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Prof Roy du Pré was appointed Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Durban University of Technology on 1 August 2007. He has served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic of the Vaal University of Technology in Vanderbijlpark since 2002 (and also as Acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal between July 2005 and December 2006). Previous experience in higher education also includes the posts of the Executive Director and CEO of the Committee of Technikon Principals (CTP); faculty dean, university planner, lecturer and professor at the University of Transkei; and occasional lecturer, Rhodes University. He has a PhD from Rhodes University, and a BA(Hons), HED(PG) and MA from the University of South Africa.
He has served the higher education sector in a variety of ways in the past few years, for e.g. as
• Member, HESA Task Team on Racism
• Member, England-Africa Partnership Strategic Committee
• Member of the Board, Higher Education South Africa (HESA)
• Member and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, South African Technology Network (SATN)
• Member of the Board, National Institute for Higher Education (Mpumalanga) (NIHE)
• Member of the Board, Tertiary Education Network (TENET)
• Member of the Board, South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)
• Member of the Board of Governors, World Association for Cooperative Education (WACE)
• President, Southern African Society for Cooperative Education (SASCE)
• Member of the Education and Training Quality Assurance Sub-Committee of SAQA
• Member of Board of Trustees, and founder member of the Tshumisano Trust
• Member of Committee of Heads of Research and Technology (COHORT)
• Member of the Strategic Advisory Committee of Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme (HEAIDS)
• Chairperson of Pilot Working Group on integrating HIV/AIDS into Teacher Training Curriculum
• Chair of Higher Education Quality Committee Audit Panels
• Chairperson of the CTP Entrance Requirements Committee
• Member, HESA: Higher Education Admissions Committee
• Member, Joint Matriculation Board Admissions Committee
• Member of Council, Iziko Museums of Cape Town
• Board Member, Bill Venter Literary Award
• Board Member, INCA/French Fund
As CEO of the CTP, he was integrally involved in the various higher education responses to the merger proposals which culminated in the present higher education landscape, and in the past few years, the development of new higher education admission requirements for the National Senior Certificate; the finalization of the HEQF which will determine the new qualification structure for universities; the development of the quality assurance system in South Africa; clarifying and developing the concepts of service learning, cooperative education, experiential learning and internships within the HEQC notion of community engagement.
Prof du Pré has twenty-five years of service in the educational sector, first as a high school teacher then as a college of education lecturer. The past seventeen years have been in higher education as an academic, academic manager and policymaker. He has traveled widely and visited numerous countries and institutions, gathering and sharing information with academic counterparts and government officials, and benchmarking South African higher education institutions with leading educational institutions and industries abroad. He has also participated in a number of government bilateral commissions as South Africa emerged from political isolation in the 1990s.
In recent years, his visits abroad have been to universities of technology to establish benchmarks, good practice and best practice in the creation and development of a university of technology sector in South Africa. He is driving the formation of a South African technology network as a network for universities of technology in South Africa and has already established links with technology networks in Australia, Germany, Belgium, China and Malaysia on behalf of the Network. He has been a member of two CTP task teams developing a philosophy of a university of technology in South Africa and is the author of the book outlining the position, role and function of Universities of Technology in South Africa.
Prof du Pré has over 100 publications to his name, including 13 books on South African political and cultural history; and education and policy development; over 40 chapters in books, journal articles and conference proceedings and over 70 conference and occasional papers. He has served as editor, consulting editor and member of the editorial board of six scientific journals. He serves/has served on 20 government/parastatal/scientific boards and councils and has been a Visiting Professor at universities in the United States, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany.
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