51 Author biographies Diane Grayson Prof. Diane Grayson is Director: Institutional Audits at the South African Council on Higher Education and is responsible for the Quality Enhancement Project, which aims to improve student success at all South African higher education institutions.  She has an MSc in physics from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, a PhD in physics from the University of Washington, USA, with specialisation in physics education, and an honorary doctorate from Umeå University in Sweden in science teacher education.  Over the past 24 years she has worked at several universities in South Africa and abroad and has been involved in promoting the teaching and learning of science, technology and mathematics through teaching, research, curriculum development, academic development, coordinating extended degree programmes and serving on both national and international committees. Thierry M. Luescher-Mamashela Dr Thierry Luescher-Mamashela is the senior researcher and Assistant Director: Institutional Research of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein/Mangaung (South Africa). He was previously senior lecturer in higher education studies and political studies at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town where he coordinated the master’s programme in higher education and development and the doctoral programme in student affairs. Thierry leads the HERANA research project “Democracy, the University and Student Development” for the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) in Cape Town. Thierry was the first researcher of the Council on Higher Education in South Africa (2002–2007) where he participated in various studies, including The Governance of Higher Education in South Africa and Merger Governance in South African Higher Education (with Martin Hall and Ashley Symes), the MBA Review (with Lis Lange and others), and the project to develop a monitoring and evaluation system of South African higher education. He holds a PhD in Political Studies from the University of Cape Town. Thierry is the main author of the monograph The University in Africa and Democratic Citizenship: Hothouse or Training Ground? (published by African Minds). He has published on student governance, student and youth politics, higher education governance, citizenship education, and community engagement, in various journals and books, including the Journal of Higher Education in Africa, New Agenda, Perspectives in Education, Studies in Higher Education and Tertiary Education and Management. He is a task team member of the Council on Higher Education’s 20 Year of Democracy in Higher Education Review. In addition, he is currently editing the book Student Representation in Higher Education Governance in Africa (with Manja Klemenčič, Harvard University, and James Otieno Jowi, Moi University, to be published in 2015). Thierry is journal manager and founding member of the Editorial Executive of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa. 52 Teboho Moja Prof. Teboho Moja is clinical professor of higher education at New York University. Her teaching experience includes high school and university levels. Moja has held key positions at several South African universities including being appointed chair of the Council of the University of South Africa (UNISA). She has held positions as professor extraordinaire at the University of Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and has been visiting professor at the University of Oslo (Norway) and University of Tampere (Finland). Teboho was instrumental in setting up the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) in South Africa and is currently serving as the chair of its board. In addition, she has served on the boards of international bodies such as the UNESCO-Institute for International Education Planning and the World Education Market. She has also served as executive director and commissioner to the National Commission on Higher Education (1995-1996), appointed by President Mandela. Before joining New York University, Teboho served as a special advisor to two ministers of education in post-1994 South Africa. Moja has authored several articles on higher education reform issues in areas such as the governance of higher education, policy processes, and impact of globalisation on higher education, and co-authored a book on educational change in South Africa. Teboho is editor-in-chief and member of the Editorial Executive of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa. Laura W. Perna Prof. Laura W. Perna is James S. Riepe Professor and founding Executive Director of the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (AHEAD) at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She is also chair of the Higher Education Division of the Graduate School of Education, faculty fellow of the Institute for Urban Research, faculty affiliate of the Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative, member of the advisory board for the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and member of the Social Welfare Graduate Group of the School of Social Policy and Practice. She holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and she earned her master’s in public policy and PhD in education from the University of Michigan. Laura has held leadership positions in the primary national associations in the field of higher education administration and has received several awards, honours and prestigious fellowships over the course of her career. Laura’s research examines the ways that social structures, educational practices and public policies promote and limit college access and success, particularly for individuals from lower-income families and racial/ethnic minority groups. Her scholarship is published in a variety of outlets, including books, journal articles and policy reports. Recent books include Understanding the working college student: New research and its implications for policy and practice (2010, Stylus), Preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s jobs in metropolitan America: The policy, practice, and research issues (2012, University of Pennsylvania Press), The state of college access and completion: Improving college success for students from underrepresented groups (with Anthony Jones, 2013, Routledge), and The attainment agenda: State policy leadership for higher education (with 53 Joni Finney, 2014, Johns Hopkins University Press). In addition to her own writing, Laura also served on the editorial boards of leading journals including  Academe, Journal of Higher Education,  Review of Higher Education,  Journal of College Student Development,  Journal of Women in Higher Education, and  Research in Higher Education.  She is the associate editor of  Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. Saloshini Pillay Dr Saloschini Pillay practises in the field of Clinical Social Work. She has an honors degree in Social Work, masters in Medical Science (Social Work) and a doctorate in Public Administration and Business Management.  She has gained extensive experience in the higher education sector, since 1995, as the Director of Student Support Services, focusing on Counselling, Careers, Disability, HIV/AIDS and Academic Development, at the former University of Durban-Westville and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and, since 2012, as the Manager: Student Support Services in the UKZN College of Health Sciences. She is the past President of the Southern African Association for Counselling and Development in Higher Education (SAACDHE) and currently serves on its national executive committee. As part of the executive management team she served on the task team that developed the SAACDHE Guidelines for Structuring and Developing Counselling and Development services in Higher Education Southern Africa and Professional Ethics for Student Counsellors in Higher Education. Saloschini was actively involved in the task team initiated by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training that led to the establishing of the Southern African Federation for Student Affairs and Services (SAFSAS). She served as the conference chair of the SAFSAS inaugural conference in August 2014 and has been elected as the inaugural President of SAFSAS. Birgit Schreiber Dr Birgit Schreiber is Director of the Centre for Student Support Services at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. She holds a PhD from the same university. She has worked within student affairs with focus on student development and support for the past 18 years at various higher education institutions. She has published in national and international academic journals on student support and development, has presented research papers and keynotes in national and international conferences and given lectures at the University of California, Berkley, the University of Leuven in the Netherlands and the University of Oslo (Norway). She was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was involved in their student affairs department. Birgit Scheiber has also been involved in various quality assurance panels reviewing student affairs at South African universities and has taken part in the national review of the South African Student Engagement tool (SASSE). She has been a member of the national executive of various national professional organisations including the South African Association of Senior Student Affairs Professionals (SAASSAP). She currently serves on the Executive of the 54 Southern African Federation of Student Affairs and Services (SAFSAS) and is the Africa Regional Coordinator of the International Association of Student Affairs and Services (IASAS). Dr Schreiber is a founding member of the Editorial Executive of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa. Vincent Tinto Dr Vincent Tinto is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University and the former Chair of the Higher Education Program. He has carried out research and has written extensively on higher education, particularly on student success and the impact of learning communities on student growth and attainment. His most recent book, Completing College, lays out a framework for institutional action for student success, describes the range of programmes that have been effective in enhancing student success, and the types of policies institutions should follow to successfully implement programmes in ways that endure and scale up over time. He received his BSc. from Fordham in Physics and Philosophy, his M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Physics and Mathematics, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Education and Sociology. Vincent has received numerous recognitions and awards including the Council of Educational Opportunity Walter O. Mason 2012 Award for his work on the retention of low-income students. Most recently, he was named recipient of the 2015 President Harry S. Truman Award for the American Association of Community Colleges for his work for community colleges across America. He has some 50 notable publications, including books, research reports, and journal articles, to his credit and has lectured across the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, and South America. From 1990 to 1996 he was associate director of the National Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. He has worked with a number of organisations, foundations and government agencies on issues of student success and sits on a number of advisory boards including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, and the Lumina Foundation.