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UFS students embrace virtual exchange with German university to build digital fluency and intercultural competence

23 September 2025 | Story Mbali Moiketsi and Chevon Slambee | Photo Lunga Luthuli

Five undergraduate students from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) - Chris Sambo, Angelique Strydom, Soyama Nonkotwane, Rorisang Modibedi and Emma Witten - have embarked on an online semester at Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (HSWT) in Bavaria, Germany. Running from 1 September 2025 to 14 March 2026, this initiative marks an important step in advancing UFS’s commitment to inclusive and transformative internationalisation.

The exchange is made possible through an active Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between UFS and HSWT, which continues to strengthen academic collaboration.

Reflecting on the opportunity, Prof Corli Witthuhn, Professor in Sustainable Food Systems and Development, highlighted that the opportunity for undergraduate students at the UFS to attend the International Online Semester offered by HSWT greatly contributes to their professional development. “The programme provides education and training in agriculture with a focus on improved farming practices. Students gain not only new insights and skills but also experience an international classroom and work environment. This opportunity allows our students to internationalise without the expense of travelling, serving as an excellent example of internationalisation at home.”

Building digital fluency and intercultural competence

Virtual exchanges such as this extend beyond academic mobility; they are strategic interventions that foster two vital skill sets for the 21st century: digital fluency and intercultural communicative competence.

Prof Lynette Jacobs, Interim Director at the Office for International Affairs added that this valued collaboration with HSWT demonstrates the University of the Free State’s commitment to embedding inclusive internationalisation at every level of our academic offering, in diversified ways. “Virtual exchanges provide scalable, equitable opportunities for students to develop the digital and intercultural competencies needed in today’s interconnected world.”

In an era of rapid technological advancement, students must be able to navigate digital platforms, collaborate across borders, and engage meaningfully with diverse perspectives.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to broaden my studies through a different institution. For me, this experience opens the door to further studies abroad, and with that knowledge, I want to contribute to the betterment of South Africa,” expressed Emma Witten, one of the participating students.

Skills gained through the exchange

Through this online semester, UFS students will acquire practical digital skills, including:

navigating international learning management systems,
participating in synchronous and asynchronous virtual collaboration,
using digital tools for research, presentations, and communication,
managing time and tasks in a cross-cultural virtual environment.

They will also strengthen intercultural competencies by:

engaging in dialogue with peers from diverse cultural and academic backgrounds,
practising respectful communication across cultural norms,
reflecting critically on global issues from multiple perspectives,
developing empathy and adaptability in diverse learning contexts.

Preparing students for global opportunities

Study abroad opportunities - whether virtual or physical - are a vital part of preparing UFS students for success in a global context. They expose students to different academic systems, build adaptability and resilience, and cultivate leadership and problem-solving skills valued in the workplace.

For many, these experiences serve as steppingstones to postgraduate study, international research collaboration, and global employment opportunities. This initiative directly supports the vision outlined in the Vice-Chancellor’s Installation Address, demonstrating institutional agility by showing how virtual exchanges can be flexible and scalable tools for internationalisation.

As these five students embark on their virtual semester, they are not only engaging with new academic content but also stepping into a transformative learning experience. They will sharpen their digital skills, deepen intercultural understanding, and gain competencies increasingly vital in a globally connected, technologically driven world.

Prof Witthuhn added that the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences is proud of the students and hopes that they will share their experiences and knowledge with peers and staff in Agriculture. “We believe that the Online Semester will also better prepare them for future employment.”

This exchange reflects the UFS’s strategic commitment to Institutional Agility and Transformational Culture, ensuring students are equipped for both academic excellence and meaningful participation in a digitally connected world.

For more information on Virtual Exchanges, contact Chevon Slambee at jacobscs@ufs.ac.za.

For study abroad opportunities, contact Mbali Moiketsi at moiketsimv@ufs.ac.za.

News Archive

‘Is the South African university curriculum ‘colonial'?’ asks Prof Jansen

2017-11-24

Description: Jansen readmore Tags: Prof Jonathan Jansen, colonial, university curriculum, western knowledge

From left; Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research; former Rector and Vice-
Chancellor of the UFS, Prof Jonathan Jansen; Prof Michael Levitt, and
Prof Francis Petersen at the celebration lecture at the UFS.
Photo: Johan Roux

One of the critical issues that emerged from the South African student protests during 2015 and 2016 was a demand for the decolonisation of university curriculums.

A senior professor at the Stellenbosch University, Prof Jonathan Jansen, said the number of people, including academics, who joined the cause without adequately interrogating the language of this protest, was astonishing. “The role of social scientists is to investigate new ideas … when something is presented to the world as truth.” Prof Jansen was speaking during a celebration lecture at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein on 15 November 2017.

Large amount of knowledge not African
He said the accusation is correct to a limited degree. “The objection, in essence, is against the centring of Western, and especially European knowledge, in institutional curricula.” There is no doubt that most of what constitutes curriculum knowledge in South African universities, and in universities around the world, derive from the West. “The major theories and theorists, the methodologists and methods are disproportionally situated outside of the developing world,” Prof Jansen said.

The dilemma is, how will South Africa and the continent change the locus of knowledge production, considering the deteriorating state of public universities? “In the absence of vibrant, original, and creative knowledge production systems in Africa and South Africa, where will this African-centred or African-led curriculum theory come from,” Jansen asked. He says the re-centring of a curriculum needs scholars with significant post-doctoral experiences that are rooted in the study of education and endowed with the critical independence of thought. “South Africa's universities are not places where scholars can think. South African universities’ current primary occupation is security and police dogs,” Prof Jansen said.

Collaboration between African and Western scholars
“Despite the challenges, not everything was stuck in the past,” Prof Jansen said. South African scholars now lead major research programmes in the country intellectually. The common thread between these projects is that the content is African in the subjects of study, and the work reflects collaboration with academics in the rest of the world. These research projects attract postgraduate students from the West, and the research increasingly affects curriculum transformations across university departments. There is also an ongoing shift in the locus of authority for knowledge production within leading universities in South Africa. Prof Jansen feels a significant problem that is being ignored in the curriculum debate, is the concern about the knowledge of the future. How does South Africa prepare its young for the opportunities provided by the groundswell of technological innovation? “In other parts of the world, school children are learning coding, artificial intelligence, and automation on a large scale. They are introduced to neuroscience and applied mathematics,” he said.

Prof Jansen said, in contrast, in South Africa the debate focuses on the merits of mathematics literacy, and what to do with dead people’s statues.

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