121 Author biographies Dr Taryn Bernard is a Lecturer and Coordinator of the Extended Degree Programme in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Dr Rubby Dhunpath is the Director of Teaching and Learning at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. His previous appointments include that of Teacher Educator at UKZN, Senior Research Specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council and Rockefeller Research Fellow at the University of Illinois. A Fulbright and Spencer Alumni, he now provides leadership for the promotion of scholarship in teaching and learning, and institutional research. He is also an Advisor/Mentor in the Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU) Fellowship. Rubby has researched and published in education and language policy, organisational ethnographies and higher education curriculum. Prof. Nirmala Dorasamy is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Management and Economics, Faculty of Management Science. Being a rated researcher, she has widely published in accredited journals both locally and internationally. Her research focus areas include ethics, leadership and governance with particular focus on the public sector. Her expertise has been widely recognised by international journals, earning her nomination to several editorial boards. Being a member of the discipline specific organisations has enabled her to chair track sessions at several conferences. She has successfully supervised and examined master’s and doctoral students. Prof. Liezel Frick is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies and the Director of the Centre for Higher and Adult Education at the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her research interests are within the broader field of doctoral education, with a particular focus on aspects of doctoral creativity and originality, learning during the doctorate, and doctoral supervision. Her master’s and doctoral students work more broadly within the fields of higher and adult education, where most tend to focus on staff development, student experiences of learning environments, and workplace learning. Liezel is a member of the International Doctoral Education Research Network (IDERN), as well as of the Special Interest Group of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) on Researcher Education and Careers. She has received the Best African Accomplished Educational Researcher Award for 2013-2014 by the African Development Institute (ADI) and the Association for the Development of Education in South Africa (ADEA), and currently holds a South African National Research Foundation Y2 rating. Dr Mpho Priscilla Jama ventured into higher education in 2000 as a Lecturer in the Division Student Learning and Development (DSLD) in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Presently, she is the head of DSLD and is primarily responsible for the academic development and support 122 of undergraduate students in the FHS. Part of that responsibility includes teaching in the MBChB and B Medical Science undergraduate programmes. She also teaches and supervises postgraduate students in the Health Professions Education programme. Dr Jama is also an internal and external examiner for postgraduate studies. Dr Jama’s research expertise is intertwined with her work in the DSLD. This follows from doctoral work (completed in 2009) on the design of an academic support and development programme to combat attrition among medical undergraduates. Her current research explores the academic environment, with specific focus on the manner in which humane values are modelled in curricular and co-curricular teaching and learning practices and activities. She places a particular emphasis on practices that often subject students to inordinate stress resulting from hostile teaching and learning environments. Her research and expertise has earned her international and national recognition and awards, such as Golden Key International Honour, a Fulbright scholarship in 2013 through which she was subsequently hosted as a visiting research scholar for almost a year at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the USA. Nationally, she has served on the executive of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of South Africa (HELTASA). She serves as a reviewer for conference abstracts and research articles nationally and internationally. Furthermore, she is a co-founder of the First-Year Experience (FYE) Special Interest Group (SIG) which was awarded a Teaching and Learning Grant by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to establish a South African National Resource Centre (SANRC) for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. She serves as a member of the conference scientific committee/editorial board for the International Institute for Academic Development. Presently, her focus is on writing a book, which was drafted during her Fulbright scholarship at UCLA. The tentative title of her book is “Towards a humanistic pedagogy: teaching students in complex and demanding academic environments”. Prof. Thierry M. Luescher is a Research Director in the Education and Skills Development Research Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Cape Town, and an affiliated Associate Professor in Higher Education Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS), Mangaung, South Africa. Before that, he was Assistant Director for Institutional Research at the UFS, a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education Studies and extraordinary Senior Lecturer in Political Studies at the University of the Western Cape, and a Senior Researcher in the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET), Cape Town. He has a PG Diploma in Higher Education from the UFS and obtained his PhD in Political Studies from the University of Cape Town. Thierry researches, teaches and consults on matters of international and comparative higher education, with particular interest in the nexus of higher education with politics in Africa, higher education policy and governance, student politics, the student experience, student affairs, and higher education development in Africa. He has published in local and international scholarly journals, along with several chapters in internationally edited books. He is a founder and editor of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, and member of the editorial boards of the Journal of College Student 123 Development, Makerere Journal of Higher Education and African Higher Education Dynamics. Thierry recently edited the book Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism (with M. Klemenčič and J.O. Jowi, 2016). His publication list and links to open access downloads can be viewed at www.thierryluescher.net. Prof. Tracey McKay has over 20 years’ experience in teaching in Higher Education. She has a number of teaching qualifications, teaching awards, community engagement awards and a Research Award. She has supervised 20 master’s students to completion and has 44 accredited publications to date. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Her PhD was on adventure tourism under the supervision of Prof. Chris Rogerson. Her research interests include adventure tourism, environmental management, school commuting, private schooling, and teaching and learning in higher education. She is currently the President-Elect of the Society of South African Geographers (SSAG). Ms Celine Meyers is a Research Assistant at the South African National Resource Centre for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition (SANRC). She holds a BA in Psychology, BA Hons in Sociology (cum laude) and is currently in the final stages of completing her MA in Sociology. Celine received an award for the best research project in 2016 (Sociology) at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa, and currently sits on the Dean’s list in the Humanities Faculty. In addition, she has received scholarship awards from the National Research Foundation (NRF), UJ merit awards and the Global Excellence and Stature (GES). Her research interests include studies in online communication, higher education, and international and national migration. Dr Nosisana Mkonto is the Head of Department of the Student Learning Unit and the Coordinator for the First-Year Experience at Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), South Africa. Her responsibilities include leading and coordinating FYE initiatives in the institution. She holds a Secondary Teachers’ Diploma (STD) from the Lennox Sebe College of Education, a BA from UNISA, a BEd and MEd (Education Support) from the University of Cape Town, and a BTech (Business Administration) and PhD from the University of the Western Cape. She also holds the following positions: Deputy Chairperson: IsiXhosa National Lexicography Unit (XNLU); Chairperson: Fundani Ethics Committee; Chairperson: CPUT Institutional First-Year Experience Committee, and member of CPUT Disability Advisory Forum. Previous positions include; Coordinator Technical Committee (XNLU); Lecturer (Faculty of Education and Business Faculty, CPUT), Academic Development Lecturer (Fundani CHED, CPUT) and Teacher (Western Cape Education Department). Her research interests include student support and development, learning and teaching styles, peer support, mentoring and first-year experience. Nosisana has held an Erasmus Mundus scholarship as visiting scholar at the University of Hull, UK. She has presented papers at both national and international conferences, and has published articles in journals. http://www.thierryluescher.net 124 Prof. Teboho Moja is Clinical Professor of Higher Education at New York University. Her teaching experience includes high school and university levels. Teboho has held key positions at several South African universities, including being appointed Chair of the Council of the University of South Africa. She has held positions as Professor Extraordinaire at the University of Pretoria, the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Western Cape, and has been Visiting Professor at the University of Oslo (Norway) and the University of Tampere (Finland). She was instrumental in setting up the Centre for Higher Education Trust (CHET) in South Africa and is currently serving as 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. She 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. She is a founding member and Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa. Ms Lebo Mosebua is an Administrative Support Specialist at the South African National Resource Centre for the First Year Experience and Students in Transition (SANRC). She has over seven years of work experience within the Higher Education sector. Prior to joining SANRC, she worked at the School of Leadership (SoL), where she was responsible for coordinating SLP programmes (related to Industrial Policy, Strategic Diplomacy and Transitional Justice), focusing on the complex emergencies associated with insurgency and counter-insurgency campaigns on the Horn of Africa. In addition to coordinating the programmes, she acted as a communication liaison for SoL with policy makers from Zambia, Swaziland, Botswana and Zimbabwe. She is a certified Public Relations and Communications Practitioner and holds an additional qualification in Management Services through the Faculty of Engineering, conferred by the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She is currently in the process of completing her Master’s in Business Administration as well as accumulating credits in order to become a Chartered Communications Practitioner. She is an honorary member and co-founder of the Students Public Relations Association (SPRA), an academic support structure and student chapter under the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA). Mr Anban Naidoo is the Director of Student Academic Services at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He holds a BCom Accounting qualification from the University of Cape Town, an Information Systems qualification from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Pretoria. His interests include a broad range of fields centred around innovation and systems thinking in the Higher Education sector, such as student recruitment, applications, admissions, assessments, curriculum management, student record management, 125 graduation, student finance and financial aid. Anban has also had the privilege of working for the University of Cape Town and the University of Pretoria, two of South Africa’s top universities. Dr Rejoice Nsibande is the Head of Evaluation Services in the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. Her responsibilities are to support academic staff in their engagement with evaluations of their teaching and courses. This involves individual consultations, facilitating workshops and formal sessions. Her research interest is on evaluations of teaching as a social practice, focusing on the interplay between evaluation practices and institutional culture in the context of academic staff development and quality teaching. She has written and presented papers in this area of interest. Currently, she is also actively involved in two projects of the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA), as Chair of the Teaching Excellence Awards Committee and as an Advisor in the Teaching Advancement at University Fellowship (TAU). Dr Annsilla Nyar is Director of the South African National Resource Centre for the First- Year Experience and Students in Transition (SANRC). The SANRC is an independent national centre based at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa. Prior to this, she held several senior management positions, including that of Senior Researcher at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), a partnership between the Gauteng Provincial Government, UJ and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits); Research Manager at Higher Education South Africa (HESA), now Universities South Africa (USAF). Annsilla has over 20 years of experience in the world of academia. She holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and a PhD through the Department of Political Studies at Wits. Dr Vino Paideya is a Lecturer and First Year Coordinator in the School of Chemistry & Physics at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN), Westville campus, South Africa. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Science with Chemistry majors and a PhD in Chemistry education. Dr Paideya has received certification as a Supplemental Instruction (SI) Supervisor from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Her research interests are first year student experiences, chemistry education and student academic support programmes (SI). She has also worked with the UKZN Teaching and Learning Office on several institutional research projects. She has published journal articles and conference proceedings in her fields of interest. Dr Paideya has also presented papers both nationally and internationally at conferences and seminars. Dr Subethra Pather is currently the Teaching & Learning Specialist in the office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Included in her portfolio is the coordination of the Institution-Wide Tutor Programme and First-Year Experience at UWC. She is currently the Convenor for the HELTASA 126 Special Interest Group: Tutoring & Mentoring. Dr Pather, who holds a Doctorate of Education, was awarded a Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) scholarship from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Centre for Critical Research on Race & Identity (UKZN – CCRRI’s nationwide project titled Education and Emancipation: A critical, intervention-orientated investigation of obstacles and opportunities within higher education and training in South Africa). Dr  Pather’s research interests lie in the higher education field with particular focus on student learning support, first-year experience, and student access and success. Her academic publications and presentations are centred in this field. She is also involved in several national and international networks in first-year experience to advance her research agenda. Dr Birgit Schreiber is Senior Director of Student Affairs at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Prior to that, she was the Director of the Centre for Student Support Services at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town. She holds a PhD from UWC. Birgit 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 has given lectures at the UC Berkley, the University of Leuven (Netherlands), and the University of Oslo (Norway). She was a visiting scholar at the UC Berkeley, where she was involved in their student affairs department. She 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), and currently serves on the Executive of the Southern African Federation of Student Affairs and Services (SAFSAS). She is also the Africa Regional Coordinator of the International Association of Student Affairs and Services (IASAS). She is a founding member of the Editorial Executive of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa. Prof. Ian Scott is Professor Emeritus in the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town, having been Director of Academic Development for many years. He has served on task teams and has undertaken research for various policy bodies, including the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the World Bank, and led the research and report-writing for the CHE’s investigation into undergraduate curriculum reform, published in 2013. He has also served on the DHET’s Foundation Provision Reference Group, which advises the Minister on policy and funding for Extended Curriculum Programmes, since its inception. His main research interests are in higher education policy related to teaching and learning, comparative models for widening successful participation in higher education, and curriculum development. 127 Dr Zack Simpson is an educational development Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds a PhD in Education from the University of Cape Town. His research interests include engineering education, higher education studies, academic literacies, and social semiotics. He has produced more than 25 publications, including journal articles, book chapters and conference papers, in these areas. Zach is also on the editorial boards of journals, such as SOTL in the South and Visual Communication.