Research Internationalisation

It is an irrefutable fact that international collaboration is indispensable to sound research. The Faculty has built an international academic profile over the past decade. Academic relationships and collaboration exist with countries in Africa, America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Faculty members have been involved in international societies, congresses and other academic projects, where external examination and the mutual exchange of members of teaching staff and students are undertaken.

The two Open Access online academic journals, HTS Theological Studies (www.hts.org.za) and Verbum et Ecclesia (www.ve.org.za) contribute invaluably to the processes of internationalisation, transformation and Africanisation in research. HTS is an ISI journal and both these periodicals are accredited at the international Scopus and Scielo platforms.

Africanisation is part of the Faculty’s vision for internationalisation. An academic and ecclesiastic network among theologians of South Africa and academics in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Rwanda is extended every year. The publication of academic articles in African languages such as Sepedi contributes to the values of diversity and inclusivity adopted by the Faculty.

The Faculty continuously seeks new partnerships and liaisons, even beyond the traditional Reformed paradigm. In accordance with the Green Paper for Post-school Training and Education (2012), the Faculty endeavours to strengthen the Public Further Education and Training (FET) sector by building strong partnerships. As part of this pluralistic and diversity strategy of the Faculty, it is important to engage with different theological seminaries in Africa too, both inside and outside South Africa. Existing agreements inside South Africa are with the Cape Town Baptist Seminary (CTBS), the African Institute of Missiology (AIM) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary (LTS).

It has become a common idiom among scholars to speak of North-South collaboration and the necessity for it. Unfortunately and of course unintentionally, sometimes this North-South divide may seem rather vertical in terms of the geography of the globe, and in consequence the collaboration could become asymmetrical. It is therefore important to develop South-South relationships continuously. The people of Africa have to learn from one another, and perhaps primarily so. We share a continent and to no small degree a common history and a common future. There is a definite shift in the traditional client sources of the Faculty and an increasingly greater number of students from Africa are enrolling.
 

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