Page 39 - Transformation Indaba Report

The history of international relationships has been driven University battles with. This takes us back to Michaela’s
by the North and West of the world. Only now we are starting question “are we ready?” because people need to trust our
to develop our own agenda and think about what we want capability, to match them. We still need resources to expand
vis-à-vis the institutional directive and how to make relation- internationalisation.
ships and programmes within partnerships respond to our
institutional imperatives. This will take much time, to see The approach is to try to use the support from the North
the impact and effect of these initiatives being put in place. and West world to support the initiatives of getting African-
Where there should be a convergence of efforts and ideas, informed internationalisation off the ground. (Beata)
resources, and sheer capacity which is a major thing Mandela

Decolonisation of curriculum and Pan-Africanism: need to as well to carry Africanisation into the wider community.
action and practice all our wonderful transformation ideas. Timeframes, resources to be allocated. We need to think about
It would be important to write it up in the performance capacity to implement, otherwise ideas will remain ideas.
agreement – to have the imperative high in the Deans’ Lots about transformation of curriculum that’s important
performance agreements to make it happen. So many at international level – mechanisms for advancing inter-
decolonisation webinars, but we may not all be on the same disciplinary research/studies – and have a common agenda
page but there is the desire and will. The need to action is and understanding of where we are at, how we will get there
now. Get our own house in order and convey to our students but do we have the tools to get there? (Sameera)

We haven’t begun expanding our footprint on the conti- capacity and resources otherwise our plans and ideas
nent. Individuals have however expanded their footprint. will gather dust. Mechanisms need to be put in place to
Transform th Universty’s identity at continent level. Try to support interdisciplinary research and offerings. As well as
boost and improve existing footprint. Postdoc initiative will a common understanding of where we want to go. Do
boost output and individual growth. Haven’t gathered we have tools to get there? (Beata)
research done continent-wide. We have to think about

I would like us to perhaps think about any examples within the university that are working and that can be scaled up for
example in relation to all of these because I do want to believe that there are things on a smaller scale that are working, in
terms of building the capacity, utilizing the opportunities that are available, but that needs an angle of transformation in one
way or another. (T Mgwebi)

I wouldn’t say small-scale but rather there’s massive work a lot that is available that we can harness. Example: positive
being done on the ground by our researchers and scholars. progressive thinking and scholarly work and even publica-
This is work that is looking at a variety of possible angles tions. The massive publications that the university has been
where internationalization is concerned. However, how do able to achieve in partnership with different individuals
we make sure that we all of this is in a way that’s going to across the world is not being showcased in any of the uni-
respond to the institutional imperatives rather than be dis- versity platforms and it’s such an easy thing that we can
integrated and almost polarized pockets of different things actually use to market the university, to make the university
happening that are not connected in a way that supports the visible, to make the university known. (Beata)
institutional imperatives and plans. I think there’s obviously

NelsoN MaNdela UNiversity • traNsforMatioN iNdaba • 2022 33