South African partner university visits The Hague

At the end of last year, we had the honour of paying them a working visit, as part of a tour to several South African universities. Now it was our turn to present various educational and research projects, and to explore further collaboration.  

“I look back on a very productive visit”, said TUT Executive Board Member  Dr Vathi Papu-Zamxaka  after the busy day. There was much exchange and discussion to intensify collaboration. Sabine Amft, Strategic Adviser for International Partnerships at THUAS explains: “Ties with the Tshwane University of Technology go back a long way. The collaboration initially started with the Faculty of Technology, Innovation & Society (TIS). Since then, there has also been significant involvement with the projects of Mission Zero Centre of Expertise in the field of renewable energy. And this combined effort has left us wanting more. We discovered that there's a tremendous amount of overlap in terms of themes. We must capitalise on that”. 

Attention to entrepreneurship

While TUT has primarily focused on technology so far, they will now explicitly incorporate entrepreneurship into their strategy, Dr Vathi Papu-Zamxaka shared during her opening speech. Rolien Blanken from Mission Zero Centre of Expertise is excited about this. “This focus enables students to effectively market their technical knowledge, and increase their chances in the challenging South African job market. This approach aligns well with the vision of Mission Zero, in which technology goes hand in hand with sustainable business models that lead to innovative companies”. [End of box]

Partnership in research and education 

During the working visit, several new core themes were identified on which we will seek collaboration THUAS-wide. In addition to renewable energy, themes such as waste (water) management and AI were also selected. “An important and concrete goal is to submit joint research applications on these three themes”, explains Sabine. “Because only when you secure grants together can you actually set up joint research. But we also want to strengthen our partnership in the field of education, particularly through a so-called virtual exchange. Think, for example, of lecturers giving online lectures attended by students from both universities. And also of forming online learning communities where students can learn with and from each other”.  

Clear view for the future 

The presentations and discussions of 30 June provided concrete starting points that will ensure greater involvement with TUT. “It is very good to meet each other in this setting,” Dr Vathi Papu-Zamxaka added. “Let's try to make this an annual event”, she said. Our own THUAS Executive Board Member Arend Hardorff could confirm this: "We are very excited about TUT's visit to THUAS and the discussions we had today. We now have a much clearer view of the themes we want to focus our collaboration on in the coming years".