UCT Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng is making Cape Town, South Africa and Africa proud.
The prestigious Mathematician and academic is setting her enlightened mind to a different test, one that will reach the shores of the United Kingdom.
Professor Phakeng has been appointed as the first-ever Illustrious Visiting Professor at the University of Bristol, one of the top 10 universities in the UK.
The Illustrious Visiting Professorship scheme is the continuation of Bristol’s international collaboration programme. The lectures and lecturers are scholars of the highest calibre, the University of Bristol expresses, which showcase the university as a world-leading research institution. And Professor Phakeng is the first appointed.
Over the year-long inaugural appointment, Professor Phakeng will engage in public lecture series, both in person and virtually, as well as engage powerfully with the academic community, as UCT announces.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Professor Hugh Brady, expressed that by hosting Phakeng, Bristol hopes to “learn from and be inspired by her knowledge, approaches, and ethos,” reports Briefly.
Her “exceptional and inspirational” work in mathematics education and university leadership in post-apartheid South Africa has garnered her a well-earned position.
Of her international honour, Professor Phakeng expressed that:
“[This is] not only for me on a personal level but also for African scholarship. It’s an opportunity to share the work that I have done in multilingual mathematics classrooms in South Africa.”
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She further said: “I believe this appointment will also strengthen the relationship between two great institutions of higher learning: UCT, which is the highest-ranked university in Africa, and the University of Bristol, which ranks among the world’s top 60 institutions of research and higher education.”
“The landscape of education around the world, and more specifically the landscape of leadership in higher education, has changed a great deal in recent years and will change even more in the near future. I hope this new relationship will offer opportunities for me to share with my colleagues in Bristol from my own leadership journey. And I am excited to learn from them in turn,” the professor added.
Picture: UCT/ Je’nine May