About Prof Letseka

Moeketsi Letseka is the holder of the UNESCO Chair on ODL at Unisa. He is a professor of philosophy of education and Editor-in-Chief of Africa Education Review, a scholarly journal that is jointly published by Unisa Press and Taylor & Francis in the United Kingdom (UK). Africa Education Review indexed by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), and SCOPUS.

Prof Letseka is Chairperson of the Finance Standing Committee of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), and a member of the council of Da Vinci of Technology Management, Modderfontein, Lethabong, Johannesburg.

 During 2003 and 2005, Prof Letseka served as a senior researcher in the Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) Carnegie-funded study, “Higher education industry partnerships”, under the leadership of Dr Glenda Kruss. The study’s operating budget was R3.8 million. The study investigated the depth and breadth of collaborative partnerships between industry and public higher education institutions in nanotechnology, information and communication technologies (ICTs), and materials development. In 2005, Prof Letseka served as Guest Editor, with Dr Kruss, Research Director: HSRC, of the London-based scholarly journal Industry & Higher Education, volume 19, number 2, which reported on the Carnegie Foundation funded HSRC’s national.

During 2005 and 2008, Prof Letseka received $90 000 (R1.2 million) from Ford Foundation in support of the HSRC’s Student Pathways Study, in which he served as Principal Investigator and Project Leader.The study, which sought to answer the question, “Why university students drop out without obtaining a qualification?”, was conducted at seven public higher education institutions in South Africa, namely Stellenbosch University, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Fort Hare, the University of the Witwatersrand, former University of the North (now University of Limpopo), former Peninsula Technikon, and former Pretoria Technikon. The study surveyed 34 548 respondents (20 353 leavers and 14 195 graduates), and yielded the following research outputs:

• Letseka, M., Cosser, M., Breier, M., & Visser, M. (eds) (2010) Student Retention and Graduate Destinations: Higher Education and Labour Market Access and Success, HSRC Press: Cape Town.
• Letseka, M. 2009. University dropout and researching (lifelong) learning and work. In Shirley Walters & Linda Cooper (eds), Learning/Work: Turning Work and Lifelong Learning Inside Out (pp.88-105). HSRC Press: Cape Town.
• Letseka, M., & Breier, M. 2008. Higher education dropout and poverty. In Simeon Maile (ed) Education and Poverty Reduction Strategies: Issues of Policy Coherence, Colloquium Proceedings (pp.83-101). HSRC Press: Cape Town.
• Letseka, M., & Maile, S. 2008. High University Dropout Rates: A Threat to South Africa’s Future, HSRC Policy Brief, HSRC Press: Cape Town.
• Letseka, M. 2007. Why Students leave? The problem of high university dropout rates. HSRC Review, 5 (3), 8-9

• Prof Letseka has over 100 publications in articles in peer reviewed scholarly journals and chapters in peer reviewed scholarly books. He has edited and co-edited the following scholarly books: Aluko, R, Letseka, M, & Pitsoe, V. (eds). 2016. Assuring Institutional Quality in Open Distance Learning (ODL) in the Developing Contexts. Nova Publishers: New York.
• Letseka, M. (ed). 2016. Open Distance Learning (ODL) through the Philosophy of Ubuntu. Nova Publishers: New York.
• Letseka, M. (ed). 2015. Open Distance Learning (ODL) in South Africa. Nova Publishers: New York.
• Letseka, M., Cosser, M., Breier, B., & Visser, M. (eds). 2010. Student Retention and Graduate Destinations: Higher Education and Labour Market Access and Success. HSRC Press: Cape Town.

Prof Letseka is co-author of fourteen client research and consultancy reports from the research projects he worked on during his tenure as Senior Research Specialist in higher education at the HSRC from 2002 to 2008. He has read papers and received invitations to give keynote addresses at national and international conferences.