On 29 August 2016, CUT and University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) officially launched a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which was initially signed in October last year. The purpose of the MoU is to form an international collaboration that will enhance opportunities for research collaborations and exchange programmes for staff and students in areas of teaching and learning. 

 

The partnership is already bearing fruits, as one of the beneficiaries, Mr Solomon Mwagha, a PhD candidate at CUT will be obtaining his degree during the coming Spring Graduation ceremony on 02 September 2016. Mr Solomon was co-supervised by Dr Tsegaye Tadesse from UNL. “There is no university worthy of its name if it does not have collaborations. Having international students coming in and our students going out is an eye opener, as we get to know how other people do their things and how they deal with challenges faced with. We want our students to get a broader spectrum of knowledge beyond Free State, learn and get international exposure. This will also change their mindset and approach when they tackle their researchers”, said Dr Masinde, Senior lecturer, and Head of Department: Information and Technology. She also mentioned that the university has already started working on a joint research project with UNL and other universities. 

In his address Mr Arthur Johnson, Director: CUT International Office said that through internationalisation strategy, the university is looking to respond to the global challenges by partnerships which in turn will  provide staff and student mobility for them to be exposed to the best science and best response to human challenges that are out there. “Other areas of collaboration will include the co-publication with UNL to see how we can raise the profile of our science and qualification of our own human resource.”  Dr Tsegaye Tadesse, an Associate Professor of Applied Climatology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln said that he is elated that the two institutions established a general partnership to facilitate collaborations in teaching, research, student exchange, technology transfer, publication, curriculum development, joint projects and training. “We should continue to find other projects so that we can build the AFRICRID and encourage other institutes to come on board in addressing the drought risk management for SADC region,” he concluded. 

Images 

1: From left: Dr Tsegaye Tadesse, an Associate Professor of Applied Climatology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and Mr Arthur Johnson, Director: CUT International Office. 

2: From left: Mr Arthur Johnson, Director: CUT International Office; Mr Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Research Fellow at Kwa-Zulu Natal’s School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences in South Africa; Mr John Nyetenyane, part time lecturer from CUT, Welkom campus; Dr Masinde, CUT senior lecturer and Head of Department: Information and Technology; Dr Tsegaye Tadesse, an Associate Professor of Applied Climatology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Prof. Antoine Bagula, senior Associate of the UNESCO International Centre for Theoretical Physics Trieste/ Italy; Prof. Ulrich Klauck, a Scientist from Aalen university of Applied Science and Dr Progress Mtshali, member of the School of Information Systems and Technology at Strayer University.