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UFS publishes document that aids universities to internationalise the curriculum

11 July 2023 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

iKudu Coil Chevon Slammbee — Chevon Slambee says the COIL approach connects students and educators from different cultural backgrounds through online platforms, allowing participants to engage in cross-cultural learning and collaboration.

Internationalisation of the curriculum has been mandatory for institutions of higher education since 2020, according to the National Policy Framework for the Internationalisation of Higher Education in South Africa.

The iKudu project, an Erasmus+Capacity-Building in Higher Education (CBHE) co-funded project, which aims, among others, for universities to include internationalisation and decolonisation dimensions to transform their curricula, recently published the document: Considerations for enabling guidelines, strategies, and policies for internationalised curriculum renewal for universities with a focus on the diverse South African contexts.

The University of the Free State (UFS) Office for International Affairs (OIA) played a key role in the publication of this document.

In his editorial of the document, Dr Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director of the OIA, states that in the spirit of the iKudu values – which include Ubuntu, trust, and equality – the project stakeholders have developed a document that will serve as a repository of ideas from which all consortium member universities can intelligently borrow when developing their institutional guidelines, strategies, and policies for curriculum renewal, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), or other forms of virtual exchange.

He says they are publishing this document to make the ideas available to the broader higher education community, in the hope that they will contribute to further debate on internationalised curriculum renewal processes.

The iKudu project is one of the few major EU-funded capacity-building projects coordinated by a South African university.

UFS coordinates iKudu

According to Chevon Slambee, iKudu Project Manager in the UFS OIA, the consideration document serves as a guiding document for all universities, but specifically focuses on South African universities, taking into account the unique and diverse contexts of South Africa’s higher education landscape and how these contexts influence the curriculum renewal processes.

Slambee explains that the COIL approach connects students and educators from different cultural backgrounds through online platforms, allowing participants to engage in cross-cultural learning and collaboration within the existing curriculum.

Through joint projects, shared courses, and virtual exchanges, it aims to foster intercultural competence, global awareness, and mutual understanding among students. Moreover, the initiative creates inclusive opportunities for all students who take part in COIL, as the inequalities due to financial resources are factored out. “It expands the classroom beyond classroom borders, and grants students the opportunity to engage in a digital international world,” says Slambee.

The five participating South African universities – the UFS, Durban University of Technology, University of Limpopo, University of Venda, and the Central University of Technology – together with the five European universities – the University of Siena (Italy), Coventry University (England), The Hague University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands), and the University of Antwerp (Belgium) – have implemented 51 of their target of 55 COIL programmes, with almost 10 months remaining in the project. “For us, this is a milestone in the iKudu journey,” says Slambee.

Sharing COIL experiences

One of the UFS lecturers who completed a COIL project is Prof Mariette Reyneke, Associate Professor in the UFS Department of Public Law.

Prof Reyneke recently completed her second COIL experience, this time with Prof Alessandra Viviani from the University of Siena. She says one of the best aspects of this initiative is giving our students the opportunity to broaden their horizons by exposing them to peers from a different country and culture. “Moreover, one also gets to expose students from developed countries to the realities and challenges of a developing country,” she adds.

“Through this initiative, we also get the chance to teach South African students that they have valuable contributions to offer the world. In some instances, our legal solutions to problems are fascinating and enriching for international students. Our theory and implementation of human rights are also sometimes more liberal than what students from Europe experience in their own countries,” says Prof Reyneke, who believes that COIL fosters an innovative and enriching experience for students, while also enhancing academic networks.

“It was very satisfying for me to realise that the students not only enjoyed the experience, but also found it beneficial for their personal growth,” she remarks.

Moving forward, Slambee says the OIA is working closely with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and is in the process of establishing a COIL/virtual engagement hub for the university. Furthermore, the Curriculum Internationalisation Project (CIP) has been approved and is being piloted in specific departments and faculties. For more information about the CIP, contact Prof Lynette Jacobs, Slambee, or Nooreen Adam from the OIA.

News Archive

Bullying in schools: Everyone’s problem

2005-06-03

From left: Prof Gerhardt de Klerk, Dean: Faculty of the Humanities; Prof Corene de Wet; Prof Rita Niemann, Head of the Department of Comparative Education and Educational Management in the School of Education and Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS

It is not only learners who are the victums of bullying in schools, but also the teachers. Prof. Corene de Wet from the Department Comparative Education and Educational Management at the University of the Free State reported, against the background of two studies on bullying in Free State secondary schools, that bullying is a general phenomena in these schools.

Prof. de Wet, who delivered her inaugural lecture on Wednesday night, is from the Department Comparative Education and Educational Management which resorts under the School of Education at the University of the Free State. She is the first women who became a full professor the School of Education.

Prof. de Wet says, “A student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative action on the part of one or more students. Bullying always includes the intentional use of aggression, an unbalanced relationship of power between the bully and the victim, and the causing of physical pain and/or emotional misery.

In some Free State schools there are victims and perpetrators of direct and indirect verbal, as well as emotional, physical and sexual bullying.

“Adults who say that bullying are part of the growing-up process and parents who set not only academic expectations but also social expectations to their children cause that victims are unwilling to acknowledge that they are being bulled. Many parents are also unaware of the levels of bullying their children are exposed to.

“Some of the learners were at least once a month the victim of direct verbal harassment, 32,45% were assaulted by co-learners and 11,21% of them were at east once per week beat, kicked, pushed and hurt in any other physical way. Free State learners are very vulnerable to bullies at taxis and on the school yard they are mostly exposed to bullies in bathrooms.

“Learners are usually bullied by members of the same gender. However, racial composition also plays a role in some Free State schools. A grade 12 girl writes, ‘There are boys in my school who act means against black people. When the teacher is out they take a red pen and write on the projector and spray it with spirits. It looks like blood and they would say it is AIDS and my friends and I have it.’

“Educators must take note of bullying in schools and must not shrug it off as unimportant. Principals or educators could be find guilty of negligence. A large number of educator respondents, 88,29%, indicated that they would intervene in cases of verbal bullying and 89,71% would intervene if they saw learners being physically bullied. However, only 19,97% of the learners who were victims of bullying were helped by educators/ other adults from their respective schools.

“The learners’ lack of trust in their educators’ abilities and willingness to assist them in the fight against bullying has important implications for education institutions. The importance of training must be emphasised.

Learners bully their educators to undermine their confidence. In Prof. de Wet’s study on educator-targeted bullying in Free State schools 24,85% of the respondents were physically abused by their learners, 33,44% were the victims of indirect verbal bullying, and 18,1% were at one time or another sexually harassed by their learners. These learner offences may lead to suspension.

“Educators are not only victims of bullying; some of them are the bullies. The South African Council for Educators prohibits bullying by educators. It is worrying that 55,83% of the educators who participated in the research project verbally victimised learners, 50,31% physically assaulted learners and a small percentage was guilty of sexual harassment.

“Every educator and learner in South Africa has the right to life, equal protection and benefit of the law, of dignity, as well as of freedom and security of the person. These rights will only be realised in a bully-free school milieu.

“To oppose bullying a comprehensive anti-bullying programme, collective responsibility and the establishment of a caring culture at schools and in the community is necessary,” said Prof. de Wet.

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