In this role, Prins will take on strategic and academic leadership of the institution's undergraduate qualifications in marketing, supply chain and business. She will oversee curriculum quality, assessment and the student academic experience, and will be responsible for ensuring that curricula remain relevant and forward-looking as technology, including artificial intelligence, continues to reshape the skills students will need.
“We can’t change a curriculum every time another AI tool comes along. We need to look further ahead than that and think about what students are going to need as the technology becomes more capable,” says Prins.
Prins has been with IMM Graduate School since 2013, most recently serving as head of assessments and learning management system. In that role, she was responsible for the institution's assessment frameworks and digital learning systems, academic integrity, digital pedagogy, quality assurance and assessment design.
Before moving into academia, Prins spent more than two decades in the corporate sector, holding senior marketing, communications and brand roles at companies including Absa, SmithKline Beecham and 3M. She subsequently moved into consulting before joining higher education.
Prins holds a Master of Commerce in Business Management from the University of Johannesburg and a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Marketing Management from the University of Pretoria. She is currently completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education.
“Riana’s appointment reflects the calibre of leadership we value at IMM Graduate School," says Angela Hugo, executive academic head, IMM Graduate School. "Her innovative work on our assessment frameworks and digital learning systems has already shaped how we prepare students for a rapidly changing landscape, and as Dean of Undergraduate Studies, that same forward-looking approach will now guide our undergraduate programmes.”
