Transforming Curricula through internationalisation and virtual exchange

The project aims at improving management and operation of the South African partner Higher Education Institutions through addressing the process of internationalisation of the participating higher education institutions; and supporting equity and democratisation of higher education in internationalisation. In addition, it will build capacity for governance, strategic planning and management of higher education institutions relevant to internationalisation. It will also support the development of university services relevant to internationalisation, with a particular focus on professional academic support services.
The central concern of the project is innovation in internationalisation. It advances the process of internationalisation through promoting curriculum internationalisation in the South Africa specific transformation context and developing virtual exchanges as a viable alternative to physical mobility as a central internationalisation activity, thereby changing the current South African paradigm that involvement in outgoing student mobility is limited to a select few students, who often hail from historically advantaged groups.
The project will address curriculum internationalisation in the broader transformation context. Internationalisation is inextricably interwoven with the delivery of teaching and learning, in the specific South African context it would be impossible to consider curriculum internationalisation without relating it to the Africanisation and decolonisation debates. While there is an emerging consensus in the South African discourse on the curriculum and transformation that there is no contradiction between internationalisation, Africanisation and decolonisation processes, it is important to consider the relevant issues in context, emphasising their complementarity.