The University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) drive to expand its international focus by fostering collaborations with higher education institutions attracted the interest of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States.

A high level team led by the Chancellor of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Prof Robert Jones, consisting of the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategies, Prof Reitumetse Mabokela: the Director of International Programmes, College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Prof Alex Winter-Nelson; and the Associate Dean for Academic Programmes, College of Education, Prof Christopher Span visited UJ on Monday, 26 February 2018.

Making a call for closer ties between the universities, the discussions were centred on academic cooperation and collaboration through the scholarship of teaching and learning programmes; in particular the virtualisation of student exchange through the online module in African Insights – a compulsory undergraduate course to prepare students for the job market; joint research and development projects, including the planned Johannesburg Medical School to be based at UJ; student and lecture exchange programmes; study abroad programmes and international student recruitment.

“The development of specific partnerships on various educational initiatives with higher education institutions and industry abroad is key for UJ. This collaboration signifies another noteworthy step in the University’s journey to further advance our students to be dynamic participants in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Mr Lebethe Malefo, Acting Executive Director of Internationalisation.