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IEP WORKSHOP LOOKS AT INTERNATIONALISATION OF THE CURRICULUM IN HIGHER EDUCATION

IEP WORKSHOP LOOKS AT INTERNATIONALISATION OF THE CURRICULUM IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The Directorate of International Education and Partnerships (IEP) at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) hosted a workshop on Internationalisation of the Curriculum, themed: Re-thinking of internationalisation of higher education in a complex and fractured world, the workshop was held at Ritson Campus, on 11 November 2019.

The workshop was facilitated by Senior Director of International Education at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Dr Nico Jooste, who is also the former president of International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA).

Dr Jooste gave a brief introduction to Internationalisation as a concept that has been developed over the last few decades and in relation to new National Policy. He said Internationalisation of higher education is defined in a multiplicity of ways, quoting a paper by (Naude and Jooste (2004) which describes Higher Education Internationalisation at a South African University as an intentional process that promotes an acute awareness of different nations in the world and the active, willing movement across national boundaries in processes of exchange.

He added that It is important that higher education practitioners begin to debate holistically about the characteristics of an internationalised higher education with specific reference to the curriculum.

“The curriculum is the soul of the university and it is how it defines itself in the face of society. An internationalised curriculum is one of the responses of the University of the 21st Century to the challenges of the globalised world. The curriculum is also the place where academic tribalism lives,” said Dr Jooste.

The workshop also focused on Internationalisation at home and the curriculum as it is the purposeful integration of international and intercultural dimension into the formal and informal curriculum for all students within domestic learning environments.

“The Institutional Internationalisation at Home framework should ideally be divided into two, a focus on the formal curriculum that includes the internationalisation of the curriculum, teaching and learning, internationalising the classroom experience and further focus on the internationalisation of co-curricular and out of classroom activities,” said Dr Jooste.

Dr Jooste also stressed the importance of sourcing ways to bring the benefits of internationalisation to the broader community, living in a society that carries all the injustices of the past, adding that if these benefits are not translated then they will not drive change for complex issues.

“It is important that we look at what society requires from Higher Education to understand how to balance current complexities,” said Dr Jooste.

Pictured: Senior Director of International Education at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Dr Nico Jooste, during the workshop.

Nomfundo Ngcobo

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