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24 January 2019 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Sonia Small
Dr Engela van Staden
Dr Engela van Staden started as Vice-Rector: Academic on 1 January 2019.
The Executive Committee of the Council (on behalf of Council) of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the appointment of Dr Engela van Staden as Vice-Rector: Academic during a meeting held on 5 December 2018. She started on 1 January 2019 as Vice-Rector: Academic (designate) and will take up the position from 1 February 2019 as Vice-Rector:  Academic. Prof Hendri Kroukamp, who acted in the position of Vice-Rector: Academic, will resume his portfolio as Dean: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences on 1 February 2019. 

“Dr Van Staden has an immense knowledge of the higher-education system, governance, planning, and policy frameworks within the sector, and of enrolment planning and management, and will provide leadership within this domain. She has been in senior management positions at faculty, institutional, and national level for a period of 20 years and is one of the experts in academic-programme development and curriculum design in the country. I look forward to working with her and welcoming her to the university,” says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.
 
Dr Van Staden holds a DPhil in Education from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg). She was Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching, Learning and Community Engagement at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University. Prior to this she was, among others, Chief Director: University Academic Planning and Management Support at the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) from 2009 to 2017, Director: Strategic Management Support at Tshwane University of Technology from 2004 to 2009, Dean: Faculty of Education and Director: Strategic Planning at the then Technikon Northern Gauteng from 1996 to 2003. 
 
Her responsibilities at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University included teaching and learning, quality assurance, strategic and academic planning, technology and education innovation, planning and reporting for and on earmarked and development grants, curriculum reviews, infrastructure planning, blended learning, and the redesign of the university’s business model.
 
In the portfolio of Chief Director: University Academic Planning and Management Support at the DHET, she was responsible for, among others, the national enrolment targets of 2013 and 2019, and institutional performance targets aligned to the Minister’s performance targets, the management and approval of all national programme applications, the development of the distance policy for universities / open learning strategy, the monitoring of universities under administration, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budget allocations to universities, the planning and establishing of new universities in Mpumalanga and Northern Cape with specific reference to the academic programmes and governance and policy environment, and the establishment of the Central Application System (CAS) and Service and Clearing House Mechanism (CACH), which includes a project management office, business architecture and the formulation of proposals towards the governance and management of such a function.
 
She has supervised master’s and doctoral students, authored and co-authored a number of academic articles, compiled a vast array of technical reports, and participated in a wide variety of national and international projects in South Africa and abroad.

News Archive

Prof Loyiso Jita appointed as UFS Dean of Education
2017-11-22

 Description: Prof Melanie Walker, Research chair into Higher Education gets boost for five more years Tags: Prof Melanie Walker, Research chair into Higher Education gets boost for five more years

Prof Loyiso Jita, UFS Dean of Education
Photo: Johan Roux

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) has approved the appointment of Prof Loyiso Jita as Dean of Education during its quarterly meeting held on the Bloemfontein Campus on 17 November 2017.

“Prof Jita has a strong academic background and a good understanding of the higher-education sector. I look forward to working with him and to realise the vision of the university as a research-led, student-centred and regionally engaged university that contributes to development and social justice through the production of globally competitive graduates and knowledge,” says Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor.

“It is indeed a privilege for me to lead a team of committed teachers and researchers in the faculty, providing excellent service to our undergraduate and postgraduate students. I thank the Council and executive management for their trust in me,” says Prof Jita.

In January 2017, Prof Jita was appointed as the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Education at the UFS. He will assume the position of Dean of the Faculty of Education on 1 December 2017.

Prof Jita began his career as a Science and Mathematics teacher, after graduating from Wits University in 1988. He later took up a lectureship position at the University of Zululand, where he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to read for a PhD at Michigan State University in the USA. In the mid-1990s, he worked as a policy researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he, among others, helped to compile the submission on the Violation of Educational Rights of South Africans during apartheid, to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

He joined the University of Pretoria (UP) in 2001, after returning from a post-doctoral fellowship at the Northwestern University in Chicago, and was later appointed Director of the Joint Centre for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (JCSMTE). He left the UP in 2008 for an appointment as an associate professor at the University of South Africa (Unisa), where he later became the inaugural Director of the School of Education. In 2011, he became a full professor and was appointed as the acting Deputy Executive Dean in the College of Human Sciences at Unisa.

In 2012, he joined the UFS as Research Professor in the School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Technology Education. In November 2014, he was appointed as the SANRAL Chair for Science and Mathematics Education. Professor Jita has published many articles on instructional leadership, teacher development and change, Science and Mathematics education, and has presented over 50 papers at local and international conferences. He has also supervised to completion more than 37 master’s and PhD graduates, and is currently the editor-in-chief for the accredited journal, Perspectives in Education (PIE).

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