The outcome of the ANCs long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Students and alumni of the North West University (NWU) are among the most loyal in the country. This is evident from the Universum student survey of 2014, in which 44 640 students participated.
The average age of the respondents was 24.8 years old; 41% were male and 59% female. Asked to indicate on a scale from 1 to 10 how satisfied NWU students were with their university, the students gave the NWU a score of 8.2. The national average was 7.4. An astounding 72% of NWU students posted a score of between eight and 10.
Sixty-five percent of NWU students said they would choose the NWU again if they were to start their studies again, while 25% said “maybe”. Across all universities, 57% indicated that they would choose their current university again and 32% said “maybe”.
The NWU has the third largest share of loyal students. UCT is first, followed by the University of Stellenbosch. The NWU has by far the most loyal students for a merged university. It is interesting to note that 52% of students from the University of South Africa would rather enrol at the NWU.
NWU students were also asked whether they would recommend the NWU to a friend or family member. On a scale from I to 10, 47% scored the NWU a 10; the average score was 8.6. This compares exceedingly well to the 7.7 score for other universities, where just 31% gave their university a 10. Eighty percent of the NWU’s alumni gave the NWU a score of between eight and 10 for recommending the university, while 72% of professionals scored their universities in the same bracket.
Of the NWU’s alumni, 78% said they would choose the NWU again compared to the national average of 74%, while 36% of professionals who studied at the University of Pretoria stated that they would rather have obtained their degree at the NWU. The corresponding figure for alumni from the University of Stellenbosch is 25%.
The Universum report also did an external versus internal perception analyses of the NWU and it was telling to see that both the NWU’s students and students from other universities overwhelmingly indicated that the NWU had a tradition of academic excellence, that the NWU was recommended to them by friends and family and that it was highly ranked in its field. The NWU’s educational offering also scored highly as strong student support, the quality and variety of courses and the attractiveness of the programs and fields of study were perceived as hallmarks of the NWU by both its students and those who had not studied there.