The Department of Business Management’s Entrepreneurship Creativity and Innovation Management second-year class was visited by ten international students and two lecturers from the Karel de Grote (KdG) University in Antwerp, Belgium, from 17 to 22 February 2019.
The international students with the Tuks students and ECDs on the Mamelodi Business Clinic Campus
“These international visitors were an exchange student group who formed part of a social transformation and engagement group project with UP students,” says Dr. Dawie Bornman, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Business Management. According to him, the aim of the exchange was to foster new international academic networks, to develop business models for seven early childhood development (ECDs) centre entrepreneurs in Mamelodi, and to identify solutions to current business problems that these township-based entrepreneurs are facing.
Belgian students donating necessities to the ECDs at the presentation evening
This initiative was sparked when Dr Bornman and Mr Tom Fleerackers (Head of Entrepreneurship and International Business Management at KdG) met while acting as external examiners in Austria. Along with Mr Fleerackers, Ms Kristel Vanstalle (Head of International Business cooperations at KdG) accompanied their students on this visit, which created an opportunity to discuss future collaborations between UP and KdG in terms of exchanges for students, lecture residencies and joint research projects.
The KdG students presented their work in collaboration with UP students and were assisted by Dr Bornman and Mr Thato Mokoena (Head of the Business Clinic at the UP Mamelodi Campus) after making initial contact with the ECDs. The ten Belgian students also took the initiative to donate toys, stationary and necessities to the ECDs.
However, it was not all work and no play, as the UP students also ensured that the KdG students socialised with them on campus, at a sporting event and at a social function after the presentations of their collective findings for the ECDs.
The feedback was extremely positive and KdG has committed to invite ten UP students for a similar practical research project in Belgium towards to end of 2019.
Dr Dawie Bornman, Mr Thato Mokoene, Ms Kristell Vanstalle, and Mr Tom Fleerackers
The team from UP and KdG would like to thank Prof Elsabé Loots (Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences) for her support, Prof Alex Antonites (Head of the Department of Business Management) for his commitment to development, and Ms Dorah Mashiyane for her administrative assistance in ensuring that this international project could be a success.
Dr Dawie Bornman, Mr Thato Mokoene, Ms Kristell Vanstalle, and Mr Tom Fleerackers
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