RECTOR’S OFFICE
D
ear Student
When taking stock of the month that has been, I
can’t help but be overcome by a flutter of excitement. The month of May represented a bumper
packed four weeks of activities and opportunities
ranging from the prestige of a graduation ceremony, the anticipation of the various beauty pageants,
the acknowledgement of a new Vice Chancellor (and the bidding farewell of the outgoing Vice
Chancellor) as well as the delight in welcoming the
prospective first year of 2015 during the Open Day.
It is said that ability is of little account without opportunity, and I tend to agree. Think about this for
a moment: one can have all the most brilliant and
grand plans imaginable but one needs opportunity
in order to actually put them into action. When we
relate this logic to an event such as the graduation
ceremonies, the value of the opportunities offered
by the North-West University – and more specific
the Vaal Campus, becomes clear. Did you know
that the first group of students who enrolled for the
various extended degree programmes graduated
during the recent autumn graduation ceremonies?
If it was not for the opportunity presented to these
graduates four years ago, the course of their lives
would have been very different.
The same logic applies to the various residence
ambassadors who stepped into the fold during the
run-up to the Mr & Miss NWU Vaal pageant. By
grabbing the opportunity to partake, these students
exuded not only fierce loyalty and pride towards
their different residences but also took up the baton of ambassadorship. I congratulate you on your
newly found status as custodians of the Campus’s
organised student life.
As a University we are heading towards the midyear mark of our 10th anniversary celebrations
and therefore I feel it only befitting to share with
you some of the achievements of the North-West
University since its inception in 2004. In terms of
the NWU’s contribution to the South African labour
force, this is how the NWU grew and excelled thus
far:
4 - Student 24/7
2004 2013
Nursing 153 286
Accountants
292 792
Attorneys 74
252
Engineers 144 200
Further training for teachers 3 163 5 968
• In terms of Education Sciences, the number of
distance students doubled over the past decade
from 2 012 in 2004 to 5 611 in 2013.
In terms of the number of graduates produced, the
Vaal Triangle Campus fared as followed:
2004 2013
Faculty of Humanities
597 892
Faculty of Economic Sciences and IT188 615
Congratulations to all out graduates, and I am excited to see what miraculous things you will be able
to do for our Campus and Country in the future.