Message from

the vice-chancellor

Dear alumnus,

 

Step by step we are changing the North-West University for the better. Many stakeholders welcome these changes, while others feel we are abandoning our past. Allow me to explain: Our change to a unitary university was necessary and timeous. We could not continue to function as a federal institution. It was neither practically sustainable nor in accordance with the imperatives of our context.

 

This fundamental shift in our approach is still being rolled out. We now have an executive dean heading each faculty across the campuses. Cross-campus school directors will soon be appointed. We are thus re-engineering the NWU to meet the challenges of today and the next decade.

 

A symbolic dimension that we are attending to is our corporate colour or colours. As a unitary institution we cannot continue with campus colours and sports teams representing the NWU as NWU Mafikeng, NWU Pukke or NWU Vaal. We believe we are one NWU and we must symbolically look the same.

 

For this reason the Department of Corporate Relations and Marketing started a design and consultation process earlier this year. The University Management Committee was happy with the subsequent proposals, referring these to Council for a final decision.

 

At the Council meeting of 21 September, it was agreed that more consultation was required and that a presentation should be made to Council with three options: the present maroon, blue and green (as a combination), purple (as suggested by the branding committee) and one other option. Council also stated that the new unitary brand should be implemented in 2018. (Note that there is no proposal to change the shape of the logo.)

Whatever choice is made, it will represent a new era.

The colour-coded campuses will no longer be an option as we want to proceed as a unified university represented by one colour or a combination of colours.

 

Alumni will be consulted on this, but we do not intend holding a referendum on this issue. People have too many diverse ideas about colours and will always differ on it. For this reason we trust our experts to present us with good options. However, we want buy-in and wish to take you along on the journey that started when our new strategy and structure were adopted.

 

Important to note is that our newly evolving NWU culture incorporates the best of all campuses and cultures. We cannot be the same as 10 or 30 years ago. We have moved on. We want to be a better university for the time we live in, namely a unitary university with a strong commitment to academic excellence and a focus on social justice.

 

We know you want to remain proud of your alma mater. We thank you for your ongoing loyalty and commit ourselves to be deserving of your support.

 

Kind regards,

 

​

Prof Dan Kgwadi

Vice-Chancellor