Prof Surujlal’s journey of lifelong learning took off in 1981 upon receiving a Junior Secondary Education Diploma at the Springfield College of Education. He followed this up with a BCom degree in accounting and economics from Unisa (1982) and an Advanced University Diploma in Public Administration (1994) and a Master of Public Administration (1995), both from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Shortly hereafter he completed his PhD in sport management at the former Rand Afrikaans University (RAU).
After a stint as a secondary school teacher, he moved on to become a lecturer at the Durban University of Technology. In 2000, he relocated to the Vanderbijlpark region and joined the Vaal University of Technology. Here he quickly moved up the ranks as lecturer, senior lecturer, associate professor, research professor and acting dean.
In 2013 he joined the NWU’s campus in Vanderbijlpark as director for research development in the then Faculty of Economic Sciences and Information Technology. As director, he managed all postgraduate programmes and activities while also working towards increasing research capacity on the campus. The latter saw him successfully mentoring staff members to publish their first articles in peer-reviewed journals and by doing such, increased research output by more than 200%.
Prof Surujlal is held in high regard – nationally and internationally – as a researcher of note and has authored and co-authored more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He has also written several chapters in books as well as sidebars in many publications on sport management. He boasts more than 40 national and international conferences and chaired many of these conference sessions. In addition to these accomplishments he also serves on the editorial board of both national and international journals.
Prof Babs Surujlal as the new deputy dean for research and innovation in the NWU’s Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.
