Womanity - Women in Unity
Professor Linda Du Plessis – Vice-Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at North-West University – Shaping the Future
This week on Womanity , Dr Amaleya Goneos-Malka speaks with Professor Linda du Plessis , Vice Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at North-West University . She reflects on the enormous responsibility of preparing students not simply to earn degrees, but to become the people who will shape society. Her portfolio spans academic and curriculum development, student support, learning technologies, quality assurance and ensuring that university programmes remain relevant in a rapidly changing world. At the heart of her work is a deceptively simple question: How do we give every student the best possible chance of success? From Systems Analyst to University Leader Her own career journey is an intriguing example of how seemingly different disciplines can ultimately connect. Professor du Plessis began in information systems, working as a computer programmer and systems analyst, before moving into academia and eventually university leadership. Rather than leaving her systems-thinking background behind, she brought it with her. The focus simply shifted from technical systems to human systems encompassing students, academics, institutions and communities. Her journey also demonstrates that careers do not necessarily follow a predetermined plan. Curiosity, learning and a willingness to embrace new challenges can create unexpected pathways. Education as a Force for Personal Transformation With multiple degrees and two doctorates spanning different disciplines, Professor du Plessis speaks powerfully about education as much more than the acquisition of qualifications. For her, education provided opportunity, confidence, resilience and the ability to think critically. It gave her the confidence to enter spaces where she might once have questioned whether she belonged and enabled her to move across disciplines and into leadership. Her message to girls and women is particularly powerful: education gives you a voice, a voice to say, “I belong here, I have something to offer, and I can keep growing and learning.” Rebuilding Education for South Africa’s Future The conversation takes a broader look at the state and future of education in South Africa. If Professor du Plessis had five minutes with the President, she identifies three priorities: rebuilding the foundations of basic education, creating a sustainable and accountable funding model for higher education, and preparing young people for a digital future. Literacy, numeracy, mathematics and science are fundamental building blocks. At the same time, education needs to develop digital capability, critical thinking, ethical judgement, employability and innovation. Her central argument is that education is a pipeline, and that pipeline must ultimately lead somewhere. Education needs to connect learners with opportunities, skills and the world of work rather than simply moving people through institutions. What Happens When the World Changes Faster Than Education? Professor du Plessis challenges us to rethink what education should look like in a world of information overload, digital learning and artificial intelligence. The emphasis, she suggests, can no longer simply be on delivering content. Students need the disciplinary foundations and critical-thinking capabilities to evaluate information, make sense of it and integrate it meaningfully. With the world of work changing rapidly, young people also need agility, adaptability, lifelong learning and the ability to continually upskill. The university of the future therefore needs to focus not only on what students know, but what they are capable of doing with what they know. Being the First — and Making Sure You Are Not the Last Part of the interview explores Professor du Plessis’s experience as the first female Vice-Rector of North-West University’s Vanderbijlpark Campus. Being the first, she explains, is not simply a personal achievement. It carries a responsibility to make the pathway wider for those who follow. Some of the less visible barriers women encounter include family-care expectations, assumptions about how women should behave, unequal access to networks and the pressure to continually prove competence. One practical example came early in her leadership career, when meetings routinely ran into the late afternoon while she had a young child waiting to be collected from school. Rather than accepting the arrangement as inevitable, she eventually questioned why meetings could not start earlier. The result was a simple but significant institutional change: university meetings were moved to a more practical time. It’s an important reminder about challenging the logic behind existing norms and changing the status quo. Sometimes breaking barriers begins by having the courage to question practices that everyone has simply accepted. Leadership Is About Opening the Door Wider For Professor du Plessis , leadership is not about occupying a position or accumulating personal achievements. It is about stewardship, ethical judgement and humility, and creating the conditions for others to succeed. She believes that when you are the first, you must not be the last. Her leadership philosophy was also forged during periods of intense institutional disruption, including the Fees Must Fall movement, COVID-19 and the rapid emergence of generative AI. These experiences taught her that leadership requires both compassion and realism; caring deeply about people while still making difficult and responsible decisions. Her approach is refreshingly human: a leader does not need to have every answer. Instead, effective leadership involves bringing the right people together, asking difficult questions, listening to criticism and making decisions based on ethics, impact, trust and the long-term future. A Message to Women Who Are Waiting to Feel Ready Professor du Plessis has an especially strong message for young women aspiring to leadership: do not wait until you feel completely ready. She argues that too many capable women hold themselves back because they believe they need to be perfect or acquire one more qualification before stepping forward. Confidence, she says, is built through action; taking responsibility, preparing properly, asking questions, learning continuously and being willing to make mistakes. And perhaps most importantly, she challenges women not to confuse humility with silence. A woman can be humble and still speak with authority; she can be kind and still be firm; she can be collaborative and still be decisive. The People Who Help Us Become Who We Are Mentorship has played an important role throughout Professor du Plessis’s journey. Teachers, colleagues, leaders and students have each contributed to her development, sometimes by offering encouragement and sometimes by asking difficult questions that exposed her blind spots. She reminds us that the people who shape us are not necessarily those who always praise us. Sometimes it is those who challenge us, expect more from us and push us beyond what we thought we could achieve. Building a Life, Not Just a Career Life moves through different seasons, and the balance between career, family and personal needs has to be continually renegotiated. Professor du Plessis’s “secret sauce” is purpose, discipline, support and perspective. And her final message to women is one that encapsulates the spirit of the entire interview: build a life, not only a career. Ambition matters, but it needs to be connected to meaning. Success should not come at the expense of health or relationships. Sometimes we need the courage to say yes and the wisdom to say no. Tune in for more…
