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04 February 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studio)
Prof Hendri Kroukamp has been appointed to the Accreditation Committee of the International Commission on Accreditation of Public Administration Education and Training.

Prof Hendri Kroukamp, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), has been appointed to the Accreditation Committee (AC) of the International Commission on the Accreditation of Public Administration Education and Training (ICAPA) in January 2021.

He is serving on this committee with, inter alia, John-Mary Kauzya, Chief of the Public Service Innovation Branch of the United Nations (UN); Lichia Saner-Yiu, President of the Academy for Quality in Training and Education, Geneva, Switzerland; and Allan Rosenbaum, Public Service Adviser to President Joe Biden of the USA and President of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). 

Ensuring accountability and transparency 

Prof Kroukamp supports the belief that an effective government and public administration are essential in the promotion of economic development and in ensuring the kind of accountability and transparency that are central to sustaining a democratic society. 

He is convinced that high-quality education and training is key in producing effective and accountable public administrators and government officials.

Consequently, he says that providing the highest quality of public administration education and training must be a central objective of all those concerned with promoting and sustaining democratic and prosperous societies. “It is of critical importance to preparing the next generation of public administrators and government officials. The current generation of public administrators and government officials also need constant development in terms of their competencies, skills, and capabilities,” he adds.

Standard of excellence prescribes programmes 

ICAPA, which provides quality assurance services for education and training programmes in public administration, will address these objectives. 

Based on self-evaluation reports and site visits, programmes are confronted with the Standards of Excellence for Public Administration Education and Training. These are jointly developed by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) and the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA). 

Serving on the Accreditation Committee, part of his role will include adopting the accreditation criteria, constituting site-visit teams, deciding on accreditation, submitting the annual plan and report, and serving in this main pool of site reviewers. 

News Archive

Researcher on polymer science on sabbatical in Qatar
2014-09-09

 

Prof Riaan Luyt
Photo: Supplied

Prof Riaan Luyt from the University of the Free State’s Qwaqwa Campus has started a 12-month sabbatical in Qatar. This follows an invitation by the Qatar University in Doha to work as a research professor at the university's Centre of Advanced Materials.

In the 21 years that he has spent on the Qwaqwa Campus, Prof Luyt has published more than 165 research papers in international scientific journals and has had over 1 850 citations by other international scientists. He also reviews scientific research on polymer science in more than 10 journals.

“There were no science laboratories when I first came here and I made it my mission to establish them as soon as possible as I was passionate about research then, as I am now,” said Prof Luyt.

He has supervised twenty five master’s and eight doctoral students and is currently supervising five master’s and six doctoral students. Prof Luyt also serves on the International Advisory Board of eXPRESS Polymer Letters – one of the leading polymer science journals.

In 2012, he was listed as the second-best researcher at the UFS and is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences. He has mentored many students who are now leaders in the industry. One of his current doctoral students came to the university as a student in the University Preparatory Programme (UPP), who had not passed matric well enough to be admitted. Yet, Prof Luyt mentored her to where she is today –  currently finalising her PhD in Polymer Science.

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