ALUMNI
Vaal Campus Professor selected for
Honourary Fellowship
Deliwe Msibi
Professor Marius Stander, researcher and lecturer at the Vaal Campus,
has been selected as an honorary
member of the Society of Industrial
and Organisational Psychology
of South Africa (SIOPSA) by the
Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology University of
South Africa.
Prof Stander is a professor and a
management consultant, specialising in the assessment and optimism
of talented people and teams. He
has been a lecturer of Industrial
Psychology for post graduate level
at the North-West University (at
both the Vaal Triangle & Potchefstroom Campuses), the University of
Johannesburg (UJ), and University
of Namibia (UN).
The Signatories Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the University of South Africa
(UNISA) believe that Prof Stander
not only complies to,
but exceeds the criteria specified in
the SIOPSA constitution for nomination as honorary fellow. To motivate
his nomination, various professors
wrote in their own words why Prof
Stander deserves this nomination.
“Since 1983, Prof Stander has
been involved in developing the
professional branding of Industrial
Psychology through the training of
emerging psychologists, the
development of the discipline and
the promotion of the field within the
industry,” wrote Prof Llewellyn van
Zyl, former student and colleague to
Prof. Stander.
Dr Elrie Botha, Director of the
School of Behavioural Sciences
at the Vaal Campus, spoke about
Prof Stander as a people developer,
coach and mentor.
She says he is one person that will
stand back and give other people
the opportunity to learn and try new
things, while being there to assist
should things go wrong. Dr Botha
further says, “students always come
back with the sentence: industry is
difficult but thank goodness for Prof
Marius who gave us a hard time in
class because that really prepared
us for the world of work”.
From student to lecturer and
researcher
Prof. Stander is one of the longest
surviving staff members of the
NWU, having been a student on
this campus, as well as a lecturer,
researcher and consultant in private
practice.
After completing his matric at Vereeniging High in 1976, Prof. Stander
applied for BCom studies at the Vaal
Campus of the former Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher
Education. During his second year,
he realised his passion for Industrial
Psychology and opted to drop Accounting from his course.
Prof Stander is a registered Industrial Psychologist at the
Health Professions Council
of South Africa (HPCSA),
a registered Mentor and a
Master Human Resource
Practitioner (SABPP); and
since 25 July an honorary
fellow of SIOPSA. He has
been consulting in South
Africa and Namibia for
various companies and
local authorities over the
past 31 years.
future employers think of me than
what they (the students) currently
think of me. When they start working they thank me too, because I
pushed them to be competent”, he
said.
The Vaal Campus is proud of Prof
Stander. “As a department, we
are very proud of our hardworking, humble and selfless colleague.
Working with people like him makes
life easy. He made everyone in the
department very proud” said the
School Director Dr Botha.
His former lecturer and colleague
Prof Joppie van Graan said “It is my
privilege to have had Prof Stander
as a student from his first year. What
impresses me the most about him
is his ability to think for himself, in
a logical practical way, to create
road maps for students but also for
his customers and to facilitate both
students and customers to develop
their own identity and logical mindset. I am sincerely proud of him”
As a professor, he is very
strict and always pushes
students to bring out the
best in them. Prof Stander
believes every student has
the ability to be great; he
also says that if a student
can think effectively, he will
be able to survive in the
work environment. “I’m
tough on them because I
care more about what their
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