Dr Cheryl de la Rey, Chief Executive Officer of the Council for Higher Education and Vice-Chancellor elect and Principal of the University of Pretoria, will deliver the annual DCS Oosthuizen Memorial Lecure on Academic Freedom at Rhodes University on 29 October.

Academic freedom is currently a hotly debated topic area and the debate is largely intended to encourage and bear witness to the transformation of the higher education environment in South Africa.

During the apartheid years it could be argued that academic freedom manifested as the right of access to education, freedom of speech, and ultimately truth and justice. Perhaps today things are not that different as scores of previously disadvantaged students fight for their right to access an education that will not only raise them above their current circumstances but help them contribute to the ultimate betterment of society.

Speaking on the topic “Academic Freedom – A Contested Good”, Dr de la Rey, whose academic career has been punctuated by valuable contributions to education and research-related policy over the years, has incontestible integrity as a speaker at this annual lecture celebrating academic freedom.

Prior to her current post, she served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Psychology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) for six years. Previously she was Executive Director of Research Promotion at the National Research Foundation. Dr de la Rey completed her Bachelor of Arts, Honours and Master’s degrees at the University of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) and her PhD at UCT.

Her research in Social Psychology focussing on gender and race has resulted in three co-edited books, 15 book chapters, 29 peer-reviewed journal articles, 11 commissioned papers and reports, 10 published conference proceedings and other publications, 16 keynote and invited conference presentations, and 24 academic conference papers.

A valued contributor to education and research-related policy over the years, she has chaired several committees in this regard. Her current commitments include the Council of the Botswana University of Science and Technology, the National Advisory Council on Innovation, the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the Board of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, and the national Science, Engineering and Technology for Women Committee.

She is registered as a Psychologist by the Health Professions Council of South Africa; is a fellow of the Psychological Association of South Africa; and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. She also holds a Visiting Professorship at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The DCS Oosthuizen Memorial Lecture on Academic Freedom takes place at 18h30 in Eden Grove Red Lecture Theatre at Rhodes University on Thursday 29 October.

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DCS “Daantjie” Oosthuizen was Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at Rhodes from January 1958 until his untimely death at the age of 43 in April 1969. Receiving his initial training in philosophy and theology at the University of Stellenbosch, he read Theology at the Free University in Holland and then at the City University of Amsterdam. He later studied at Oxford University in the UK and at Brown University in the USA.

Obtaining his Doctorate (cum laude) in 1955 he returned to South Africa to become a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of the Orange Free State. He was appointed the Chair of Philosophy at Rhodes in August 1957.

The first DCS Oosthuizen Memorial Lecture was delivered in 1970 by Dr Alan Paton who described Professor Oosthuizen as a champion of truth and justice – “an Afrikaner who was not bound by any shackles of race and group and nation: a South African whose love of his country was deep and loyal, and was surpassed only by his love of mankind: a Chirstian whos love of his church was deep also, and was surpassed only by is love of Christ, and of truth, justice and righteousness.

“It was in these last three manifestations of personality . . . that he could be called a controversial figure. He was no lover of controversy, but he was a lover of truth. He was gentle by nature, but the truth was something that must be proclaimed.”