Biography
He and his team manage the Engagement and Transformation Portfolio as a facilitative mechanism for engagement and transformation in higher education and society through the intellectual and programmatic contributions of the entities, programmes and projects of the ETP, and through support and collaboration across the University faculties and portfolios.
André also holds the Research Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation where he works with a team of young people and an international network of researchers to pursue scholarship that seeks to critically reflect on the university and higher education sector. The Advancing Critical University Studies Across Africa programme is key to building relationalities in Africa and beyond to build alternative imaginations of the University.
He is committed to a higher education culture that is relational and intergenerational, exploring the intersections of friendship, politics, love and justice. These themes inform his praxis in higher education transformation, human rights, decentred critical university studies, and the relationship between universities, science, industry and society.
André’s approach to leadership has been fostered through his experiences as Director and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the South African Human Rights Commission and on the Commission for Gender Equality; as well as professorial positions at the universities of Pretoria, Fort Hare and Free State.
His postgraduate qualifications include a PhD from the University of Pretoria and a Master’s degree in Education (cum laude) from the University of the Western Cape.