Since August 2014, Mr. Badat has served as program director, International Higher Education and Strategic Projects program, at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. His portfolio includes the South Africa program and international grantmaking in higher education.
Mr. Badat has served as the director of the Education Policy Unit at the University of the Western Cape, as the first head of the Council on Higher Education, which advises the South African Minister of Higher Education and Training, and as vice-chancellor of Rhodes University. He has been chairperson of Higher Education South Africa, and of the Association of African Universities Scientific Committee on Higher Education. He is a board member of the Centre for Higher Education Transformation, a member of the Carnegie 3 Study on Poverty and Inequality in South Africa Think Tank, and a trustee of the Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust.
Mr. Badat holds degrees in the social sciences from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, a certificate in higher education and science policy from Boston University, and a PhD in sociology from the University of York. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of the Free State and York. He is a recipient of the Inyathelo Exceptional Philanthropy Award in recognition of Excellence and Leadership in Personal South African Philanthropy.
Mr. Badat is the author of The Forgotten People: Political Banishment under Apartheid (Brill, 2013), Black Man, You are on Your Own (STE Publishers, 2009) and Black Student Politics, Higher Education and Apartheid (RoutledgeFalmer, 2002); co-author of National Policy and a Regional Response in South African Higher Education (James Currey, 2004); and co-editor of Apartheid Education and Popular Struggles in South Africa (Zed Books, 1991).
