Dr Vijay Reddy
Executive director, Education and Skills Development research programme, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa.
Lessons from South Africa: the Top Women Award
Knowledge Exchange Forum: Women and STEM careers: exchanging Insights and best practice
Dr Vijay Reddy is the executive director of the Education and Skills Development research programme. She holds a PhD in science education from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has extensive experience in successfully managing and overseeing large-scale, long-term collaborative research projects such as the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), from 2003 to 2011 (ongoing), the Literacy and Numeracy Research Programme funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy (RNE), which started in 2007 and will be concluded in December 2011, and the Department of Labour Critical Research Projects (2007-2008) with follow-up research, Impact Assessment of National Skills Development Strategy II, awarded by the Department of Labour following a competitive application process.
Before joining the HSRC, Dr Reddy initially worked as a school science teacher, then in NGOs involved in in-service education for science teachers. Thereafter she taught chemistry in university bridging programmes, and worked for an evaluation and monitoring NGO. Immediately before joining the HSRC, Dr Reddy was responsible for graduate programmes at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Dr Reddy has extensive experience in social scientific research, especially in the areas of research design and methodology, planning and management of large-scale surveys, and life history research. She has undertaken projects for organisations such as the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).