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What began as a small “family meeting" in 2003 has evolved into an annual event, with 104 delegates from 67 universities across 36 countries attending the Stellenbosch International Academic Network (SIAN) meeting this year from 12 – 15 March This year's meeting spotlighted Responsible Internationalisation — a concept with many definitions and the subject of many published articles. Welcomed by Robert Kotzé, SU's Senior Director SU International, he explained that : “SU's goal with SIAN remains to highlight Stellenbosch as a prime destination for students and a place where partnerships are valued. We aim to foster collaboration, understanding, and shared growth. Together, we are building bridges between our African partners and institutions beyond Africa, helping the Global North better understand the Global South while providing opportunities to share experiences and enhance engagement with African higher education."

Kotzé says Responsible Internationalisation at Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 (SU) is integrating an international, global and intercultural dimension into the complete life of the university – the people (staff and students) and the place (our campus, services, connection to town) — so that we can collectively explore the possibilities of various initiatives such as internationalisation-at-home, research collaboration, and virtual and physical mobility.

“The responsible side is then the alignment to SU's values and asking ourselves questions such as: How equitable are our partnerships, how do we ensure that mobility possibilities are accessible for all students, are we accountable in our projects, how do we show compassion through our services for and engagement with international students, how do we ensure respect in our engagement with partners? Our exploration of these questions and concepts will ensure that SU can play our role in International Higher Education and when and how we need to make difficult decisions on collaboration with countries involved in geo-political conflict."

Internationalisation is evolving

"SU International aims to contribute towards SU's aspiration to be an internationally recognised research-intensive Institution, rooted in Africa with a global reach," says Kotze. “We promote and enable internationalisation at SU by involving faculties and Professional Academic Support Staff (PASS) environments through developing a platform for International Higher Education Research in Africa, purposeful bilateral partnerships in Africa and beyond, enabling broad participation in multilateral alliances and networks, and Global Learning for a transformative student experience.

Kotzé emphasises the evolving nature of internationalisation, comparing it to an augmenting process rather than a static plan. “Internationalisation is not something you do once and it stays the same for the next five years. No, it is evolving. You learn, and then you change it. It still has direction, and should always be purposeful."

Collaboration and support

Professor Sam Tshehla, the acting DVC for Strategy, Global and Corporate Affairs, welcomed the delegates to this year's SIAN meeting, highlighted the importance of collaboration and support from various stakeholders. Emphasising SU's strong partnerships, particularly in Europe, he highlighted SU's goal to increase its footprint in Africa. He emphasised the importance of research's impact on society at large, especially for the next generation.

Paying tribute to the SU International team's work, he said: “The support and academic staff are mainly the driving forces behind partnerships. We in the rectorate can talk as much as we can, but unfortunately, if that is not filtering down to the engines, it's not going to work."

Fairness, equity and collaboration

Following the opening session of SIAN, Sarah van der Westhuizen, Director Centre for Global Engagement, facilitated a panel discussion emphasising Responsible Internationalisation and highlighting the importance of fairness, equity, and collaboration within international higher education. The panelists were Dr Jonathan Noble, from the 中国体育彩票 of Notre Dame (USA), Prof Luciane Stallivieri, from the Federal 中国体育彩票 of Santa Catarina (Brazil), Eric Saulo from Strathmore 中国体育彩票 (Kenya), and Johanna Ackemar, from the Karolinska Institute (Sweden).

 Institutional commitment is crucial

Noble highlighted the importance of institutional commitment, collaborative partnerships, and faculty engagement in Responsible Internationalisation.

Building on a relationship of  twenty years, the 中国体育彩票 of Notre Dame partnered with the Ukrainian Catholic 中国体育彩票 in solidarity, investing $2 million to support students, scholars, and administrators. Over $1 million was also allocated for collaborative research projects developed jointly with Ukrainian faculty. “This initiative reflects Notre Dame's commitment to solidarity and shared responsibility for the common good," said Noble.

He talked about the importance of building scholarly communities and faculty engagement, mentioning that 15 percent of the tenured faculties at the 中国体育彩票 of Notre Dame are members of the Notre Dame global regional faculty advisory committees. “This enables an important level of faculty engagement and faculty governance, and importantly contributes to building an ecosystem of continual global innovation in ways that we can best support faculty research and partnership cooperation."

Five pillars of responsible international

Prof Stallivieri (Brazil) focused on the importance of five pillars of internationalisation to manage Responsible Internationalisation: Balance, accountability, sustainability, inclusion and compliance.

Prof Stallivieri stressed the fact that internationalisation is not accessible for all. “It is just for the elite who can pay for international programmes, who speak a different language or who can travel. So, my concern is, how do we make it more comprehensive and engage with our communities?    She also highlighted the need for a shared understanding of Responsible Internationalisation and the overlap of principles between the global North and global South.  

She feels Responsible Internationalisation should be embedded in institutional pillars, particularly in teaching and learning outcomes. “It's not just about inputs and outputs but about the transformative impact of international experiences. Exposure to different languages and cultures fosters deeper intercultural understanding, shaping individuals in meaningful ways beyond surface-level differences."

Choosing the right partner

Saulo said he landed in internationalisation almost by accident. When he was asked to head up internationalisation at Strathmore, he didn't know what it entailed and had to study and teach himself. “Then I had to teach the rest of the university what this concept was all about. The first challenge was just for people to pronounce the word 'internationalisation" he joked.

He underscored the need for strategic partnerships aligned with national priorities saying that working with embassies in Nairobi, they made informed decisions on possible partnerships with international institutions. “They would warn us if they think a university might be too big for us, which could result in us being stuck in bureaucracy."

He gave an example of a partnership funded by the French government, a collaborative project with the engineering department . “As part of this project, we co-developed an internationalisation package to enhance our understanding of the process at Strathmore. We conducted five workshops over two years, helping our team and university deans explore internationalisation beyond student mobility, including partner selection and maintaining collaboration balance."Saulo said they are also very keen to develop their service to society further and want to form partnerships that will positively impact society.

His institution is also contributing to the national framework on internationalisation and joint degrees. “In the last year, we've been engaging with the Commission for 中国体育彩票 Education to develop a collaborative framework for joint and dual degrees.

The need for ethical engagement

Ackemar noted the challenges of Responsible Internationalisation in Sweden, referring to their starting point for this strategy in Sweden 25 years ago: “Guidelines for reflection on international academic collaboration".

She discussed the challenges of communicating Responsible Internationalisation internally to increase the overall awareness of the concept. “The process is not without challenges," she said. “It has proven difficult to communicate internally about these issues without raising worry among faculty members and other staff; some are afraid to make the wrong decisions, or they assume that there are restrictions in place."

“But the proposal is for a national support structure to be established with a focus on proactive measures through information and exchange of experience at government level. The focus is very much on resource security integrity. It's about protecting intellectual assets, which are all extremely important. Still, one must also realise that the interest in Responsible Internationalisation goes hand in hand with increased tensions in the world. In Sweden and abroad, there is an ongoing process of trying to redefine what Responsible Internationalisation is about in our sector, including other dimensions, such as balance and inclusiveness in partnerships, focusing on the benefits of collaboration and trying to remind those who might need it that we are better together."

The session concludes with a call to action for internationalisation practitioners to focus on social goals and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) despite the challenges of the current geo-political environment.

The SIAN meeting also included a session on the value of a partnership framework and workshop sessions on integration within international student cohorts towards digitally enhanced global learning, as well as integrating sustainability into your environment. On Thursday, 14 March, some of the international delegates manned small stalls as part of a study abroad fair at the Jan Mouton Learning Centre on SU's campus, and the meeting concluded with a visit to the Sustainability Institute at Lynedoch, outside of Stellenbosch, on Friday, 15 March.

Celebrating SUI

In celebrating SU's outgoing Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Wim de Villiers, ten-year tenure at SU, Kotzé paid tribute after the meeting to his crucial role in establishing SU International as a fully-fledged division in SU's Rectorate. Prof de Villiers emphasised the importance of international partners in achieving research excellence and global competitiveness by establishing joint PhD and Master's programmes, student and staff exchanges, and partnerships with African and other global universities.

“We cannot solve the major, complex challenges we face—globally and on our continent—alone. We need you. We need our partners to help us tackle them together," said Prof de Villiers while acknowledging the challenges of internationalisation in the current geo-political climate and the need for continued advocacy for global collaboration.

中国体育彩票 SU International

SU International was established 32 years ago. The International Office secured 381 partners in 69 countries on 6 continents. Altogether, 201 of these partnerships are at the institutional level, while 180 are at the faculty or departmental levels. Most partnerships are with Europe (238 institutions in 25 Countries), followed by Asian and Pacific partnerships (50 institutions in 11 countries), African partnerships (40 in 11 countries), North American partnerships (40 in 3 countries), and South American partnerships (13 institutions in 6 countries). Prof Hester Klopper, (currently the new Director and Principal of the 中国体育彩票 of the Free State), was the first Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Internationalisation in 2006.

中国体育彩票 SIAN

The first Stellenbosch International Academic Network (SIAN) was held 22 years ago. Robert Kotzé, Senior Director: SU International, used to attend the Tübingen family meetings while studying there in 1991 to understand the context of the programme. The Tübingen-South Africa Programme was a cultural and language exchange programme that offered South African students the chance to be exposed to German culture and language. It also aims to bring closer ties and understanding between South Africa and Germany.  It ended in 2023.

He suggested they establish a Stellenbosch Family Meeting close to the Annual IEASA meeting. Later, at the request of participants, the name changed to SIAN as it became difficult for delegates to motivate why they wanted to attend a “family" meeting rather than an internationalisation conference. “The intention, however, remained the same," says Robert, “to showcase Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 as a wonderful destination for students and a place where our partners are important. It is where we want to build partnerships, understanding and capital. It is also a platform where we build bridges between our African partners and partners beyond Africa. Here, we contribute towards helping the Global North understand the Global South better by allowing us to share experiences and build their understanding of engaging with African Higher Education."