Dr Phumeza Kota-Nyati

Dr Phumeza Kota-Nyati
Dean: Learning and Teaching, Nelson Mandela University

Dr Phumeza Kota-Nyati is the Dean: Learning and Teaching at Nelson Mandela University, a role she has held since July 2021. She leads the Learning and Teaching Collaboration (LT Collab), guiding the conceptualisation and implementation of institution-wide strategies that advance student success, academic excellence, and staff development.

A registered Counselling Psychologist since 1999, Dr Kota-Nyati brings more than two decades of wide-ranging professional experience across higher education, public service, and the corporate sector. Prior to her current role, she served as Director of Emthonjeni Student Wellness, where she strengthened holistic student support and wellbeing initiatives.

Her academic career spans twelve years of lecturing at the University of Port Elizabeth, Vista University, and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Beyond academia, she has worked in multiple domains of psychology, including employee assistance and HIV coordination for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality; student counselling services at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology; Human Resources at Telkom SA; student development at the Coega Development Corporation; and private clinical practice.

Dr Kota-Nyati is deeply committed to transformative learning and teaching. Reflecting on her role, she notes the need for continual reflection, constructive disruption, and critical evaluation in a rapidly changing environment. She advocates for collaborative, inclusive approaches that bring students and colleagues together as co-constructors of meaningful educational experiences.

Her leadership is characterised by a human-centred, developmental ethos focused on enabling both students and staff to thrive within a dynamic and complex higher-education landscape.