Prof. Vuyokazi Nomlomo joined the University of Zululand as the Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) for Teaching and Learning in January 2021. Before joining the University of Zululand, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Prof. Nomlomo holds a PhD in Language and Literacy Studies and is an established NRF-rated researcher who is highly recognized for her work in the fields of language education, teacher education and early literacy development in African languages.

Her passion is also in mother tongue and multilingual education, and has published extensively in these areas. Her research is informed by her epistemic stance with regard to social justice, socioculturalism and social constructivism in understanding language policy issues and the role of language in enhancing classroom discourse and interaction, and students’ epistemological access to learning in different contexts. As a result, she has been able to maintain a coherent research agenda in language and early literacy studies, with a special focus on isiXhosa. Through her teaching and research, Prof. Nomlomo has been able to establish long-term academic partnerships within the African continent and in other parts of the world, which have enabled her to work across disciplines such as exploring the nexus between language, mathematics and science education, and gender equality in education.

She has led a number of research projects with national and international partners that promote the status of African languages in basic and higher education. She played an active role in the Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa (LOITASA) research project – a collaborative project between Dar-es-Salaam University (Tanzania), Oslo University (Norway) and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa). The aim of the twelve-year long project was to promote the use of African languages (isiXhosa and Kiswahili) in primary education in South Africa and Tanzania, and Prof. Nomlomo has published a number of articles from this project. She was the South African coordinator of the Gender Equality, Education and Poverty (GEEP) project which involved Afhad University for Women (Sudan) and Oslo Metropolitan University (Norway).

Prof. Nomlomo was the grant holder and Principal Investigator in the Early Literacy Development in African Languages (ELDAL) in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Fort Hare. Prof. Nomlomo’ s most recent achievement is the grant she received from the Department of Higher Education and Training (in 2020) to establish a Centre for African Language Teaching (CALT) at the University of the Western Cape – a collaborative project that involves three higher education institutions in the Eastern Cape.

Prof. Nomlomo is passionate about innovation and transformation in higher education. In her current role as DVC of Teaching and Learning, she provides strategic leadership with respect to academic activities in the institution.