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Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Dean of Student Affairs at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), will take up the position of Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Student Affairs, and Community Engagement at the University of the Free State (UFS) on 1 May 2018.
 
Prof LenkaBula holds a Doctoral Degree in Ethics of Politics, Economy and Ecology (Social Ethics) from the University of South Africa (Unisa). Prior to that, she obtained a Master’s in Theological Studies with specialisation in Ethics (MTs-Ethics) from St Andrew’s College in Saskatoon – Saskatchewan, Canada. She also pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Education from the National University of Lesotho, majoring in English, Theology, and Education. 
 
Prior to her appointment as Dean of Student Affairs at Wits on 1 March 2016, she worked at Unisa as an Associate Professor of Ethics, and as Dean of Students at the same university from 2014 to 2016. From 2011 to 2014, she worked as Director and Adviser in the office of the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Unisa, Prof Mandlenkosi Makhanya. Prof LenkaBula was also a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto Emmanuel College in 2009.
 
She is currently a member of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), where she serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee. She has served on numerous boards and intellectual associations, including but not limited to Transparency International South Africa Chapter, Focus on Youth Inc, and she is a former Deputy President of the South African Council of Churches (SACC). Prof LenkaBula has also formed part of a number of studies and expert groups aimed at advising the World Council of Churches, including the AGAPE process, and the Poverty, Wealth and Ecology Advisory Group. She has also held a position as a consultant for the former World Alliance of Reformed Churches, now the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), on Covenanting for Justice in the economy and the earth.
 
“Prof LenkaBula’s holistic experiences within the university on student, staff, and executive levels, are an advantage in rethinking higher education in the current conjuncture. As an intellectual leader, academic, governance, and ethics expert, she will lead and align her talents to the enhancement of the UFS as a site of excellence in the global knowledge sector,” says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.
 
“I look forward to working with Prof LenkaBula, as she will play a vital role in steering the university’s Institutional Transformation Plan (ITP) and the newly formed Institutional Multi-stakeholder Group,” says Prof Petersen.
 
Prof LenkaBula’s research interests are intersections of ethics, political economy and ecology, and feminist theory. She has published widely in refereed local and international academic journals, including a commissioned book by the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Choose Life, Act in Hope.
 
Her vision for the portfolio of Vice-Rector is to lead with courage, excellence, and with the requisite need to collaboratively propel the UFS as a university of choice and excellence for the majority of global citizens who want to pursue their knowledge.
 
The UFS Council approved Prof LenkaBula’s appointment as Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Student Affairs, and Community Engagement during a meeting held on the Bloemfontein Campus on 22 January 2018.