“There is an urgency to rethink internationalisation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have to ensure that all students can participate in internationalisation and prepare them for a world in which they have to navigate unknown spaces”. This challenge was posed by the Vice-Rector Research and Internationalisation of the University of the Free State (UFS), Professor Corli Witthuhn, to the iKudu project’s first webinar, which took place in two iterations in November 2020. Dr Lavern Samuels, the Director of International Education and Partnerships at Durban University of Technology, South Africa and Chair of the Director’s Forum of the International Education Association of South Africa responded that “a coalition of the committed is required, bringing new voices to the table with respect for diversity and plurality, taking interdisciplinarity to new levels, with opportunities for research” emphasised.

Project overview

iKudu, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, pioneering in that a South African partner, the UFS, coordinates it, draws on collaboration among five South African universities (UFS, Durban University of Technology (DUT), The University of Limpopo, (UL) Central University of Technology (CUT), and the University of Venda (UNIVEN), with five European Universities (The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS), the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), the University of Antwerp (UA, Belgium), along with the University of Siena (US, Italy) and Coventry University (CU, United Kingdom). The three-year project is focused on offering space and action-orientated curriculum practices to question how collaborative online international learning (COIL) exchange can engage learners across our South-North institutions, and beyond, in internationalised and decolonised curricula. Curriculum decolonisation is understood as a central aspect of curriculum transformation and COIL is viewed as offering a fertile space in which to promote openness to knowledge pluralisation through diverse learners interacting and sharing knowledge perspectives. The project aims to contribute to developing a contextualised and comprehensive practice of internationalisation, embedded in the broader context of curriculum transformation. This requires combining COIL with internationalisation at home (IaH) practices (Beelen & Jones, 2015), whilst acknowledging the overlap of IaH and wider internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) strategies, at the interface of decolonisation of the curriculum. Although it is of note that internationalisation and IaH are both contested concepts in the South African context, as the discussion in UWN has demonstrated.
What is at the heart of addressing this multi-conceptual practice is the curriculum, a complicated concept in itself, relating to the coming together of pedagogies, practices and learning communities as an active force of human educational experiences. The project examines how decolonisation promotes the need to revisit curricula to redress injustices done to the colonised, while IoC uses cross-cultural engagement to inform understandings and challenge assumptions in the promotion of global relations. iKudu is thus focused on how South-North institutional review and responses are required to move beyond the rhetoric of openness, pluralism, tolerance, flexibility, and transparency, towards ways in which decolonisation and internationalisation are reflected in educational practice.

Internationalisation in the Age of COVID-19

The webinar was structured to alternate between panellists from the two hemispheres and pair them with a respondent from the other hemisphere, in a North-South conversation. Participants reflected on the various iKudu project activities to date, and what progress has been made at each of our institutions. Additionally, whilst COVID-19 impacted teaching and learning in unprecedented ways, and iKudu’s ability to progress was affected, it progressed through a shift to solely virtual activities.

We shared how an Appreciative Inquiry lens has been adopted for curriculum internationalisation and transformation to be examined through policy review, policy development and as-is analysis which is taking place at each partner institution. Colleagues Eva Haug from UAS and Dr Lesley-Anne Cooke, from DUT, presented on how virtual workshops have been used to progress understandings and to discuss the current state and potential of COIL virtual exchange projects at the participating universities. With pilot COIL virtual exchange projects already occurring between SA and European academics, and a further 15 exchanges planned for January 2021, the project has sustained activities in ways in which we initially felt the pandemic would prevent.

Can COIL serve as a driver for curriculum transformation?

Leolyn Jackson unpacked how the development of CUT’s global engagement strategy had pre-empted the South African national policy framework for internationalisation. He shared the process which resulted in an institutional strategy which creates and sustains a global learning environment. In response Bernard Smeenk from AUAS shared how in Amsterdam, the Faculty has dealt with the COVID-19 crisis and has managed to upscale the discussion on COIL from a discussion within one Faculty into an institution-wide concern.

Focusing on the curriculum, Prof. Jan Crafford, from UNIVEN discussed internationalisation as a common imperative, “where multi- and interdisciplinary content needs to come together to breakdown silos, where the synthesis of knowledge and application can be developed, and how this might enable graduates to be better prepared for the world”.
Jan explained how access to a contextualised curriculum must be a given to enhance the quality of graduate learning for local, national and international relevant learning. Tiana van der Merwe from the UFS focused in her response on the centrality of the curriculum for higher education and emphasised that Jan’s ideas challenge higher education institutions to transform curricula. She challenged that decolonised curricula must position South African institutions as contributors to global knowledge who share local, South African and African perspectives.

Prof Nonceba Mbambo-Kekana from UL, further articulated the external and institutional macro, meso and micro drivers at play which require critical review in considering the ways in which universities practices can engage in the scaling up of comprehensive internationalisation. In response and from a UK perspective, it was shared that whilst universities are increasingly explicitly addressing decolonisation through curriculum review and research, and examining the intersection of internationalisation and equality and diversity agendas, concern regarding the economic drivers for internationalisation remain.

The imperative of universities connecting locally and globally

Prof Joseph Francis, from UNIVEN considered the imperative of universities to connect the local and global, not least by embracing community engagement in ways that connect local communities with students and academics globally. In her response, Dr Alessandra Viviani from US, acknowledged how European universities have much to learn from SA colleagues’ local engagement practices wherein academics, student and NGOs come together in action-oriented participatory learning for group problem-solving. And further, how community engagement activities which occur locally, might be able to translate in online settings, questioning the potential as well as limits of what meaningful and purposeful COIL exchange can achieve.

In bringing the various issues discussed together, what has been highlighted is how the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing climate crisis and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, have all reinforced the need for those engaged in curriculum development to be able to think and work beyond disciplinary, national, and sectoral borders and to harness the significance of, and potential of the interconnectivity with the world, of the (contemporary) university (Barnett, 2020). Teaching and learning strategies such as COIL, that involve international, technology-enabled collaboration, when meaningfully and purposefully designed, offer potential to prepare students for the complexities of life within the context of globalisation (Rubin & Guth, 2015). Yet, while the global pandemic has prompted massive efforts worldwide to mobilise teaching and learning online for academic continuity, it is clear such practices are not unproblematic in terms of access and quality. As evidenced within the higher education discourse, comprehensive internationalisation will require considered investment in education that is: Rigorous: Intellectually ambitious, innovative, and pedagogically sound; Relevant: Touching on the most pressing questions facing our communities, societies and global challenges; Equitable: Representing a diversity of scholars and scholarship and contributing to more just learning environments; Collaborative: Engaging multiple voices and disciplinary perspectives; Accessible: Reaching all learners wishing to access higher education and leading to lasting improvement in education and learning.
This will necessitate a continued process of the university itself, always being in a state of ‘becoming’ (Barnett, 2011).

Drawing on Moscardini et al. (2020) what has been evidenced to date is how the iKudu project partners are engaging in dialogue in a continued attempt to show a willingness to be open, to engage in collaborative peer work to replace hierarchical models, to share knowledge with less territorial approaches, with approaches adopting a more holistic and interdisciplinary lens. iKUDU colleagues are not assuming that COIL exchange can be a quick-fix, one-size-fits all solution. What will be required is a continued critical questioning of what curriculum transformation means, not least in reviewing diversity and inclusion agendas, and in challenging mindsets which serve to create further divides and hierarchies.