Dear alumni

It is amazing how our vocabulary has changed during the past couple of months. Corona virus. Covid-19 pandemic. Lockdown. Social distancing. These are all words that weren’t on our daily radar a short while ago.

Yes, we are indeed living in a new reality – or, as some call it, the new normal. One of the words linked to this new normal is frustration. This is for instance what you are feeling when your pets and/or children kick up a racket while you are having an online meeting with your colleagues, your slippered feet neatly tucked away under the dining room table.

Fortunately, due to our species’ natural survival instinct, another word – with a far more constructive ring to it – is also cropping up these days, namely innovation.

At the NWU, thinking out of the box has become the order of the day for our staff members. Stretching their capacity and imagination to new limits, our IT department accomplished the almost impossible to enable online learning, while our academics went to great lengths to master new online teaching skills – all aimed at saving the academic year.

At the NWU we are also reaching out to communities outside our campuses. On the Eagi news page we link to various NWU Newsroom articles about our academics and students coming up with innovative ideas to help people and communities during these trying times.

You are probably also finding yourselves in somewhat uncharted waters these days. Let’s all be innovative – not only to survive the lockdown period, but also to turn challenges into opportunities. Please know that we at the NWU are thinking of you, our alumni.

Happy reading,

Nelia and the

NWU & U team

NWU & U  |