Page 14 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

INTERNATIONALISATION

Accelerating the transformation

of internationalisation

Beata Mtyingizana, Senior Director: International Office

The strong and long-standing relations that Nelson Mandela University has built over the
years with partners in Wuhan City of Hubei province in China gave the University early insight
into the havoc that the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was wreaking there. As we conveyed
messages of support and solidarity to our partners and friends in Wuhan, there was also a
realisation that the global spread of the virus was not a matter of ‘if’ but of ‘when’.

The ease and speed with which the virus spread and the magnitude
of the turmoil caused by COVID-19 – the disease it generated –
necessitated unprecedented global collaborations. Scientists,
researchers and higher education institutions worked hand in glove
with industry, governments and civil society to respond to the crisis.
The most remarkable lesson for the globe was the incredible ability
of humanity to work as a single unit for the preservation of life.

Higher education institutions, like many other organisations, were
forced to transform overnight. The might of the human force
manifested itself in the richness of multidisciplinary research,
scientific innovations and technological advances. The world
needed to survive, life needed to continue, and so did learning,
research and global interaction. Technological innovations carried
the world as work, research, teaching and learning took an online
turn. Internationalisation was no exception. Digital platforms
such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams shrunk the globe, enabling a
reimagining of internationalisation. All this changed the meaning
of time and distance; it blurred geographic borders, challenged
the notion of the ‘international’ and the ‘local’ as immigration laws
governing the mobility of international students did not govern
virtual learning spaces.

For Mandela University, the process of reimagining
internationalisation during the time of COVID-19 is premised on
the need to drive international collaborations and partnerships
that deliver on our unwavering commitment to the co-creation of Beata Mtyingizana
solutions that can meaningfully change the world. As the global
online turn places digitalisation at the centre of international institutions in every corner of the globe. It becomes a platform
engagements, the embracing of the ‘new normal’ for the through which international engagements can be optimised
University has translated into a process of envisioning a digitalised through advanced communication technologies, where student
internationalisation model of the future. mobility can be enabled through the Internet of Things, where
access to information is enhanced through automation and where
It is a recognition that the so-called Collaborative Online connectivity is accelerated through artificial intelligence and
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International Learning (COIL) bridge can be used to connect networking access.

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