SARUA to reflect on its role in regional development

The Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) will be hosting a colloquium series for eight weeks following the cancellation of its virtual conference that was scheduled for 20-21 April.

In a statement, the SARUA organising committee had said it had decided not to continue with its virtual higher education conference.

“The low number of formal registrations by the end of business on 29 April 2021 meant that the conference would not achieve its intended outcomes in terms of regional knowledge sharing and the identification of priorities for regional higher education collaboration,” read the statement.

Accordingly, it was decided to change the conference format into eight colloquiums during the months of May and June 2021, during which the Southern African Development Community (SADC) higher education sector could reflect on its role in regional development.

“This will include our collective response to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our approach to internationalisation, and the important opportunities and challenges of digital transformation,” read the statement.

Climate change, the digital changes in learning and teaching as well as the experience of students will also be addressed.

“Our vision is to develop, through these engagements, a clear understanding of how we could develop a digital regional space where we can collaborate in the promotion of a vibrant SADC higher education space,” said the committee.

“In these times, where we need to embrace the opportunities of digital innovation, our digital colloquium series presents a significant opportunity to engage in a comprehensive process of sense-making around the importance of regional collaboration so that the SADC higher education community can make an effective contribution to regional development, as articulated in various SADC policy and planning documents,” said the organising committee.

All the events will be free, will be held on Zoom and start at 15:00 South African standard time.

The dates and topics for the colloquiums are as follows:

• 19 May: Collaboration of higher education in the post-COVID-19 era with specific focus on the SDGs;

• 21 May: Regional collaboration and its internationalisation dimensions;

• 26 May: South-South-North collaboration – guiding international-isation in the future;

• 28 May: Regional collaboration in achieving some of the SDG goals (climate change case study);

• 2 June: Digital transformation of higher education in the SADC;

• 4 June: Digital transformation of teaching and learning;

• 9 June: Digital transformation of teaching and learning; and

• 11 June: Digital transformation of teaching and learning: the student experience.