The voice of Higher Education Leadership in South Africa - Higher Education South Africa (HESA) – awarded 25 outstanding professionals in middle management positions in the university sector with exceptional qualities and who exhibited management and leadership potential in their university the Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM) Programme known as the HELM LEAD Fellowship. 

CUT is proud to announce that Dr René Haarhoff, Acting Director: School of Tourism, Hospitality & Sport was chosen as one of the fellows. “HELM’s fundamental aim is to provide enabling learning opportunities for the middle and senior managers to gain knowledge and skills with a view to navigating successfully the constant challenges of change and to interpret effectively the operational impact of internal and external drivers.” said Dr Haarhoff.  There are two components for the HELM Programme. First is the HESA Fellows Exchange component, which allows participants to be placed in host institutions for a period of six weeks, under the tutelage of an experienced mentor. Second, is the LEAD component (introduced in 2013), which focuses on middle management professionals. LEAD will be very exciting as it is an informal-based development practice which provides qualified individuals exciting opportunities to develop their experience, knowledge and skills and to serve as middle managers in our university sector, while contributing to the development and advancement of their own institutions. “As we narrow our attention on Vision 2020, we put greater focus on ensuring that our People, Participate, Productively by contributing their “crazy ideas” towards achieving our Vision 2020, and in order to do so – we need to genuinely regard and seek to nurture our people, their talents, their skills and their commitment to the education of our young minds” said Prof. Thandwa Mthembu during his State-of-the-University-Address on 2 February 2013. 

Dr Renè Haarhoff is an outstanding example of excellence at CUT. As the Acting Director: School of Tourism, Hospitality & Sport her qualifications reflect her wide spectrum of interests: a B.Iuris law degree, a diploma in Fashion Designing, BTech: Tourism Management, MTech: Marketing and a DTech: Business Administration (Tourism). In her academic career, her focus is on the travel and tourism sector. She is an accredited Fares and Ticketing trainer and she is also one of a few accredited Galileo SA (Global Distribution System) trainers in South Africa. In 2010, she received the award for the best research at the Prestige Research Day of the Faculty of Management Sciences and in 2012 the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Service Excellence:  Community Engagement. Upon hearing the news Prof. Thandwa Mthembu, Vice-Chancellor and Principal commented “Excellent achievements indeed. Congratulations René! You have made us proud.”