"It is very important to listen to what people say, to get to know the institution and to form a good concept of everybody's needs and expectations."
These are the words of Prof Hester Klopper, new Vice-Rector: Strategic Initiatives and Internationalization who started at Stellenbosch University (SU) this week. Klopper is an internationally recognized academic and professional leader with extensive networks in global health, policy, nursing and healthcare.
She has been appointed by the Council on 9 May this year.
Prof Nico Koopman, who has been acting Vice-Rector: Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel, was appointed permanently in this position.
"I am very excited and it is an honor and a privilege to be appointed to the position - all the more so at Stellenbosch University. I look forward to being part of the excellent management team and continue to build on the reputation and history of the University," Klopper said.
"Furthermore the challenge is to develop and give form to this new portfolio of strategic initiatives and internationalisation. It will be important to operationalise the strategic intent down to departmental level, with the accompanying indicators for continuous monitoring and evaluation."
This former Chief Executive Officer of FUNDISA (Forum for University Nursing Deans of SA) and former President of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) from 2013 to 2015 also is an extraordinary professor at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University and the University of the Western Cape, where she was Dean of the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences prior to her current position. She is the only South African who is inaugurated at the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN).
On 23 July this year she has also been honored in the International Hall of Fame for Research Excellence of STTI for her international contribution in research. In September this year she will receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brooks University in the UK for her contribution to nursing education and research globally.
