From the VC’s Desk
How you can help unleash the new global university
23 June 2020 | From Kgethi
Dear colleagues and students
On Monday, 29 June, the University of Cape Town (UCT) will host the first of a series of virtual events: Unleashing the New Global University.
This time of extraordinary global crisis – combining the pandemic with protests about race and gender inequality – presents an opportunity to rethink how we can do things differently as a university. Not just within our current geographical space but around the world.
Universities around the world have had their international activities brought to a halt by COVID-19. International students have returned home, conferences have been cancelled or postponed, research that required travel has seen at least a pause, if not a complete rethink.
But this model of internationalisation was already failing because it reinforced inequality. Which groups of people are most able to travel around the world to attend academic conferences and meetings? Which kinds of students are able to take up the exciting and career-advancing opportunities of international experiences? It is surely those from wealthier backgrounds and institutions, mostly in the global north, mostly without primary childcare responsibilities.
The current model also has an impact on the planet. While most universities claim to value sustainability, few have translated that into action when it comes to travel.
These issues of inequality and sustainability are at the heart of UCT’s values and our proposed Vision 2030 for UCT. We are well placed to lead this conversation: while we are far more challenged by the requirements of internationalisation than our wealthier partners in the global north, we are better able to play in these international waters than most other institutions in the country and on the continent.
Truth is that we can’t solve the problems alone. We need to persuade our partners to see the challenges for what they are, to help us think through solutions, and to have the political will to change with us.
I urge you to join our challenging conversations; send in your questions before and during the events, drive the discussions we hope to generate on social media (#newglobaluni) and forward the invitation to your friends and collaborators on the continent and elsewhere in the world.
- Read the news article to find out more:
‘It’s time to rethink the global university’. - Register for the first event:
‘Academic conferences: how virtual can we go?’.
It is not easy to rethink a model that has become so entrenched, but if ever there was a moment to do so, it is now.
With kind regards,
Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng
Vice-Chancellor
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Unleashing the new global university
A series of challenging conversations
Conversation #5: How does changing the medium change the way of doing things?
Monday, 7 September 2020, 17:30–18:30 (CAT/SAST)
Covid-19 has radically changed the ways that universities do everything: research, teaching, social responsiveness and internationalisation. International students have gone home or are in lockdown unable to physically experience the countries they are visiting; they are completing courses through remote learning. Conferences have gone online. Researchers are collaborating on virtual platforms.
Ironically, the lockdown has seen an opening up of connections, as distance ceases to be a barrier. While the opportunity to tangibly experience the location has gone, there have been many positive aspects to these changes, which universities have embraced, and are looking to take into the future.
The great hope has been that we can use the new technologies on which we are now relying during the pandemic to be more creative in the ways we shape international experiences and collaborations, and to do so in ways that lessen the negative characteristics of the old model.
How will changing the medium challenge the nature of global relationships? What have the opportunities been to decentre and disturb existing internationalised power relations?
This session will creatively address how more equal relationships might be formed; how digitally mediated forms of global engagement might enable what Nancy Fraser calls “participatory parity”.
Host
- Mamokgethi Phakeng, vice-chancellor, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Moderator
- Laura Czerniewicz, professor, director: Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town, South Africa
Participants
Videos
News
Conversation #4: Postgraduate researchers: can we rethink the international experience?
Monday, 24 August 2020, 17:30–18:30 (CAT/SAST)
What are the markers of a truly enriching postgraduate experience? From a global north perspective, being able to travel abroad to access resources and expertise from elsewhere in the globe, create new networks and build a CV have been almost taken for granted and a central tenet of the postgraduate experience. Postgraduates in the global south have had far fewer opportunities for mobility. The COVID-19 pandemic has ended international travel for all postgraduates, creating an opportunity to stop and think: can we make the postgraduate international experience more equitable by going virtual? In this challenging conversation, we explore what will be lost and gained if postgraduates gain an international experience as deskchair travellers.
Host
- Mamokgethi Phakeng, vice-chancellor, University of Cape Town
Moderator
- Sue Harrison, deputy vice-chancellor for research and internationalisation, University of Cape Town
Participants
Videos
News
Conversation #3: Undergraduate student mobility: are virtual experiences a realistic substitute?
Monday, 27 July 2020, 17:30–18:30 (CAT/SAST)
The number of undergraduate students travelling for part or all of their degrees has increased dramatically in the last few years. Some of these students are on exchange or scholarships; the majority pay large fees, which increasingly form a substantive portion of the income of their destination institutions. The pandemic brought most of this mobility to a halt. These international experiences can be rich, even life-changing: both the exposure to new ways of thinking, but also to new ways of living. But they come at a cost – both to the environment, and often to the student, meaning only the well-off can afford them. Using what we are learning from the global shift to emergency online teaching and learning, can we envisage a more sustainable, equitable model? What are the most valuable aspects of the international experience for students, and for which of those can we find creative virtual alternatives?
Host
- Mamokgethi Phakeng, vice-chancellor, University of Cape Town
Moderator
- Sue Harrison, deputy vice-chancellor for research and internationalisation, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Participants
Videos
News
Conversation #2: International collaborations: how can we shift the power towards Africa?
Monday, 13 July 2020, 17:30–18:30 (CAT/SAST)
The second event focused on whether or not the disruption to the current higher education model can bring about a shift in the centre of gravity in international collaborations and help us to reimagine a different approach that empowers African institutions to take the lead in collaborative projects and partnerships both within and outside the continent.
Host
- Mamokgethi Phakeng, vice-chancellor, University of Cape Town
Moderator
- Salome Maswime, professor in global surgery, University of Cape Town
Participants
Videos
News
17 Jul 2020 Republished
Conversation #1: Academic conferences: how virtual can we go?
Monday, 29 June 2020, 17:30–18:30 (CAT/SAST)
Our first event focused on the future of conferences and international meetings. Most of us will by now have attended virtual versions of large international gatherings that were intended to be physical get-togethers. Should we consider this to be the future of conferences? What are the gains and losses of online conferences, workshops and consortium meetings? How can conferences be reinvented?
Host
- Mamokgethi Phakeng, vice-chancellor, University of Cape Town
Moderator
- Kelly Chibale, professor in organic chemistry, director of H3D, University of Cape Town
Participants
Videos
News
