The University of Zululand (UNIZULU) has appointed Professor Nontokozo Mashiya as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning. Her appointment came into effect on 1 December 2025. In her role as Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Professor Mashiya says her primary focus is student success. She approaches student success holistically, recognising the interconnectedness of curriculum relevance, teaching quality, academic support, digital capability, and institutional culture. To strengthen and promote student success, her strategic priorities include:
- Advancing the decolonisation of the curriculum, ensuring that teaching and learning are contextually relevant, inclusive, and responsive to African epistemologies while remaining globally competitive.
- Driving digital transformation in teaching and learning through blended, hybrid, and innovative pedagogical models that enhance access, flexibility, and student engagement.
- Promoting the internationalisation of the curriculum, enabling students to develop global competencies and intercultural awareness without losing local relevance.
- Positioning the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as a cornerstone for student success, encouraging evidence-based teaching practices, reflective pedagogy, and continuous improvement in curriculum design and delivery.
- Strengthening Student Academic Support Services, including tutoring, mentoring, early alert systems, academic advising, and targeted interventions for at-risk students.
Prof Mashiya believes that student success is a shared institutional responsibility and looks forward to working collaboratively with academic and professional staff to foster a supportive, innovative, and student-centred teaching and learning environment at UNIZULU.
Prof Mashiya is committed to her alma mater and its academic project, hence her perpetual willingness to hold various portfolios at UNIZULU throughout the years. The strategic academic leadership roles she has held include Senior Lecturer, Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education, and Deputy Dean: Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Education. She was privileged to be entrusted by University Management with the mandate to establish the Teaching and Learning Centre, a critical institutional structure aimed at strengthening pedagogical excellence, academic staff development, and student learning support. In addition, she was given a further mandate to establish the International Office, which she directed for six years, advancing the University’s international footprint, partnerships, and global engagement.
Her academic and professional journey reflects a deep, sustained commitment to education across the full spectrum of learning, from foundational schooling to leadership in higher education. She began her career as a primary school teacher, grounding her work in classroom practice and learner-centred pedagogy. She later joined the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where she served as a lecturer and subsequently as an Associate Professor in early childhood education. She has supervised and successfully graduated master’s and PhD students and has published in accredited early childhood education journals.
