About

I am Mohammad Issack Santally from the University of Mauritius. I joined the University in 2001 as Research Assistant at the VCILT (Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies. I was appointed as Instructional Designer in 2002 and then as Lecturer in Educational Technology in January 2005. I was serving as Senior Lecturer at the VCILT from March 2008 to March 2014. I am currently Associate Professor at the University. Since January 2009 I have also been serving as the Officer-in-Charge of the VCILT.


I have been serving as Associate Professor in Education Technology and Officer in Charge of the Centre for Innovative & Lifelong Learning since July 2014 after the merging of the VCILT and the CPDL (Centre for Professional Development and Lifelong Learning). You can get more information on the CILL - http://cill.uom.ac.mu/web

In 2017, I was appointed as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Planning & Resources) of the University of Mauritius overseeing the Human Resources, Finance, Public Relations, Consultancy, Marketing, Internationalisation and links with Industry of the University of Mauritius.  

My work in the e-learning field in Mauritius led me to some recognition as I received the award " the outstanding young person" of Mauritius 2006 by the Junior Chamber International for work accomplished at the Professional and Academic level in e-learning/IT in Education. I also led the University to receiving the COL Excellence Award for Distance Education in 2010. In 2009 we were among the finalists of the WISE Awards organized by the Qatar Foundation.

I have worked on the EU-ACP funded project SIDECAP as the project leader at the level of the University of Mauritius. The project was led and managed by the Open University of UK. I have also led the rapid e-learning methodology development project at the University of Mauritius. I also had the opportunity to work as international consultant for COL, SADC and COMESA Secretariat, the SSNED and for organizations like the Hamdan-bin-Mohammed e-University of Dubai.

As any other human being on earth I think I have intellectual limitations and I strive hard in a small developing tropical island to make my brain work and improve. Well apart from that I have my own vision (which can be wrong) about what education should be about, how we need to go about and I am kind of the person who is quite critical of our traditional educational systems. I also have a vision of how/what elearning/computer-based (distance) education should be. Fortunately I can use my 'academic freedom' to practice what I believe and to inculcate and preach these 'self-created' principles to my students/peers.

On the social side, I am the founder and president of the Helping Our People organization (www.helpingourpeople.net). I am supported by a team of peers to help relief the suffering of those living in difficult situations in Mauritius.

The polemic surrounding University Ranking of UniRank (4icu.org) : The case of UoM being 85th in the African Top 100

This is an interview I gave to the News on Sunday paper that appeared on 26th July 2020. 1. There is a controversy about the ranking of ...