The Rhodes University Internationalisation Office announced four individual and four collective Internationalisation Awardees during its International Week.

The Internationalisation Awards encourage individuals and collectives at Rhodes University to showcase the different ways in which they have infused internationalisation into their Research, Teaching and Learning and Community Engagement.

To ensure that the award is open to as many academics and collectives as possible, an invitation to apply is issued via email to the entire university community.

To be eligible to apply for these awards, candidates are requested to evidence how they have used internationalisation to enhance all their university endeavours.

Applicants must evidence ten out of twenty criteria that span five years. Academics, who are very well established in their careers, can often meet the diversity of criteria required within a shorter time frame. The five-year period enables academics at different career stages to potentially apply.  

The Office received enthusiastic feedback from academics who reviewed the criteria and those who applied. Respondents believed that the questions being asked in the application, and the discussions held during the process itself, had broadened their horizons and created new thinking about ways in which ongoing activities could be further enhanced using internationalisation.

The Internationalisation Awards are an initiative of the Director of Internationalisation, Ms Orla Quinlan. “When I first arrived at Rhodes University in 2011, internationalisation was mainly focused on the physical international mobility of academics and students. However, physical international mobility remains accessible to the minority. As a university, we need to be cognisant of our African context and practice accessible and sustainable forms of internationalisation, including internationalisation at home and internationalisation of the curriculum.”

Rhodes University is the first university to honour its own individuals and collectives for applying the international lens to their work. This is attracting interest beyond Rhodes University. “Queries are coming in from other South African universities interested in initiating these awards on their own campuses,” Ms Quinlan added.

 

Individual Internationalisation Award Winners:

2021 Prof Martin Hill, Department of Zoology and Entomology

2020 Prof Cliff Jones, Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science

2019 Prof Lynette Louw, Department of Management

2018 Prof Ozlem Tastan Bishop, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology

 

Collective Internationalisation Award Winners:

2021: Institute of Water Research (IWR)

2020: Rhodes University Community Engagement (RUCE)

2019: Rhodes Business School

2018: Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC)

 

Previous Internationalisation Awardees include:

2017: Professor Warwick Sauer, Department of Fisheries and Ichthyology

2016: Professor Lorenzo Dalvit, Department of Education

2015: Professor Hari Tsikos, Department of Geology

2014: Professor Sunitha Srinivas, Faculty of Pharmacy

2014: Professor Roddy Fox, Department of Geography