Dr Nthite has extensive experience in Higher Education administration and management, particularly in research and innovation, research funding opportunities nationally and internationally, as well as overseeing postgraduate students, emerging and established researchers, and research chairs, which positions her to develop crucial supporting strategies.
These strategies will enable UMP researchers to concentrate on impactful research addressing local, national, continental, and global challenges, thus driving forward the University's research agenda.
Before joining UMP, Dr Nthite was the Deputy-Director for Research and Niche Area Support at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). In her role as Deputy-Director for Research and Niche Areas Support at TUT, Dr Nthite formed part of the task team for TUT’s Research Output Strategy and the Council of Higher Education (CHE) Doctoral Qualification Review Task Team.
Her priority and focus were on capacitating researchers, particularly postgraduate students, by offering them research development workshops. She also introduced students to the Innovation Office and taught them about Intellectual Property, Research Ethics, and research being done in the centres or niche areas.
Dr Nthite holds an MBA and a DBA from the TUT Business School, certificates from the University of the Witwatersrand in Managing Public Policy, and the University of Pretoria in Monitoring and Evaluation. She completed courses from the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association, including the Higher Education Leadership Programme.
Through the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr Nthite participated in the South African BRICS Think Tank: Post-Pandemic Socio-Economic Recovery and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. She has also worked on the YEBO project, a capacity-building project on the internationalisation of doctoral studies in South Africa, funded by the Erasmus Programme of the European Commission.
She believes in the importance of collaboration with internal stakeholders, faculty management, faculty administration, researchers, and other stakeholders supporting research and development, as well as external partners and strategic stakeholders.
One of Dr Nthite's highlights was being seconded to serve as a review panel member of the Department of Higher Education and Training: University Staff Development Programme.
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