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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

Inaugural lecture challenges leaders in higher education
2012-10-30
Dr Mamphela Ramphele
Photo: Stephen Collett
29 October 2012


Lecture (Pdf format)

According to international statistics, South Africa’s school performance is rated 140th out of 144 countries. South Africa is also ranked 143rd out of 144 countries when it comes to  the quality of mathematics and science. About 600 000 South African graduates are unemployed and about 500 000 learners are failed by our current education system.

Dr Mamphela Ramphele brought these shocking statistics to the light at the inaugural lecture of the Annual Prestige Lecture at the Faculty of Education on Thursday 25 October 2012 at the University of the Free State (UFS).

This lecture will henceforth be known as the Mamphela Ramphele Prestige Lecture.

Dr Ramphelefocused her lecture on ‘Educating the 21st century citizen’.

“One of the defining characteristics of the 21st century is the vast number of choices that confront us every day at a personal, professional and political level.”

She asked if 21st century South Africans are equipped with the skills to make the choices that confront them daily.

“The failure to transform our apartheid education into one characterized by equity and excellence, is producing graduates who lack self-confidence.”

Dr Ramphele said that in South Africa about 1/6th of government expenditure goes to education, but the outcomes remain shocking.

For Dr Ramphele the answer lies in creating platforms for open conversation about South Africa’s painful past and the agenda for radical socio-economic restructuring should include the fundamental transformation of education.

She praised the UFS, under its current inspirational leadership, for its role as change agents through the education.

Prof. Rita Niemann, senior professor at the Faculty said the Annual Mamphela Ramphele lecture is to further expand and celebrate education in South Africa.

“Dr Ramphela has given us so much food for thought by challenging leaders in higher education to speak out about the questionable state of education in South Africa and to become engaged in the ‘revolution of the spirit’ in order to deliver citizens who own and shape the country.”
 

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