DUT’s International Education and Partnerships Office hosted a three day workshop aimed at ensuring academic collaborations with European countries last week (20 to 22 October 2014) at the ML Sultan Campus.

Titled: EUROSA, the workshop hosted 20 representatives from various universities in South Africa and Europe, with 10 delegates being from SA and rest from Europe.
Discussions at the workshop were around issues of improving education at higher education institutions by means of offering academic scholarships and granting local and international students the opportunity to meet and experience different cultures through the Erasmus Mundus, Erasmus+ and EUROSA programmes.

The Erasmus Mundus programme is a European higher education curriculum which aims to enhance quality education by ensuring diversity through different cultures. The Erasmus Mundus programme for South Africa (derived from Erasmus Mundus), is a plan to network and co-ordinate South African and European universities.

On day two, Brutus Malada from the European Union (EU) South Africa Delegation delivered a presentation on the Erasmus+ programme which showcased the new EU programme for education, training, youth and sport.

He emphasised that students who joined the Erasmus Programme could do an internship for a period of at least three months in another European country. He added that the programme guaranteed that the period spent abroad was recognised by their university when they come back, as long as they abided by terms previously agreed.

Malada also said main part of the programme was that students did not pay extra tuition fees to the university that they visited, and students with disabilities could also apply for an additional grant to cover extraordinary expenses. He added that the derived benefit was that students could share knowledge and exchange tips and hints with each other before and after going abroad.

Each day was followed by a question and answer session. Another highlight at the workshop was the examination of issues such as project management and the application and selection process for the various programmes for students.

Talent Buthelezi

Pictured: Brutus Malad, EU South Africa Delegation member, at the workshop.