Prof. Ushotanefe Useh, Deputy Dean for Community Engagement and Stakeholder Relations at North-West University's Faculty of Health Sciences, has been appointed Chairperson of the Academic Subcommittee of Universities South Africa's Higher Education Sustainability Community of Practice (HESCoP) and has joined its Executive Committee, effective April 2026.

The appointment came through a vote at HESCoP's Annual General Meeting, held at the University of Pretoria on 16 April 2026, where members elected Prof. Useh to help steer sustainability discussions and collaboration across the higher education sector.

It is a fitting role for someone whose career has consistently sat at the intersection of public health, community impact and sustainable development. Prof. Useh has been at the forefront of initiatives focused on lifestyle disease prevention and community wellbeing, particularly non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity in local communities. His work is rooted in a simple but demanding idea: that academic work should create meaningful change in the real world.

What makes his profile especially compelling is how much ground it covers. Apart from being an academic and researcher, Prof. Useh is a registered physiotherapist, an advocate of the High Court of South Africa, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom. Few academics move as comfortably across health sciences, education, law, social justice and sustainability as Prof. Useh does and this rare range has earned him recognition far outside academia.  He has also helped grow NWU's international presence through partnership-building with universities abroad, while keeping community-centred research at the centre of his work at home.

In his new role, Prof. Useh will chair the Academic Subcommittee and guide sustainability conversations and knowledge-sharing among universities across the country, a platform that puts him at the centre of one of higher education's most pressing conversations.

His appointment is a reflection of the confidence placed in his leadership and a sign that North-West University is increasingly shaping the conversations that matter most.

Prof. Ushotanefe Useh.