students in 2023.

We ensure that residence fees are appropriate and affordable, and that all residences comply with the national policy on minimum norms and standards for public universities in South Africa. These standards deal with physical infrastructure, prescribed equipment per student, residence staffing levels, location, health and safety, governance, professional development of residence staff, policies and procedures and student discipline.

Complying with norms and standards

When the DHET standards for student housing were reviewed, the NWU actively participated in the development of the future standards. These have not yet been published.

In the meantime, we ensure that all new student residences meet the existing minimum norms and standards for student accommodation. Similarly, when residences are upgraded, we make sure that the changes and improvements comply.

We have been making good progress with the accreditation of private student accommodation providers, in line with the DHET’s expectations.

Our accreditation department accredited approximately 24 563 beds at 1 412 facilities in 2023.

Construction and refurbishment

We cleared the pandemic-related backlog of infrastructure projects from 2020/21 and made progress with other projects that had been delayed. Even better progress is expected during 2024.

Plans for the future

Council approved the NWU’s Spatial Development Framework for future infrastructure planning.

In 2024, we will accelerate the shift to more sustainable power and water resources and further renew the buildings and infrastructure on the three campuses.

The Mahikeng Campus can look forward to an investment of R144 million in infrastructure projects to address compliance risks in teaching-learning spaces and upgrade student life recreation areas.

On the Potchefstroom Campus, residence and property upgrades will focus on addressing compliance risks in teaching-learning spaces.

At the Vanderbijlpark Campus, a high priority is investment in water sustainability infrastructure services.

We plan to continue converting lecture venues into HyFlex learning environments.

IT infrastructure developments

In 2023, we enhanced the NWU's IT capabilities, which strengthened our intellectual and human capitals.

We implemented "data protection" capabilities and enhanced our toolkit with cutting-edge backup and snapshot technologies for information protection. At the same time, we significantly enhanced our Wi-Fi and campus backbone to ensure our infrastructure can handle current and future requirements.

The integration platform, which facilitates seamless communication between various applications and systems, was bolstered. We set up a robust data architecture and revamped crucial organisational systems.

Security was a top priority. We created a comprehensive NWU enterprise security architecture to tackle vulnerabilities proactively and established a hybrid security team. We contributed to national collaborative initiatives to enhance cybersecurity and support the broader community.

Future outlook

IT will concentrate on improving workforce diversity and service delivery efficiency, strengthening cybersecurity and overseeing strategic projects with a focus on alignment and governance.

We are emphasising innovation through AI strategies and advanced technology integration that bridge the gap between IT and business, enabling improved communication, stakeholder engagement and digital dexterity.

We aim to elevate our e-learning management system, eFundi, and other IT services by leveraging the Digital Business Strategy to foster a more interactive, personalised and efficient learning environment.

COUNCIL STATEMENT ON ADDITIONAL INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE

All additional investments in infrastructure at the NWU during 2023 were duly authorised.

Statement approval obtained from
the NWU Council on 13 June 2024.