Professor Heather Nel is the Senior Director of Institutional Strategy at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha. In this capacity, she oversees institutional strategy and supports evidence-informed decision-making. She oversees the Office for Institutional Strategy, which reports directly to the Vice-Chancellor and serves as a hub of institutional strategy, business intelligence and data analytics, institutional research, as well as monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
Professor Nel obtained her PhD in Public Administration and Management in 1999 from Nelson Mandela University (formerly the University of Port Elizabeth). She accumulated more than ten years of academic experience in her capacity as the Programme Leader for the Masters’ and Doctoral qualifications in Public Administration and Management at the University.
Professor Nel has been leading institutional strategy at Mandela University since the merger in 2005 and, most recently, assisted the Vice-Chancellor and senior management in crafting the University’s Vision 2030 decadal strategy. She has published widely and presented papers at national and international conferences on higher education, leadership and strategy, organisational change and complexity, curriculum responsiveness and graduate employability.
