The University of Pretoria, Faculty of Education, is proud to confer an Honorary Doctorate on the prestigious and internationally renowned Professor Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela. Prof Mabokela received her Honorary Doctorate on 07 May 2021 during the Faculty’s Virtual Graduation.

Professor Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela is the Vice-Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategy and Professor of Comparative and International Higher Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  A South African by birth,  she received her Bachelor of Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University, cum laude, a master’s degree in Labour and Industrial Relations and a PhD in Educational Policy Studies, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

She has distinguished herself as a leading national and international scholar and researcher in the field of comparative and higher education. Her work so far has demonstrably impacted and indeed advanced the field, and in recognition, both in the United States and across the international community, she has been able to secure well over $30 million of funding over the course of her academic career to support her scholarly endeavours. Professor Mabokela’s singular intellectual contribution to higher education resides in her research focus and interest through which she seeks to understand and document experiences of marginalised populations in institutions of higher education, with a view to informing and influencing institutional policies that affect these groups.

Her scholarly work centres on three interrelated themes, namely, organisational change and organisational culture in higher education, gender in higher education and  higher education in transitional societies. She is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of seven books and more than 60 scholarly publications in prestigious academic journals of higher education. She has received several awards and honours, which include the Fulbright International Education Administrators (IEA) Program Award, Best Senior International Officer Academy, Duke University, and the Academic Leadership Program Fellowship.