Deputy President of South Africa awarded WMG doctorate

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Deputy President of South Africa from 2005 to 2008 and executive director of the United Nations (UN) entity for gender equality and empowerment of women, has received her engineering doctorate from the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG).

The the degree ceremony was on on 22 January 2014.

Mlambo-Ngcuka was the first woman to hold the position of deputy president in South Africa, and at that time was the highest ranking woman in South African’s history.

She was sworn into office on 19 August 2013 by UN secretary-general Ban-Ki Moon. Since then, Mlambo-Ngcuka has devoted her career to supporting issues of human rights such as equality and social justice, with a focus on gender issues.

The engineering doctorate combines doctoral-level education with real business relevance. During her time at Warwick, Mlambo-Ngcuka focused on researching mobile learning facilitated ICT teacher development in resource poor nations.

She already has a bachelor’s degree in social science and education from the National University of Lesotho in 1980 and a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Cape Town in 2003.

WMG Director Professor Lord Bhattacharyya said: “I am delighted that Phumzile chose WMG to study her engineering doctorate. It has been a pleasure working with her over the last four years and watching her develop her study into such a worthwhile project. I wish her success in her next role at the UN, although I know she will do a fantastic job.”

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said: “I very much enjoyed my time at Warwick, it was both demanding and rewarding. I have learnt such a lot from my fellow research students, experts and practitioners in the field of technology-enhanced learning.

Without the help and enthusiasm of the participants in my study or the support and guidance of my supervisor, Professor Neailey and staff at WMG, I wouldn’t have been able to complete my project. I also want to thank Professor Lord Bhattacharyya for his support through the four years of my doctorate, it has been invaluable.”