This after the Council on Higher Education (CHE) said the university was at risk of losing its accreditation for the Bachelor of Law qualification if the quality of its programmes did not improve. 

NWU Vice-Chancellor, Dan Kgwadi, says the university has come up with a new strategy to ensure the discrepancy identified in the law faculties at the Mahikeng and Potchefstroom campuses is addressed and that there is equity in the provision of resources, as well as a more unitary approach.

"The issues that CHE raised had more to do with programmes that are not aligned, but the certificate being the same from the university, the faculties that do not have the same resources but the certificate being the same. So, we really have to work on alignment. Kgwadi says the university is currently working on appointing senior management. He says there will only be one Dean heading the faculty of law across all campuses."

Kgwadi says there are also issues relating to language and diversity. He says non-Afrikaans speaking students at the Potchefstroom campus have raised issues relating to a lack of translation services. He says these are some of the issues that the new strategy will address.

“The CHE comments came at the right time, because we have recently had our strategy approved, structures put in place and the statute that empowers us to implement that strategy,” he said.

Kathelo Morapela/OFM News