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Welcome to the North-West University's Vaal Triangle Campus on the banks of the Vaal River. My name is Joshua and I'll be your tour guide.
Please use the arrows above to navigate around our campus.
Our campus is located in Vanderbijlpark and we are now at the main entrance in Hendrik van Eck Boulevard.
We started out as a satellite campus in 1963 and moved to the current campus grounds in 1984. In 2004 we became a fully-fledged campus when the former Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education and University of Northwest merged to form the North-West University.
You can find us by following these GPS coordinates:
S26ø43?31.0?
E27ø52? 45.2?
SRC Offices trail
SRC Offices
Tour stop audio transcript
Moving along to the eastern side of the campus we arrive at the heart of student life on campus. Our student population has grown rapidly over the past 5 years and has surpassed the 6 000 mark. These are the offices of the Student Representative Council or SRC. From here the student leadership interact with house committees of the various residences and represent the interests of our student population to campus management.
NWU Vaal River fm & Student24/7
Tour stop audio transcript
Next door to the SRC offices are our campus radio station, NWU Vaal River fm, and student newspaper, Student 24/7. The radio station had its first broadcast during 2013. You can listen to it on 87.6fm. Student 24/7 is an online newspaper bringing you the latest on student life and campus activities. It published its first edition in 2010.
Both the radio station and newspaper provide students who aspire to enter the media sector, a chance to get hands-on experience and learn in a safe environment to be DJs, journalists and news photographers (http://www.nwu.ac.za/content/student247-about-us).
Cafeteria
Tour stop audio transcript
The third building forming part of the Student Centre is the Cafeteria. It serves a great variety of fast foods, snacks and cooked meals to students and staff members alike. With an open view to the natural surroundings forming part of the campus, students can sit here and often see ducks and geese waddling by on the edge of the dam wedged between the buildings.
The relaxing space comes with freely available Wi-Fi and uncapped internet access, which gives you the opportunity to complete an assignment or do some group-work.
Tour stop audio transcript
The third building forming part of the Student Centre is the Cafeteria. It serves a great variety of fast foods, snacks and cooked meals to students and staff members alike. With an open view to the natural surroundings forming part of the campus, students can sit here and often see ducks and geese waddling by on the edge of the dam wedged between the buildings.
The relaxing space comes with freely available Wi-Fi and uncapped internet access, which gives you the opportunity to complete an assignment or do some group-work.
Tour stop audio transcript
The third building forming part of the Student Centre is the Cafeteria. It serves a great variety of fast foods, snacks and cooked meals to students and staff members alike. With an open view to the natural surroundings forming part of the campus, students can sit here and often see ducks and geese waddling by on the edge of the dam wedged between the buildings.
The relaxing space comes with freely available Wi-Fi and uncapped internet access, which gives you the opportunity to complete an assignment or do some group-work.
Tour stop audio transcript
The third building forming part of the Student Centre is the Cafeteria. It serves a great variety of fast foods, snacks and cooked meals to students and staff members alike. With an open view to the natural surroundings forming part of the campus, students can sit here and often see ducks and geese waddling by on the edge of the dam wedged between the buildings.
The relaxing space comes with freely available Wi-Fi and uncapped internet access, which gives you the opportunity to complete an assignment or do some group-work.
Building 4
Tour stop audio transcript
Moving past the Cafeteria we walk up a ridge towards Building 4. The Schools for Economic Sciences and Accounting are located in this building. At the back of this building a long-time resident of the campus is located. The Van Schaik Bookstore is conveniently located on campus and students can buy all their stationary and prescribed text books here.
Building 3
Tour stop audio transcript
Companion to Building 4 is Building 3. Once the home of the campus library, the building is now one of the buildings dedicated to the Faculty of Economic Sciences and IT. Facilities specially equipped for robotics, enterprise development, entrepreneurship, as well as the advanced training of accounting and IT students are available here.
Building 6
Tour stop audio transcript
Across from Building 4 is Building 6. This is one of the campus? lecture hall hubs and hosts an assortment of lecture halls and class rooms. The bhive Enterprise Development Centre or EDC is also located here. The EDC is dedicated to entrepreneurial development of students and the Vaal community. The EDC recently launched the Enterprising Women Programme to assist female entrepreneurs to achieve their business dreams and goals.
Another resident is the Centre for Continuing Professional Development. The centre provides a range of informal teaching and learning related activities, such as short learning programmes and courses, continuing professional development offerings, and workshops (http://www.nwu.ac.za/bhiveECD/home).
Tour stop audio transcript
Across from Building 4 is Building 6. This is one of the campus? lecture hall hubs and hosts an assortment of lecture halls and class rooms. The bhive Enterprise Development Centre or EDC is also located here. The EDC is dedicated to entrepreneurial development of students and the Vaal community. The EDC recently launched the Enterprising Women Programme to assist female entrepreneurs to achieve their business dreams and goals.
Another resident is the Centre for Continuing Professional Development. The centre provides a range of informal teaching and learning related activities, such as short learning programmes and courses, continuing professional development offerings, and workshops (http://www.nwu.ac.za/bhiveECD/home).
Tour stop audio transcript
Across from Building 4 is Building 6. This is one of the campus? lecture hall hubs and hosts an assortment of lecture halls and class rooms. The bhive Enterprise Development Centre or EDC is also located here. The EDC is dedicated to entrepreneurial development of students and the Vaal community. The EDC recently launched the Enterprising Women Programme to assist female entrepreneurs to achieve their business dreams and goals.
Another resident is the Centre for Continuing Professional Development. The centre provides a range of informal teaching and learning related activities, such as short learning programmes and courses, continuing professional development offerings, and workshops (http://www.nwu.ac.za/bhiveECD/home).
Building 7 trail
Building 7
Tour stop audio transcript
Next door is Building 7, where the Dean? office of the Faculty of Humanities is located. The Faculty of Humanities includes the following schools: Languages, Basic Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, and Education Sciences.
In Building 7 the school of Languages and Behavioural Sciences can be found. Various research programmes and training centres are also located here.
The Optentia Research Programme studies the optimal expression of individual, social and institutional potential (http://www.optentia.co.za/). CTrans, the Centre for Translation and Professional Language Services, is both a professional language practice and practical training facility for students.
And finally, UPSET, a research area that focuses on Understanding and Processing Language in Complex Settings, and include subtitling and eye-tracking technology (http://upsetresearch.blogspot.com/).
Building 13 trail
Building 13
Tour stop audio transcript
Building 13 is the new jewel in the Vaal Campus crown. This newest addition hosts the campus library and academic commons. The library is equipped with 180 computers, 687 seats, 85 000 books, and more than 6 000 electronic book titles available.
This one-stop facility caters for a variety of student needs, such as Student Counselling & Development, Academic Development & Support, as well as a reading and writing centre. In addition, IT support, a coffee shop, and a computer room with 24 hour access are also available here.
The first digital South African Water History Archival Repository is also stored in this Building.
Tour stop audio transcript
Building 13 is the new jewel in the Vaal Campus crown. This newest addition hosts the campus library and academic commons. The library is equipped with 180 computers, 687 seats, 85 000 books, and more than 6 000 electronic book titles available.
This one-stop facility caters for a variety of student needs, such as Student Counselling & Development, Academic Development & Support, as well as a reading and writing centre. In addition, IT support, a coffee shop, and a computer room with 24 hour access are also available here.
The first digital South African Water History Archival Repository is also stored in this Building.
Building 11B
Tour stop audio transcript
Next door is Building 11B, home to the School of Basic Sciences. This school comprises diverse specialty areas such as history, law, philosophy, public management and administration, political science, and theology. Dynamic research conducted within the school includes water history, as well as comprehensive NRF-funded multi-disciplinary research project aimed at all aspects of the Bekkersdal community in Westonaria.
Building 11A trail
Building 11 A
Tour stop audio transcript
Companion to Building 11B is Building 11A. This building is dedicated to the School of Education Sciences and the training of tomorrow?s teachers. Various computer, reading research, physics and chemistry laboratories are located here and are used in the training of Bachelor of Education students.
The School of Education helps to improve early childhood development in the region through the Siyakhulisa project. The project aims to assist untrained teachers with the skills they need to provide for young children?s development needs within the constraints of their resources.
Building 8 trail
Building8
Tour stop audio transcript
Moving across the road we arrive at Building 8. In this building you will find the dean's office of the Faculty of Economic Sciences and IT, as well as the mathematics and statistics subject groups within the School of IT.
Very dynamic departments are grouped together in this building; they include the Campus IT Service Department, the App Factory, as well as research areas such as the Centre for Applied Risk Management and MUST, which focuses on Multilingual Speech Technology (http://www.nwu.ac.za/content/vtc-research-must-homepage).
Forming part of this faculty's industry-driven initiatives is the Serious Games Institute SA, a joint venture with Coventry University in the UK, which uses simulation games to train people in socio-economics, regional planning, and risk assurance (http://www.nwu.ac.za/sgi/about20us.html).
Buildings 9 (a,b,c) & 12
Tour stop audio transcript
Our next stop is next door. Buildings 9a, 9b and 9c, as well as building 12 comprise our campus? biggest lecture hall hub. Building 9a provides access to a number of computer laboratories and a biology laboratory, while Buildings 9b, 9C and 12 contain lecture halls accommodating classes ranging between 100 and 320 students.
All our classrooms are equipped with state of the art technology to support the offering of high quality programmes.
Western (bus) entrance
Tour stop audio transcript
Close to the lecture halls of buildings 9 and 12 is the western entrance to the campus. This entrance is mainly used for the student bus service, partly financed by campus management to assist students who reside off campus.
Residences trail
Residences
Tour stop audio transcript
Centrally located are the various on-campus residences. In 2014 several new residence blocks opened on campus to keep up with our rapidly growing student population. These residences are self-catering with a kitchen and communal area, which students in a residence block share. Each residence is governed by a house committee elected by the residents and guided by a house parent.
Tour stop audio transcript
Centrally located are the various on-campus residences. In 2014 several new residence blocks opened on campus to keep up with our rapidly growing student population. These residences are self-catering with a kitchen and communal area, which students in a residence block share. Each residence is governed by a house committee elected by the residents and guided by a house parent.
Building 17 trail
Building 17 (Technology Education)
Tour stop audio transcript
Moving down to the southern part of campus we arrive at Building 17. This building is equipped with a number of workshops where Bachelor of Education students are helped to master the practical aspects of Mechanical, Civil and Electric Technology, as well as how to teach these technical subjects to both high school and Further Education and Training College learners. The important knowledge future teachers receive here will help to equip tomorrow?s youth to enter industries where such skills are lacking.
Building 25 trail
Building 25
Tour stop audio transcript
Moving further down the winding road we get to Building 25. This building is one of the first to be erected on campus and today houses various campus management offices, support services such as Student Affairs, the campus archive, lecture halls, campus clinic, as well as the campus gym. Our campus body building team is the 2013 University Sports South Africa (USSA) tournament winners.
Building 24
Tour stop audio transcript
Next door is Building 24. The office of the rector is located here. This is the administrative heartbeat of our campus. Here, students come to apply, register and finance their studies. International students can contact the international office located here in building 24 with queries ranging from travel, housing and degree courses offered on the Vaal Triangle Campus.
The NWU Vaal Triangle Campus can be contacted by dialling 016 9103111.
Tour stop audio transcript
Next door is Building 24. The office of the rector is located here. This is the administrative heartbeat of our campus. Here, students come to apply, register and finance their studies. International students can contact the international office located here in building 24 with queries ranging from travel, housing and degree courses offered on the Vaal Triangle Campus.
The NWU Vaal Triangle Campus can be contacted by dialling 016 9103111.
Tour stop audio transcript
Next door is Building 24. The office of the rector is located here. This is the administrative heartbeat of our campus. Here, students come to apply, register and finance their studies. International students can contact the international office located here in building 24 with queries ranging from travel, housing and degree courses offered on the Vaal Triangle Campus.
The NWU Vaal Triangle Campus can be contacted by dialling 016 9103111.
Tour stop audio transcript
Next door is Building 24. The office of the rector is located here. This is the administrative heartbeat of our campus. Here, students come to apply, register and finance their studies. International students can contact the international office located here in building 24 with queries ranging from travel, housing and degree courses offered on the Vaal Triangle Campus.
The NWU Vaal Triangle Campus can be contacted by dialling 016 9103111.
Big Lapa and River
Tour stop audio transcript
Moving down to the most southern part of campus we reach the Big Lapa where students and staff members come to socialise. This building is often used for various functions and social events on campus, especially since it is virtually next to the willow tree-lined Vaal River. Not only is our campus right on the banks of the Vaal river, it is also a nature reserve with ducks, geese, monkeys, oryx, blesbuck, springbuck and black wildebeest.
Sports Fields trail
Sports fields
Tour stop audio transcript
We have now walked to the most eastern part of campus and we are at the end of our tour. The various campus sport fields are all located here. Our campus takes part in several sporting codes, including Basketball, Bodybuilding, Canoeing, Chess, Cricket, Cycling, Dance, Hockey, Netball, Rugby and Soccer.
We hope to see you here at the Vaal Triangle Campus soon!
For more information on our campus and the degree courses we offer, you can visit our campus website: http://www.nwu.ac.za/vaal_homepage.html
