The NWU is a multi-campus university with a footprint across two provinces. The Mafikeng and Potchefstroom Campuses are situated in the North-West Province and the Vaal Triangle Campus is in Gauteng. The head office, known as the Institutional Office, is in Potchefstroom, situated near the Potchefstroom Campus.

The NWU came into being on 1 January 2004 through the merger of two universities with very different histories, personalities and cultures: the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education and the University of the North-West. The staff and students of the Sebokeng Campus of Vista University were also incorporated, adding further to the richness of our heritage.

Today, five years after the merger, the NWU is recognised as one of the best-managed and most innovative universities in South Africa. As conveyed in our pay-off line, Innovation through diversity, we continue to celebrate and encourage multiculturalism, multilingualism and multinationalism.

The NWU offers students an exceptionally rich range of study choices at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Our offerings span the spectrum of academic disciplines, from agriculture and the arts through to commerce, engineering, education, health, law, the natural sciences and theology.

While giving students great flexibility in their study choices, the NWU actively encourages enrolments in engineering, commerce and the natural sciences. These are the fields in which South Africa faces the biggest skills shortages.

 

RESEARCH WORK

The NWU has a clear vision for research and innovation. This is to move from being a tuition-based university that does focused research towards a balanced teaching-learning and research university. As the following statistics show, the NWU is making rapid progress towards this vision:

• Currently, the NWU ranks among the top seven universities in South Africa for research and among the top two for innovation.

• In 2008, out of all South African universities, the NWU earned the most income from the Technology and Human Resources Programme (THRIP), underlining the innovative and relevant research being done in close association with industry.

• The NWU has 103 researchers with ratings from the National Research Foundation (NRF). This means that more than 10% of all our academic members of staff are NRF-rated researchers.

• The doctoral graduation rate at the NWU is the fourth best in South Africa and the Master’s graduation rate is the third best.

• The University’s researchers have won numerous national and international awards for their work. In just one example, a group of NWU researchers was part of an international team that won the European Union Descartes Science Prize for 2006.

 

Research Entities Model

To speed up the move towards becoming a balanced teaching-learning and research university, the NWU has introduced a new Research Entities Model.  This model is designed to put research output on a high-growth, high-performance path by encouraging the establishment of more research start-up groups and creating more scope for growth for existing research teams.

There are four levels of research entities, starting with the “entry level” entity, that of a niche area, followed by a focus area, then a unit and ultimately a centre of excellence.

The NWU currently has seven niche areas:

• Population and Health	• Hypertension in Africa Research Team (HART)
• Musical Arts in South Africa: Resources and Applications	• Physical Activity Sport and Recreation
• Medicine Usage in South Africa	• Education Technology for Effective Teaching, Learning and Facilitation
• Socio-economic impact of tourism

 

In addition, there are three search focus areas:

• Sustainable social development	• Teaching-Learning Organisations
• Chemical resource beneficiation

 

The following 11 research units exist at the NWU:

• Unit for Business Mathematics and Informatics	• Unit for Energy systems
• Unit for Development in the South African Constitutional state	• Unit for Reformed Theology and the development of the South African society
• Unit for Drug research and development	• Unit for Space Physics
• Unit for Environmental sciences and management	• Workwell: Research unit for People, Policy and Performance
• Unit for Languages and Literature in the South African context	• Thinkwell: Economic value of wellness research
• Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research (AUTHeR)

 

The NWU has one centre of excellence:

• Centre of Excellence for Nutrition (CEN)