On 1 September 2019, Stellenbosch University (SU) will welcome Prof Mbulungeni Madiba as Dean of the Faculty of Education. Prof Madiba, who joins SU from the University of Cape Town (UCT), considers Stellenbosch (University) to be one of the highly ranked universities in the country and on the continent, “and it is quite an honour for me to be part of such an institution”.

Prof Madiba is currently serving as the director of the Multilingual Education Project (MEP) in the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) at UCT. He has been deputy dean and acting dean of the CHED a number of times, chairs UCT’s Senate Language Committee and serves on the UCT Council.

Prof Madiba is not only bringing with him over 30 years’ of teaching experience, but also a wealth of experience in leadership and management. “I am excited to join the Faculty of Education as dean and look forward to working with all staff and providing good leadership and management to enable the faculty to grow in its mission and become a leading research-intensive education faculty in the country.”

A full professor of Multilingual Education, Prof Madiba holds a DLitt et Phil (Linguistics) degree from the University of South Africa (Unisa). He has also received research fellowships and study awards from a number of higher education institutions abroad, including the universities of Cologne, London (Oppenheimer fellow), Birmingham and Harvard (Mandela fellow).

As an established researcher with a C-rating from the National Research Foundation, his main research interests are language planning and policy, with a special focus on multilingual education.

Prof Madiba’s appointment is for an initial term of five years, with the possibility of a second term. He will be taking over the reins from Prof Christa van der Walt, Vice-Dean (Research), who has been serving as Acting Dean since Prof Johan Malan retired at the end June.

Photo: Je’nine May, University of Cape Town.​