February 2023

NWU promotes excellence in research

Welcome to 2023's first edition of the North-West University's newsletter, Research@NWU. The aim of the newsletter is to showcase research projects, researchers and related events. This newsletter is one of seven, distributed to academic staff and researchers during the year.

Researchers find 'spiral arms' around massive stars

Researchers have found an important piece of the puzzle in the formation of massive stars, also known as protons (stars with a mass that is about eight times or more greater than that of the sun).

Improving service delivery in the public sector is researcher's aim

Poor service delivery is a problem throughout South Africa, but Prof Costa Hofisi is doing something about it. He has set his sights on contributing to service delivery improvements in the public sector.

Building healthy attitudes towards STEM education

Students' low performance and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, particularly among women who are underrepresented in the scientific community, have been a major concern in many countries.

Primary source of reputational risk for banks

Operational risk has been identified as the primary source of reputational risk for South African banks. This is according to new research by Finance and Investment professor Prof Suné Ferreira-Schenk.

Early childhood education skills to grannies and moms

For children up to seven years old to reach their full potential, early childhood education is essential. Across Africa, many caregivers are grannies and mothers without formal qualifications.

Meet our researchers

The Faculty of Health Sciences is doing exciting work on the research front. We introduce Dr Annemarie Wentzel, a researcher and senior lecturer in neurophysiology.

Dr Wentzel is part of the Hypertension in Africa Research Team (HART), and is also linked to the South African Medical Research Council Extramural Unit on Cardiometabolic Disease.

Please share your comments and input by sending an email to the newsletter editor, willie.duplessis@nwu.ac.za