Warm greetings to all our alumni.

 

I hope that you enjoy this spring edition of the NWU & U, with its many stories about the successes of our staff and students and news of our engagement with our stakeholders.

 

You will recall that I indicated previously that this year we would be focusing on assessing whether our organisational culture supports our strategy. We have received feedback on our current “as is” culture after engaging in a series of culture conversations with staff and students across the university.

 

The picture that is painted is that the culture is one of achievement and support, albeit with different experiences on the campuses.

 

While most academic staff and students agree that we live our values of academic freedom and freedom of scientific research, there are differences between academic staff and support staff in terms of the NWU values and how they are being lived out. We will have to align and integrate these through this culture project.

 

In the next phase, we will facilitate high-level mapping of the desired and preferred NWU culture for both staff and students, known as the NWU Way.

 

It will be co-created and must support our strategy, so that we can continue our transformation journey to position the NWU as a unitary institution of superior academic excellence with a commitment to social justice and an ethic of care.

 

Click here to read up on our organisational culture initiative on our website.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

​

Prof Dan Kgwadi

Vice-Chancellor