Date : 22 June 2016    1400-1600 followed by refreshments and networking

Chancellors Building  Room 3.7  University of Bath

Chair: Professor Rajani Naidoo, Director, ICHEM

Discussant: Dr Robin Shields, Director of Studies, DBA in Higher Education Management 

Capacity Building of Higher Education in Africa: Geographies and Power of Knowledge in Collaborative Projects

Dr Hanne Kirstine Adriansen &  Dr Lene Møller Madse

In this presentation, we study outcomes of collaboration between universities in Africa and Denmark. Many of the research activities are largely funded and directed by external stakeholders such as development agencies, the World Bank, and NGOs. In this way African universities become linked in the international system of knowledge production and distribution. Based on Africa-wide research our analysis focusses on types of collaboration, negotiation of knowledge production, and universality versus the local specificity of knowledge. Types of collaboration concern similarities and differences between South-South and North-South partnerships, the importance of long-term relationships as well as the dilemmas faced by ‘scholars in the marketplace’. Negotiation of knowledge production entails the asymmetrical power relations which influence on whose knowledge counts in research collaboration. Many North-driven projects approach knowledge as universal and transferable whereby diversity and local historical context are ignored as discussed in the last part of the analysis. While these three analyses do not discuss all aspects of capacity building of African higher education, they are central to any understanding of university collaboration across borders.

BRICS and Higher Education Collaboration: Only a Dream?

Dr Nico Jooste, Senior Director Internationalisation, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa

Understanding the BRICS requires locating this group within the post-Cold War re-organization of a multi-polar world. This lecture will provide an overview of the BRICS as the attempted convergence of nation states undercutting the essentialist bias of the international system. It is claimed that the BRICS are on the cutting edge of a transforming world. Whereas higher education is still a nationally driven activity, focused on national interests, the attempt to expand collaboration in BRICS countries to higher education will require a re-thinking of institutional partnership formation and management. The lecture will also explore the challenges facing higher education institutions functioning in the world of realpolitik

The seminar will be followed by refreshments and informal discussion.  There is no charge for attendance but please contact Rajani Naidoo at R.Naidoo@bath.ac.uk to register.

Speaker Biographies

Hanne Kirstine Adriansen is the Internationl Co-ordinator and Associate Professor at the Department of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark, where she is also the international coordinator. Originally trained as a human geographer, her research interests include spatial aspects of education and knowledge production as well as internationalisation of higher education. She has extensive fieldwork experience from West and Nord Africa where she has worked in close collaboration with local universities and other research institutions. She has also participated in a number of research capacity building projects in Africa and Asia. Her current research projects concern geographies of knowledge and place-making through student mobilities. Hanne is the co-editor of Higher Education and Capacity Building in Africa: the Geography and Power of Knowledge under Changing Conditions (Routledge 2016)

Lene Møller Madsen is Vice Deputy and Associate Professor  at the Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is trained as a human geographer and has worked within education for the past 10 years. Her research areas include students’ academic integration into higher education and students’ engagement in the geosciences. She has been involved in a number of Danish research capacity building projects in both West and East Africa mainly concerning PhD-supervision and PhD-education in general. She is currently involved in an EU founded project on enhancing three Bachelor programmes in Eastern Africa focusing on inquiry approaches. She serves as a member of the Science Development Council at the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen. Lene is the co-editor of Higher Education and Capacity Building in Africa: the Geography and Power of Knowledge under Changing Conditions (Routledge 2016).

Nico Jooste is the Senior Director of International Education at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. He was responsible for the development of the Office for International Education at the University with the philosophy of Comprehensive Internationalisation as the guide.  His critical assessment of internationalisation has led to  the Global Dialogue on the future of Higher Education Internationalisation.  He is currently  the President of the International Educational Association of South Africa. Prior to his appointment at the NMMU, he was the Acting University Registrar of the University of Fort Hare. Nico was also Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Economic History, University of Fort Hare with his area of specialisation being Eastern Cape History and International relations of South Africa during the period of the Cold War. Published widely on South African History as well as on Higher Education Management and presented numerous papers at local and International Conferences on both topics.

Robin Shields is Senior Lecturer in Higher Education Management and Director of Studies for the Doctor of Business Administration in Higher Education Management. His research analyses the globalization of higher education, using social network analysis and related research methods to understand shifting relationships between institutions, individuals and nation-states. He has applied these methods to a number of domains, including international student flows in higher education, social media networks and research collaboration. Robin has acted as Principal Investigator for research funded by the Higher Education Academy and Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. He is also Co-Investigator on an ESRC-funded project studying cross-cultural perspectives on Global Citizenship in Higher Education. Robin is the recipient of the George Bereday Award for the most outstanding article published in the Comparative Education Review: a leading journal in the field of comparative and international education.The awards committee recognised the article's: "complex and sophisticated methodology" and "theoretical relevance for studies of globalisation and education.

The SRHE SWHE seminar series is co-ordinated by Dr Lisa Lucas (University of Bristol) and Professor Rajani Naidoo (University of Bath).