North-West University

IN JANUARY 2004, the University of North-West (previously the University of Bophuthatswana) merged with the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education to form North-West University. It seemed an unlikely union – yet it’s working. The new university’s tagline is ‘Innovation through diversity’. And in 2008, the university won the Price
Waterhouse Cooper ‘Best governed university’ competition, the Pan-South African Language Board’s ‘University that has done the most for nation building and multi-lingualism’, and the Department of Science and Technology’s ‘Most innovative university’.

The roots of the Potchefstroom institution are to be found in the Theological School of the Reformed Churches of South Africa, established in 1869 in the Cape Colony and transferred to Potchefstroom a few years after the Anglo-Boer War. In 1921, the Potchefstroom University College came into being, and 30 years later it gained the status of an independent university that provided a wide range of programmes surrounding the original focus on theology. The university in Mafikeng (originally called the University of Bophuthatswana) had a similar beginning. In a pontaneous movement among the people of the region, R100 000 was raised by public subscription because they wanted their own university.  

They got it in the form of a Bantustan institution that emerged into the mainstream in 1994. Not surprisingly, the merger was not without its difficulties. Skilful leadership finally won the day, and now North-West
University delivers its academic services from Potchefstroom and Mafikeng campuses in North West Province, and the Vaal Triangle campus in Vanderbijlpark situated in Guateng. To accommodate the geographical distribution of its campuses, the university has adopted a two-tier  management model. This consists of an Institutional Office that ensures university-wide consistency in policy and procedure. In addition, the three campuses operate as co-ordinated business units; and both the institutional and campus components are represented on the institutional management team.