Announcing the reappointment, Ambassador Nozipho January-Bardill, the University’s Chair of Council, said Council and the broader University community had noted with deep appreciation Prof Muthwa’s demonstrable achievements at the helm of a Mandela University firmly on course to change lives.
Professor Muthwa’s visionary, transformative and empowering leadership; her approach to strategic management, and her total commitment to entrenching ethics and integrity into the DNA of the Mandela University, has been impactful. She is determined to create an identity for Mandela University as a leading institution in service of society, through our key strategic areas of learning and teaching, research, innovation and internationalisation; engagement and transformation as well as a variety ground-breaking academic projects.
Prof Muthwa formally stepped into the Vice-Chancellor role in January 2018 when the higher education sector and country was emerging from the effects of the #FeesMustFall movement and campaign of 2015 and 2016. Prior to her appointment she had already made huge contributions to help steady the ship at Mandela University and within the sector, during the fees campaign moment, and in a period immediately after.
This current tenure has seen the Vice-Chancellor working hard to enable and widen access, and provide financial and material support for students largely drawn from poor and working class communities, while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the University and the sector.
At her inaugural lecture in 2018, Prof Muthwa articulated a compelling vision for the University that was fitting and resonant with the ambitions of the institution named after our internationally renowned stateman, former President Nelson Mandela. She stressed the importance of a close and deeper working relationship between the University and communities to enable mutually beneficial and transformative outcomes and a qualitatively richer and responsive academic enterprise.
In its deliberations, the University Council noted that significant progress has been made in the quest to become a university truly in service of society, notably through the establishment of the Hubs of Convergence (a platform and programme that ensures active engagement with communities); in the expansion of the work of the Ocean Sciences Campus (South Africa’s first and only campus dedicated to the study of oceans); the revitalisation of the Humanities; the establishment of the country’s 10th medical school and the launch of the University’s Vision 2030, amongst others.
We, as a University community, are delighted at the re-appointment of Professor Muthwa as our Vice-Chancellor for a second term and look forward to working with her as we take Mandela University to even greater heights.
Ambassador Nozipho January-Bardill
Chairperson of Council
Nelson Mandela University