The Centre for Global Engagement at the Central University of Technology hosted their first Inaugural Family Week Webinar Series on 7 and 8 December 2021. The webinar series seeks to enhance conversations on comprehensive internationalisation, and how this intentional university strategy can be implemented at CUT to enhance the university’s international academic partnerships.

Mr Leolyn Jackson, Director of the Centre for Global Engagement, highlighted that CUT’s global engagement strategy is committed to internationalising the institution. “It is important for us to understand that comprehensive internationalisation, globalisation and also internalisation of higher education are all within one family and we need to treat them equally because all of it will help us to ensure that our students become globally competent. It will also highlight our talented researchers and lecturers and ensure that CUT remains connected with the rest of the world in terms of knowledge creation, production and dissemination,” said Jackson.

Professor John K. Hudzik, author of Comprehensive Internationalization: Institutional Pathways to Success delivered a keynote address on the first day, reiterating the importance of how universities are supposed to work much closer together. “Comprehensive Internationalisation is an intentional strategic coordinated process that is used by a university that seeks to align and integrate our policies, procedures, programmes and all the different things that we do and all of us have a responsibility to make that happen,” said Prof. Hudzik.

The webinar panel consisted of a rich mix of both international speakers and CUT speakers, with the panel illustrating the role of comprehensive internationalisation using project-based case studies. The webinar series focused on the themes of Internationalisation of Higher Education evolving through the lens of Teaching and Learning initiatives; Digitalization of international research while adopting Sustain Development Goals (SDG) research and Comprehensive Internationalisation the turning wheels of an institution.

In delivering his address, Prof. Ulrich Holzbaur, a professor at Aalen University who teaches and researches in the industrial engineering / industrial management course, and an honorary professor at CUT stated that successful international collaborations are all about the people.

“It’s all about people. From the first day I was in Bloemfontein I got support from the International Office, from the friends at the CRPM and the Faculty of Management Sciences as well as the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology. So, it is quite important to collaborate, and when you work together, it’s also a matter of trust of the corporation. But it’s also a question of opportunities. Back in 1995, no one would have imagined what we have achieved with this collaboration, we must grab the chance if we get it and then continue with it. It’s a little bit of opportunistic behaviour and a lot of friendship and mutual understanding, creating benefits for individuals, each of our partners and also for the organisation, said Prof. Holzbaur.

CUT’s Vision 2030 states that by 2030, CUT will be a leading African University of Technology, shaping the future through innovation, and the webinar series highlighted the important role collaborations play in achieving this.

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CUT’s Centre for Global Engagement hosted their first Inaugural Family Week Webinar Series with the panel consisting of a rich mix of both international speakers and CUT speakers who illustrated the role of comprehensive internationalisation using project-based case studies.