​​​Stellenbosch University (SU), the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and various academic departments are saddened by passing of a former director of the CTL, Prof Brenda Leibowitz.

Prof Maureen Robinson of the SU Department of Curriculum Studies and a friend and colleague of Prof Leibowitz, writes:​

I  have known Brenda Leibowitz for over 30 years, both as a friend and colleague. She was a teacher during the turbulent school boycotts of the 1980s in Cape Town and is remembered dearly by many of her former pupils. She worked for some years in the Department of Education with the late Kader Asmal, as Director: Race and Values in Education, later moving into the fields of academic development and teaching and learning, seeing these as vehicles for the transformation of higher education.

Between 2004  and 2013  Prof Leibowitz worked at Stellenbosch University as Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning. The Centre supported the enhancement of all aspects of teaching and learning at the University. Areas of focus of the Centre included: coordination of the University's Extended Degree Programmes, support for tutor programmes, the professional development of academics, student feedback, integrating academic literacy in the curriculum, E-learning, development of teaching and learning policies and strategic documents, the First-year Academy and various research projects. She was concurrently Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies, convened a module in the MPhil in Health Science Education and supervised several PhD and Masters students.

In 2014 she moved to the University of Johannesburg, where she was offered a Chair in Teaching and Learning.  This was recently accepted as a new SARCHi Chair, an expression of the high regard in which she was held in the academic community.   

From the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of South Africa (HELTASA) comes the following words: Brenda has been taken from us too soon, when there was still so much more to share and so much still to do in academic development. Rest in peace, Brenda, and be sure that your legacy to higher education in South Africa is enormous and will continue not least in the form of HELTASA

Photo: HELTASA

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