Robert J. Balfour is Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching-Learning at North-West University. Until 2017 he was Professor and Dean of Education Sciences also at NWU (Potchefstroom Campus), having worked previously at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and as Registrar at St Augustine College of South Africa. Robert has held fellowships at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (University of London), Clare Hall (Cambridge University), the Institute of Education (University College, London). He teaches courses in Applied Language Studies and specialises in language policy design and research. His latest publication Education in South Africa: crisis and change was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. In literary cultural studies his book Culture, Capital and Representation was published by Palgrave in 2010 to critical acclaim. Balfour holds degrees from the University of Rhodes, Natal, and Cambridge respectively, he is a published writer, poet and an exhibited painter.