Dr Monicca Thulisile Bhuda is an academic who received her PhD at age 29 from the North-West University in 2022. Dr Bhuda’s PhD is in Social Sciences with indigenous knowledge Systems. In 2013, The North-West University was the first Institution in Africa to establish a degree named the Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (B.IKS) and Dr Bhuda was one the first intake. In 2017, Dr Bhuda graduated from the B.IKS programme with distinction and was the only one amongst the BIKS graduates to get a distinction, making her the first cum laude recipient of the IKS programme in Africa.

In 2019, Dr Bhuda obtained her Master’s degree in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (M.IKS) also with a distinction. In 2022 Dr Bhuda became the first to graduate for a PhD amongst the 2013 B.IKS cohort of the North-West University. Therefore, Dr Bhuda is the first output of the B.IKS programme to make it to a PhD level. At the University of Mpumalanga, Dr. Bhuda lectures on Culture and Heritage with an emphasis on indigenous Knowledge Systems. She also coordinates a mandatory programme on African history and heritage which is for first-year students.