Dr. Folake Ruth Aluko, a distinguished researcher, earned her doctorate from the University of Pretoria in 2007, following MEd and BEd degrees from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She joined the Unit for Distance Education at the University of Pretoria as a full-time Researcher in January 2009. She manages the quality of the institution’s Distance Education (DE) programmes in the Faculty of Education. Her research focus areas include quality management of ODL programmes, mobile learning, access, social justice, programme evaluation, student support, and teacher professional development.

As a distance education practitioner, Dr Aluko has authored 4 books, 2 of which are "Does distance education in the developing context need more research?" and "Building theory into practice [Vols. 1 & 2] (2023)", in which practitioners showcase their research. Books on distance education research are sparse, and especially on the continent.

Dr Aluko has authored 15 book chapters, 24 articles in accredited journals, and 5 conference papers. She lectures in full-time programmes in the faculty and has supervised postgraduate students and mentored a postgraduate fellow to completion. She has delivered 12 keynote addresses at local, regional and international conferences. She has also read 64 papers on the same platforms, where she also facilitates workshops.

Dr Aluko is a lead investigator for local, regional and international distance education/teacher education bodies. She is the Chief Editor of the Teacher Education through Flexible Learning (in Africa and other developing contexts) open journal. She serves on the Editorial Boards of affiliated journals. She is involved in conference organisation and serves as the Chair of the Distance Education and Teachers' Training in Africa (DETA) Conference, an Africa-specific biennial conference initiated by the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 2005 – a forum that brings together teacher education practitioners with their international collaborators.

Dr Aluko has served as two-term President of the National Association of Distance Education and Open Learning in South Africa (NADEOSA), a forum for collaboration on Open and Distance Learning, and the Treasurer of the Distance Education Association of Southern Africa (DEASA).

Dr Aluko is a National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher, a peer review system that assesses the standing of South African researchers, holding the ratings of C3 (2015) and C2 (2024). She was the first Black African woman to be awarded an NRF rating at the Faculty of Education campus.