Dr Sibusiso Chalufu

Dr Sibusiso Chalufu has worked in the higher education sector for over 26 years, 15 of which have been in senior and executive management positions in student affairs and services. Apart from lecturing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, he has also successfully supervised Masters’ students, and serves as external examiner for Masters’ and Doctoral studies at 3 South African universities.

He obtained his undergraduate and Honours degrees from the then University of Durban-Westville (now UKZN). He then completed 2 Masters’ degrees, namely, Education Management: Policy and Planning at the University of Bristol, in the UK, and a Master’s in Education Administration and Policy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in the USA. He has a Ph.D. in Education Management, Law and Policy Studies from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

He received further training from the Hiroshima University and the United Nations University, respectively, in Japan; the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration in India; and the Galilee International Management Institute in Israel.

Following several stints as a student leader in South Africa, the UK and the USA, Sibusiso started his career as a Tutor and later went on to become a Research Assistant, Lecturer, acting Head of an Academic Department, Head of Residence, Head of Support Services Division, Head of Department (Student Affairs), Dean of Students and Executive Director.

He has been part of several research projects including a project led by Professor Tony Bush from the then University of Warwick, UK and a project led by Professor Jonathan Jansen, the then Dean at the University of Pretoria, RSA. The latter project resulted in the first book on mergers in higher education in Africa (Mergers in Higher Education: Lessons Learned in Transitional Contexts), where Dr Chalufu contributed a chapter.

He has also contributed a chapter in the 2018 book: The Struggle for #FeesMustFall: We Are No Longer at Ease and an article on student governance and engagement for student success, in the CHE’s Kagisano No. 12 Journal (2020). Recently he co-authored an article which was published in the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa in 2022 and has, in collaboration with colleagues in the sub-sector, contributed a chapter in the upcoming book called New Directions for Student Services: Towards Professionalization of Student Affairs Across the Globe (2023).

Dr Chalufu is the President of the South African Association of Senior Student Affairs Professionals (SAASSAP) and serves as the Institutional Networking Coordinator of Bayoom Hub, an international non-profit social enterprise which works as a teaching tool and a partnership to guide communities through increasing layers of ability to analyze dynamic problems and find solutions that work within local circumstances.

He is also the Deputy Chairperson of the Central Application Office (CAO) Board and serves on the Universities South Africa’s (USAf) Transformation Strategy Group.