The Faculty of Education is pleased to welcome Professor Siphiwe Mthiyane, who joined the Faculty on 1 March 2022, as the new Head of the Department of Education Management and Policy Studies.

Professor Mthiyane holds PhD, MEd and BEd(Honours) degrees, all in the field of education leadership and management, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as a BA degree from the University of Zululand. He also completed a Further Diploma in Education Leadership and Management at the Natal College in Pietermaritzburg and a Secondary Teachers Diploma at Indumiso College in Pietermaritzburg.

After 22 years of service as a teacher, head of department, deputy principal and principal, he left the service of the Department of Basic Education when he was appointed as a lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2009. In 2015, he moved to the University of the Witwatersrand where he took up a post as senior lecturer. 

Professor Mthiyane has successfully supervised 47 master’s degree and nine doctoral candidates and he has written many published journal articles and book chapters.  He is the Deputy Chairperson and an Executive Member of the South African Education Research Association (SAERA) and a former Deputy Chairperson of the Education Management Association of South Africa (EMASA). Other professional organisations of which he is a member include the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM) and the Kenton Research Association.

He has received several awards for his scholarly activities, including an award from the Mellon Foundation, the UKZN Staff Award, the UKZN Strategic Funding Award, the UKZN LEAP Award and a Merit and Recognition Award for supporting school Scouts while serving as a school principal. 

The University is pleased to have been able to attract a leader and scholar of the calibre of Professor Mthiyane and wish him well on his new career journey as the Head of the Department of Education Management and Policy Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria.