Director's Message

2009 is already proving to be a challenging year for the South African economy.  Quality education that results in a skill set that meets the needs of the economy is an investment that will enable individuals to weather this storm and poise themselves for positions of leadership through this period of turbulence and when easier times return.  It is our mandate and responsibility to ensure that our students graduate will the skills, knowledge and values that will set them apart from others.  The IIE – both the academic head office represented on this website as well as the four tertiary brands – commits itself to the pursuit of excellence.  This was a theme in our self evaluation for the audit in 2007 and remains a theme that runs through our current innovations and development – from the self evaluation of all sites to the development of new programmes.  Quality and commitment to the student learning experience will continue to differentiate.

About Dr Felicity Coughlan

After graduating from Rhodes, Felicity worked for Rhodes as a student counsellor before moving to Jhb Child Welfare where she worked for a period as a Social Worker. She returned to Rhodes as a junior lecturer in Social Work in 1991. In 1994, after spending a year in England doing her Masters degree, she was transferred to the East London campus of Rhodes University as Lecturer-in-Charge and in 1997 was promoted to Head of Department. She was also elected as the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. She left Rhodes in 2001 to join the University of the Witwatersrand as a Deputy Registrar and then in 2003 took up the post of Director of Strategic Planning at Wits. She joined the IIE in August 2005.

Current Role:
As Director: IIE, Felicity is thus the accountable executive for the IIE.