WORKSHOP 01: TRANSNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION (HE); DIVERSITY AND THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION IN A PAN AFRICAN PARADIGM

This Workshop will be offered by the University of Johannesburg, in collaboration with the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and will examine issues related to the impact of transnational education on the constructs of diversity and transformation in a hyper-connected world. It will unpack and address issues around the internationalisation of Higher Education as a modern-day discourse that seeks to add constructively to existing knowledge in all spheres of national and international geopolitical and cultural spaces.

The era of Artifical Intelligence (AI) prevalent in the current HE domain simply means that education (though taught locally) is globally accessed reducing the geographical distance across the world into the virtual space. This Workshop will explore the various ways in which we reconfigure these imagined spaces? It will also examine the potential for AI within internationalisation offerings, and how it can help realise more equitable exchange and co-creation between the “global north” and “global south.”

SUB-THEMES:

Dystopia and Utopia

Technological readiness

Internationalisation of the curricula

Staff and student mobility

Research collaboration

WORKSHOP 2: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF DOCTORAL STUDIES AS A RESPONSE TO THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres. At an increasing speed, new technology is disrupting almost every industry. More than any of the three previous industrial revolutions, the current digital transformation is shaped by its international/global connections. The possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices has transformed every aspect of society, and we are just at the beginning to understanding the consequences of  breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing.

This poses an enormous challenge to universities and their changing role in a knowledge- and technology-driven society. One of the responses to the global challenge of the digital transformation is the internationalization of higher education and research.

Co-presented by the Managing Director of the Graduate Academy of Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, and a Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, at Uppsala University, Sweden with inputs from South African participants forming part of a global team working on this topic currently.

The co-presenters in this session have vast experience in the area of capacity enhancement, with particular reference to doctoral education. They will co-host an afternoon Workshop which will continue in the same vein as the morning stream. The general objective of the session is to discuss the relationship between 4IR and the internationalisation of doctoral education.

WORKSHOP 3: DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCY (TRAIN-THE- TRAINERS)

Intercultural competence refers to the skills, attitudes, and behaviours needed to improve interactions across difference, whether within a society (differences due to age, gender, religion, socio-economic status, political affiliation, ethnicity, and so on) or across borders.

This highly interactive workshop will equip and train participants in using an intercultural methodology piloted by UNESCO to develop those competencies, presenting an innovative adaptation of an ancient tradition of storytelling found in many cultures. Through engaging in this methodology, participants develop and practice key elements of intercultural competence including greater self-awareness, listening for understanding, openness, respect, reflexivity, empathy, increased awareness of others, and in the end, greater cultural humility.

A structured yet flexible methodology for developing intercultural competence in a variety of contexts, both formal and informal, that has been piloted successfully around the world by UNESCO will be adopted in this session. This methodology has proven to be effective in a range of different contexts and focused on a variety of different issues and is valuable to anyone concerned with effectively managing the growing cultural diversity within our societies to ensure inclusive and sustainable development.

This workshop will be of great interest to all who are interested in developing intercultural competence as a means to understand and appreciate difference, develop relationships with those across difference, engage in intercultural dialogue and bridge societal divides.

WORKSHOP 4: SOCIAL MEDIA WHEN YOUR AUDIENCE IS MORE SOCIAL MEDIA “SAVVY” THAN YOU ARE…A GENTLE GUIDE TO WRITING CONTENT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

A collaborative venture between the Manager: Global Partnerships and Internationalisation Support at Stellenbosch University and the Programme Coordinator: Semester Mobility, Global Education Centre at Stellenbosch University, this Workshop will serve to provide the necessary and practical tools required to write content for social media platforms.

Writing content for social media is generally a task assigned to the communications team within individual Higher Education institutions. However, as internationalisation practitioners engage directly with students, collaborative partners, and staff from across the university, who have a cross- cutting interest or internationalisation function to their roles, these practitioners can also actively contribute to writing and developing content. This can in turn be co-ordinated and shared via the central digital communications team.

In preparing students to embrace advancements in technology, we also need to ensure that professional and support services staff are equally upskilled and can keep abreast of advancements in digital media and communications. This Workshop will serve to add value to professional staff who support internationalisation activities but who may not have had the opportunity to refine or practice their social media engagement skills.

WORKSHOP GOALS:

To guide planning and social media strategy “to tweet or not to tweet?” Improving understanding of how to plan social media engagement

To reach and upskill those who are not as comfortable with writing for social media

To provide style guidance and practice with writing content

To provide advice, guidance and tips on how to tweet and post on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat)

Provide a practical session where participants can apply what they have learned

To review a sample of university/international unit’s content and constructively suggest improvements

Provide exposure to “new” tools which can be used to design visual posts and improve social media posts

WORKSHOP 5: CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT AND THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF DOCTORAL STUDIES CONCRETE APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONALISATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION – THE YEBO CASE STUDY

This Workshop invites researchers, educators, innovators and students to join the Managing Director of the Graduate Academy of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, and a Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, at Uppsala University, Sweden.

The presenters will explore how the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is swiftly reshaping people’s everyday lives through technical advancements in fields such as artificial intelligence, 3D printing and biotechnology.

In the transition towards a knowledge-based society and innovation-based economy, the nation state benefits directly from advancements in PhD research projects, technology and development, posing both challenges and opportunities for universities, as they are both shaping, and being shaped by, the dynamics of 4IR.

In light of this, this Workshop examines the Erasmus+ project YEBO! as a case study to highlight how internationalisation may help address challenges presented by the impact of 4IR on higher education in particular.

WORKSHOP 06: IMMIGRATION IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR

From Letter of Offer to Registration: the relationships and processes between the student, the university and the Department of Home Affairs.

From the moment a letter of offer to register is issued to an international student, the university alerts the student of the need to have a study visa, and of the university’s obligation to ensure that they have the correct visa, before they can be successfully registered.

What happens next to enable the student to register in a successful and timely way at their university of choice?  Where do they apply and with what documentation? Who gives advice in the Embassy? What is the role of VFS?  Who adjudicates where? How do we treat asylum seekers? How do we help students in crisis whose visas are not yet processed?

IEASA has been working collaboratively with DHA to improve the overall framework and responsiveness to international student visa issues.

Attending this Workshop will help you understand what works and what can go wrong in this process. Furthermore, you will be able to engage in constructive dialogue in order to agree what can be done to minimise issues arising, and to address and improve the situation further.

Discover the different roles and responsibilities in preventing and resolving issues: the students, the International Office, IEASA, and DHA. If we all understand the roles we all play in the process, we can operate more effectively and the students can have a better overall experience. Furthermore, there will be clarity on reporting obligations, as a university, and how to work with IEASA in this regard.

Among those in attendance at the workshop will be experienced senior people from DHA, informed IEASA staff and volunteers, peer Registrar’s Division staff and international office staff, who advise and register international students. This community of practice will share their collective knowledge and experiences, take stock of what is working well and pave a way forward for issues that have yet to be addressed or pre-empted.