DCT-REES partners aimed to develop courses and classes that attract students, offering content they fully understand and appreciate. This content is based upon recent developments in Power Electronics. The exchange program needed to reflect these developments. In the Netherlands, several parties are adopting and developing this , to further develop new DC technology. To improve the understanding for students, partners developed an exchange program, that allowed all South-African partners to send several Master or Bachelor Students to the Netherlands, in order to first-hand learn the new approach, requiring both knowledge and skills and in a EU context and to help implement new educational materials in a South-African context.

To achieve this aim, the majority of the participating students were employed by the South-African HEI’s in function of (senior) lab technician and similar; they were in a proper position to both understand the topic as well as reflect on the impact of having to implement new courses and project in a similar manner as they have experienced in the Netherland.

Share of employees per partnering HEI:

  • CPUT: 1 out of 1 participant was employed by CPUT (Mr Philip Msiza)
  • DUT: 0 out of 1 was employed by DUT
  • NMU: 1 out of 2 was employed by NMU (Mr Edwin Ribisi)
  • NWU: 0 out of 1 was employed by NWU
  • TUT: 2 out of 5 were employed by TUT (Mr Fannie Masango and Mr Pie Motloung)
  • UJ: 1 out of 3 was employed by UJ (Ms Busisiwe Hlatshwayo)
  • UNISA: 5 out of 5 were employed by UNISA (Mrs Lungile Nhlapo, Ms Lebohang Maqhenane, Mr Celimpilo Shoba, Mr MC Lehloka and Mr Xolani Yokwana). UNISA Source:

 

From April 30th 2019 until March 2020, 18 students from all of the SA partners, have participated in the exchange program, that offered various assignments and internships in collaboration with industry participants in the Netherlands. The first 5 groups of the exchange program (16 students in total) were executed as planned. Most of these students were in the Masters stage, and some of them were employed by their Universities to help with implementation of DC labs back at home. Group 6 of the student exchange however was forced to return to South-Africa due to annulment of classes and closure of universities in the Netherlands (COVID-19 measures), just two weeks after their start (2nd of March 2020). Shortly thereafter, lockdown was announced in South-Africa as well.

To better understand the impact the exchange program and the technical content of their participation in the program, please see the interview we had with students from groups 2 till 5. Please use the link below to navigate to the Exchange Program subsection and then click the ‘Interviews Participants folder to watch the videos. Also additional materials regarding the exchange are available in the Exchange Program subsection.

https://xdemia.com/space/dct-rees-public-space/documents

 

Manual for exchange students 
Overall invite for DCT-REES partners