7 June 2020  Issue No: 601

Dual purposing partnerships are the way forward for internationalisation of higher education in a post-COVID-19 world, as they mean partners can leverage each other’s resources into something more than each could do on their own. Developing an institutional culture supporting internationalisation is also key.

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Universities in China’s Hubei province, including the provincial capital of Wuhan where the COVID-19 virus outbreak first occurred, are to allow students – but not for now international students – to return in limited numbers from 8 June, according to notices issued by several universities.

As budgets tighten and disruption continues apace due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, being able to fully embed alumni in the university experience – from admissions to student support and career guidance – could be one important way forward for universities.

The heads of the governing councils of Hong Kong’s eight publicly funded universities have backed a plan announced by Beijing last month to impose a national security law on the city, an act that many academics see as ‘doing Beijing’s bidding’ and politicising universities.

Leaders need to be guided, intellectually stretched and coached according to the specific contexts they face, not subjected to online generalised packages. Now is the time to set up more business schools emphasising value-generating leadership rather than greater generalised remote learning.

If the systematic weakening of higher education institutions at the hands of patronage student politics is not countered, South African universities could become little more than undergraduate training grounds for unproductive, competing national political elites.