Dr Ronel Retief has served as Registrar of Stellenbosch University (SU) since 1 January 2017. In this role, she is a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s management team and is responsible for the academic administration of the University (including the Client Services Centre).  She is the secretary to the Council and the Senate, supports the good governance and administration of the University, and ensures compliance with the Higher Education Act and other applicable legislation, and the relevant policies and rules of the University. The SU Archives, Office for Business Ethics, and Legal Services also report to her. She has led several major institutional projects, including the successful revision of the SU Statute (2019) and the implementation of a new student administration system.

After completing a Master’s degree in Afrikaans Literature at SU, Dr Retief received a doctoral travel grant from the Centre for Science Development, which enabled her to spend a year at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Her research focused on the construction of the female subject in Afrikaans women’s poetry since 1970, and she obtained her doctoral degree from SU in 2005.

Dr Retief began her career at SU as Coordinator of Research Funding in the Division of Research Development. She later served as Deputy Registrar and Head of Student Administration at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences from 2003 until her appointment as Registrar in 2017.
Deeply interested in leadership development, Dr Retief has completed programmes at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is actively involved in the Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert Leadership Institute at SU and has participated in the HERS Academy, both as a delegate and presenter.

Her professional contributions extend beyond the University. She co-authored the Registrar’s Handbook (2022), serves as vice-chair of the USAf Registrars’ Forum, and is a member of the USAf Admissions Committee and the Provincial Examinations Irregularity Committee of the Western Cape Government. She has also participated in the Council on Higher Education (CHE) institutional audit panels.