Biography

I am currently employed as the CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council. I was formerly a Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cape Town. I remain also a professor in the School of Education at the University of Cape Town where I was since 1988. I am also a professor of African Studies. Before I joined the faculty of the University of Cape Town, I taught in high schools in Johannesburg and Cape Town for nine years. Before that, I held down various temporary jobs, including working as a field worker for the Wilgespruit Trust and I worked and as a temporary lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in the Department of Politics.

UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP

While at the University of Cape Town, I served on many committees in my home department, in departments where I have had disciplinary associations, such as the History Department, the Sociology Department and the Centre for African Studies, and also on university-wide committees. I served for many years on the University’s Readmission and Review Committee, and, amongst other things, served on the University’s Environmental Scan Editorial Committee, which is a high-level think-tank. Its purpose is to put before the University’s decision-makers the major issues which it needs to be aware of nationally and internationally. I presented a paper to two forums hosted by the Vice-Chancellor on the state of education in South Africa. I was the chairperson of a University Task-Team on Racial Harassment. As an Acting and then fully appointed Deputy Vice- Chancellor I chaired key standing committees such as the Admissions and & Progression Committee, the Institutional Forum, the University Student Affairs Committee and chaired or participated in key policy development initiatives such as the Admissions Review, the Racial Harassment Policy and the Alternative Mediation Policy.

In the portfolio I held at UCT I had oversight and responsibility for the areas of student affairs, social responsiveness and transformation and had reporting to me an Executive Director and two directors. The line management function in the student affairs portfolio was large. This department has over 120 members staff and operates a budget of close to R500 million.
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

I have extensive experience of serving on committees outside of the University, including serving as an advisor on a number of issues to the University of the Western Cape, the National Research Foundation, the University of Pretoria, the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Stellenbosch. As an External Examiner, I have also participated in review processes of the Educational Foundations programmes at the University of Namibia. On behalf of the National Research Foundation, I have participated in review teams at the University of the Western Cape and the Durban Institute of Technology. I have assisted several universities with the selection processes of senior staff members, I have assisted with the review of the department of History at the University of the Western Cape. This committee experience has exposed me to the complexity of higher education in southern Africa. I serve on several committees at the University of Cape Town of the Harry Oppenheimer Institute Committee of Management which oversees the bequest of the Oppenheimer family to the University for the development of African Studies. I served on several staffing selection committees each year. In the period 2004 to 2006 I chaired four programme accreditation Review Panels for the Higher Education Quality Committee. I have also participated in quality assurance audits of higher education institutions on behalf of the Council for Higher Education. I had the responsibility for writing up the findings of the national reviews in education in South African higher education. I was a co-principal investigator with colleagues at three other universities into pupil achievement in the southern African region. This was a large comparative study involving four countries in the region. I am a former Chairperson of the Cape Higher Education Consortium and play a role in the development of co-ordinated university initiatives in the Western Cape region. I am on the HESA Transformation Strategy Committee, where I have played a leading role. I am an active member of the Humanities Standing Committee in ASSAf. Internationally, recently I have served on visiting advisory panels for new programmes at the American University of Beirut, for new appointments in the faculties of education at the University of British Columbia, and the University of Oulu.

ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITIES

I assisted with the development of the Masters programme in education which has come to play a formative role in the growth of masters’ courses at the University of Cape Town and was convenor of PhD programmes in the School of Education.