Senior Policy Specialist Job at Council on Higher Education

Main responsibilities:

• Conducting scoping, prefeasibility and feasibility studies for new policies that are to be developed, and for existing policies that are to be reviewed.
• Providing intellectual and operational leadership in the processes of developing new policies or processes of reviewing and revising existing policies and taking responsibility for the outputs.
• Conceptualising, designing, and implementing projects for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the relevant national policies and the policies developed the CHE.
• Conceptualising, designing, and implementing projects for assessing the impacts of the implementation of the relevant national policies and the policies developed by the CHE.
• Organising and facilitating policy colloquia, workshops and other policy consultative forums and/or policy intellectual engagement forums.
• Engaging in policy research and scholarship and generating well-researched policy briefs, policy articles for publication in relevant scholarly publications, and policy commentaries.
• Monitoring developments within the national policy environment and assessing the implications of those developments on the policies and frameworks that govern the work of the CHE.
• Monitoring developments regarding regional higher education protocols and international higher education conventions and frameworks and assessing the implications of those developments on the national higher education policies in South Africa.
• Drafting reports and other relevant submissions to the Research, Monitoring and Advice
• Committee; Council; the Higher Education Quality Committee; the Department of
• Higher Education and Training; and other stakeholder bodies.
• Collaborating with colleagues in research, monitoring, advice, quality assurance, and management of higher education qualifications areas of work within the CHE on projects that have implications for the policy portfolio.
• Networking with policy experts and other relevant stakeholders in government departments, independent policy thinktanks, policy analysts, policy implementation agencies, and policy research units in universities, science councils, and other research entities locally and internationally.
• Mentoring early career policy professionals and interns.

Minimum requirements

• A research-based master’s degree (NQF level 9) preferably in Public Policy,
• Research/Policy Interface or related policy leaning areas of study. A doctorate degree
• (NQF level 10) in Public Policy, Research/Policy Interface or related policy leaning areas of study will be accorded more preference.
• Five (5) years’ demonstrable experience in any of the following: policy research and scholarship, policy development, policy analysis, policy implementation (inclusive of monitoring and evaluation), and policy impact assessment.
• Three (3) written outputs of policy work (policies, scholarly, publications, reports, commentaries, policy briefs) produced within the last five (5) years.
• Three (3) presentations delivered at policy conferences, workshops, colloquia or other policy consultative and/or intellectual engagement forums, within the last five (5) years.
• Demonstrable in-depth understanding of higher education policies, regional protocols, and international conventions and frameworks.
• Experience of managing policy development projects, policy implementation monitoring and evaluation projects, policy impact assessment projects, or policy review projects.
• Experience of organising policy conferences, workshops, colloquia, or other policy consultative and/or intellectual engagement forums.
• Experience of facilitating stakeholder consultative workshops and chairing or facilitating intellectual engagements.

Competencies

• Attention to detail
• Collegiality
• Conceptual thinking
• Emotional intelligence
• Facilitation
• Negotiation skills
• Policy analysis
• Policy development
• Policy impact assessment
• Policy implementation (inclusive of monitoring and evaluation)
• Policy research and scholarship
• Policy review
• Policy writing
• Problem solving
• Professional ethics and integrity
• Project management
• Planning and organising
• Stakeholder engagement
• Quality orientation
• Verbal and written communication

Closing date

Friday, January 23, 2026 – 12:00