Dhayaneethie Perumal

I am an accomplished professional with a strong academic record  and extensive experience in higher education (HE), HE college and program leadership, research, accreditation, institutional effectiveness and have a proven track record in project management, research and development, academic leadership, quality assurance, institutional effectiveness and curriculum development. I am also recognized for excellence in teaching, research supervision, program accreditation and institutional licensure. My proficiency extends to developing and implementing policies and procedures, managing external review teams, consulting with senior university officials and evaluating the alignment of organizational objectives with local and international standards to enhance operational efficiency and institutional reputation. My leadership reflects a commitment to academic excellence, strategic project oversight, intercultural engagement, and sustainable innovation in higher education. Key highlights include:

• Strategic Leadership and Innovation: Involved in strategic planning of units, including Colleges, in line with institutional goals. Developed innovations in industry with a market-leading product at Unilever, South Africa, that dominated for over a decade, and advanced during post-doctoral research, an HIV-prevention platform to Clinical trials and successful regulatory approval.
• Project Management: Led planning, execution and successful completion of new products development and marketing projects; higher education program accreditation alignment with international accrediting bodies and currently leading institutional level strategy projects, including those pertaining to the MOHESR Outcomes-based Evaluation Framework.
• Academic Leadership: Successful program and college management to pre-determined KPI thresholds and targets, and with pioneering collaboration with service providers for experiential learning and internships. Engaging stakeholders for continuous improvement and excellence and contributed to improved student satisfaction through curriculum innovations and enhanced learning experiences.
• Proven academic excellence in Teaching and Learning, and Research: Multiple awards for teaching and research supervision, including Faculty Teacher of the Year. Supervised award-winning research projects and contributed to groundbreaking HIV-prevention strategies
• Directed about 200 accreditation and licencing projects across four countries, aiding full compliance, and institutional and program readiness in various disciplines, mainly in  sciences and medical programs.
• Global Collaborator: Partnered with international regulators (QAA, ADC, ACPE, AACSB, WFME) to develop and implement joint protocols, to bridge global best practices, elevate education standards and organizational growth

I have five degree qualifications. I completed my BSc degree at the University of Durban-Westville (now University of Kwazulu-Natal) in South Africa and joined Unilever, Ltd (Pty) for eight years where I progressed to become Quality Control and Research & Development Manager. In this post, I formulated a product that was later commercialized and went on to become a market brand leader. I returned to the same university to complete a Pharmacy degree followed by a research Masters in Pharmaceutics. During this time, I had won several awards, including being top student of the university for which I was awarded a Bronze medal for academic excellence. Following registration as a pharmacist and a teaching position in Pharmaceutics, I was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth/British Council Scholarship and successfully completed a PhD with Imperial College London, UK. My post-doc, in the lab of Professor Robin Shattock at St George's Hospital, University of London, involved the pre-clinical evaluation of potential microbicides using cellular/tissue models for the prevention of HIV transmission. This work culminated in an anti-HIV microbicide formulation that is currently in extended Phase II clinical trials at various international sites. 

I subsequently took on teaching positions as Senior Lecturer (Pharmaceutics) at London Metropolitan University and later at the School of Pharmacy, Keele University in Clinical Pharmacology, before joiningKingston University in 2011 as Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmaceutics. At Keele and Kingston Universities, I was nominated for Teacher of Year Awards and went on to win the Faculty Teacher Award within a year of joining Kingston. In 2015 at the same university, I was uniquely a finalist in four different categories of Teacher awards and winner of the Best Research Supervisor award. I was previously a reviewer to a Medical Research Council (UK) Grant application, a Keele University ethical application and an external examiner for Greenwich University/University of Modern Sciences and Arts in Cairo in Pharmaceutical science, Currently, I am Faculty and Head of Pharmacy, Fatima College of Health Sciences (FCHS), Abu Dhabi and continue as co-supervisor to several international PhD projects, reviewer for several journals and serve on the editorial Boards of the Annals of Vaccines and Immunisation as well as the International Biological and Biomedical Journal.

PhD (HIV vaccine development)- Imperial College, London, UK (2004)

MA (Learning & Teaching in Higher Education) (Distinction) - London Metropolitan University, UK (2009)

MPharm (Research Mastersin Pharmaceutics) (AwardedDistinction) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (1995)

BPharm - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (1992)

• Top ten student of University of Kwazulu-Natal;
• Awarded the University BronzeMedal for Academicexcellence,
• Eli-Lilly award for best final year student and
• UpJohn Pharmaceuticals award for best Pharmacy Practice student.

BSc (Microbiology major) - University of University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa (1981)