Professor Angina Parekh is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic at the University of Johannesburg. She qualified as a Clinical Psychologist having received her BA degree (1976, with majors in Psychology and Philosophy), BA Hons in Psychology (1978 – cum laude), MA degree in Clinical Psychology (1980) and D.Phil in Psychology (1988) from the former University of Durban-Westville. In 1983 she received a second MA degree (in Human Development) from the University of Kansas, USA.
She has held academic appointments at the former University of Durban-Westville, including Chair of the Department of Psychology and Chief Director for Academic Transformation and Planning. She was a founder member of the 1st Centre for Population Studies and Reproductive Health in Africa. She has served on a number of university structures and was an executive member of the Clinical Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa. She has also served on the editorial board for the Journal of Psychology in Africa and was a member of the KwaZulu-Natal selection committee for the Rhodes Scholarships.
In 2000, Angina Parekh was appointed Ministerial Advisor on Higher Education and a few years later she headed up the Department of Education’s Merger Unit, responsible for the restructuring and transformation of the country’s higher education system through mergers and incorporations. During her years with the Ministry of Education she contributed significantly to higher education policy, including the development and formulation of the National Plan for Higher Education, the proposals for the restructuring and transformation of the higher education landscape, the programme and qualification mix profile for universities and universities of technology, the policy framework for language in higher education, and the draft Higher Education Qualifications Framework. She has served on several Ministerial task teams, including chaired the Ministerial Working Group on the establishment of a National Higher Education Information and Applications Service for South Africa, and is currently a member of the Department of Higher Education and Training’s evaluation panel for research output in higher education.
In October 2006, Prof Parekh joined the University of Johannesburg as Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for academic matters – a position which she presently occupies.
