Opening

Luvuyo Lumkile Lalendle holds a PhD in the area of Educational Administration and Leadership from Michigan State University.  His focus has been on the meaning, construction and practice of leadership in Higher Education in South Africa.  He has been an active practitioner in the Higher Education Sector for over three decades.  He has risen from the ranks of being a Lecturer to that of Vice-Rector in a multi-campus context of a University.  He has been a student leader and a Union Leader. Prof Lalendle has a record of accomplishments in managing complex departments, which include student affairs in a large Multi- campus University.  Professor Lalendle has attained a varied experience of working in the higher education sector that ranges from being Head of Department at the University of Venda to that of a Dean of Students/ Executive Director Student Life at North-West University.  During his tenure in higher education, he had a privilege of being exposed to the higher education regulatory environment as a director of Institutional Audits at the Council on Higher Education (CHE).  A major focus of the CHE during his tenure was on transformation and ensuring improvements in the quality of the student experience.  In the CHE, as Director: Institutional Audits he was responsible for Monitoring Quality Assurance of all public and private providers in South Africa. Professor Lalendle is currently an executive Director: Planning and Quality Assurance at the University of South Africa.  His scholarship focusses on Transformation, Leadership, Teaching Learning and quality assurance in Higher Education.  

In 2012, Professor Lalendle joined the University of KwaZulu-Natal as Director: Quality Promotion and Assurance. In this role, he operated as a member of the senior leadership team in the portfolio of Teaching and Learning under the DVC Teaching and Learning, which dealt with academics and students. In this position as a director responsible for quality promotion and assurance, he engaged on numerous occasions directly with ventures that ensured transformation and provision of access to designated groups.   

During his tenure at North-West University, he acquired a deep appreciation of students’ varied experiences for those who were on campus residences, those in private residence and commuting students. As far back as 2014, as a Vice-Rector at the campus, he interacted with the student affairs portfolio as it reported to the rectorate.   As a member of Senior Leadership, the candidate was also responsible for overseeing five faculties at the North-West University at the Mafikeng Campus.  This role afforded Prof Lalendle the responsibility of joint accountability with five Executive Deans for a range of activities in the sphere within Teaching and Learning.  With the Executive Deans and student organisations, there were number of impactful ventures in the domain of social responsiveness that faculties mounted which the candidate had to collaborate with the Deans to be the face of the University.  With respect to social responsiveness, Professor Lalendle worked with the provincial government of North-West and traditional authorities to host research exhibitions and workshops that focused on rural development. This provided the candidate with opportunities to hone his skills in social facilitation.