The International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA), a non-profit organisation, was established as a result of the need for universities and universities of technology in South Africa to respond to international educational trends. Some of our (SANORD and IEASA) core activities match and strategically we agreed to partner on certain items to further both our goals. It is important that we get our leadership, researchers, administrators and students involved in the creation of new knowledge and the establishment of partnerships to further develop our research outputs.

The 2011 IEASA conference is hosted by the Durban University of Technology (DUT) from 31 August to 3 September 2011. We would like to encourage our SANORD colleagues to participate in this very important conference on “The Impact of Internationalisation on the Quality of Higher Education”.

The big question remains: Is Internationalisation a reality and does it impact on the quality of our higher education systems globally? I am sure that many of our researchers/teachers experience international students in their lecture halls and research environments. If you have a contribution towards this discourse, then diarise these dates and participate in the 2011 IEASA conference at the Durban University of Technology.

The conference organisers indicated that they will have the Vice Chancellor's Dialogue session on the 31 August 2011. The committee would like to extend an invite to all Vice Chancellors, Pro-Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Deans and Researchers to this session that will deal with “The Impact of Internationalisation on the Quality of Higher Education”.
If you are interested in attending this session (or the full conference) then please email Dr Strini Pillay [email protected] and Dr Lavern Samuels [email protected].

Brian O’Connell in his chairperson’s report in 2008 made the following statement: “With the dramatic social and natural challenges now being experienced globally, it is clear that our species is entering new territory. Together these challenges will demand changes in the ways in which we have understood the natural and social worlds and our place within it. These challenges require a true paradigm shift as they assail our assumptions, our conceptual frameworks, and our experience so deeply and so comprehensively that a satisfactory response to them will necessitate a revolution in our thinking as heretical, seminal and brave as that of Copernicus, Galileo and William Harvey. All of this indicates a very special role for Universities as sites of discovery and of fearless contestation with ideas and practices. Given the breadth and depth of the changes that adaptation to this new reality will demand, knowledge of the best kind coupled with leadership of the bravest kind will be called for. Where politicians may quake, Universities must stand strong.”

Please find attached documents about the registration and the Call for papers which gives you an idea of the overall theme and the sub-themes. The conference detail is available on their homepage at http://www.dut.ac.za/pages/36503

Click here for the registration page: http://www.dut.ac.za/site/custForm.asp?dealer=6636&formID=1465. You will also be able to download the registration fees and the banking detail.

Please note the deadlines of 29 July 2011 for early bird registrations:

Best regards
Leolyn Jackson, Director
Southern African-Nordic Centre (SANORD)
http://www.sanord.net
Office Tel.: +27 21 959 3827/3802
Mobile: +27 82 202 34 75