International staff contributions to their host institution: a case study in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The mobility of academic staff to South Africa is expected to benefit higher education institutions through teaching-research collaboration and capacity building. However, South African institutions do not always have the adequate organisational processes to facilitate host and international staff collaboration. Drawing on individual interviews with 16 lecturers from 12 different countries, all of them teaching in one South African university, this article analyses lecturers’ perceived contributions to their host university and the challenges they encountered. Recommendations revolve around the development of appropriate induction programmes and faculty forums to promote cross-cultural collaboration and the cross-fertilisation of ideas.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational mobility
• capacity building
• academic staff development
• internationalisation
• South Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Loïse Jeannin

Loïse Jeannin is an Associate Researcher in two research centers in France and South Africa (Laboratoire ACTé, Université Clermont Auvergne, France and Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education, University of Johannesburg, South Africa). Her research focuses on professional development programs for university lecturers, academic mobility and innovative pedagogies. Dr Jeannin is also a project manager for a programme promoting active learning pedagogies in universities (Learn’in Auvergne) such as blended and virtual-augmented learning to facilitate students' deep learning. She received the “Walden research dissemination award” in 2017 and the "Best paper award" at the 4th International Conference on Teaching and Learning (Bangkok) in 2013.