University of Pretoria and Michigan State University have partnered in a knowledge exchange programme to strengthen student success and well-being.

The University of Pretoria (UP) and Michigan State University (MSU) have received a seed funding of $20 000 (about R360, 400) through Alliance for African Partnership (AAP) towards their knowledge exchange partnership programme. The programme is aimed at strengthening student success through academic advising and student support initiatives. 

This will happen through academic and peer advising and help professional and peer advisors support diverse students’ success and well-being.

“The grant is centred around enabling mobility because… we exchange and derive knowledge by actually being on the site and meeting people, hearing what they do and seeing how that can help us enhance our offerings at UP,” said Dr Kgadi Mathabathe, Deputy Director: Academic Development at UP.

“Early this year Dr Hestie Byles, who is the academic advising manager at UP, and I visited MSU and we got a sense of how they do things at MSU. What we took from that trip was an idea of doing a clothing thrift shop and we discussed how to assist vulnerable students at UP and at the same time how to avoid the stigma of being helped or wearing second-hand clothing.”

“Thus far we have had two successful clothing thrifts. We made this easy and fun by inviting all students from different backgrounds, we gave them vouchers and pick clothes and leave. For us that was a success because any student could come and buy without being labelled needy or poor,” added Dr Mathabathe.

Dr Mathabathe also indicated that her office is hoping for more initiatives with this partnership since UP has an existing signed memorandum of understanding with MSU.

The goals for this effort include short-term knowledge exchange, training and support related to academic advising and academic support for diverse student populations. In the long-term, the institutions hope to maintain collaboration and deepen their partnership through efforts related to modality, research, conference presentations and grant-funding.

Delegates from MSU are currently visiting UP and the purpose of the visit is the reciprocity – they have come to experience UP and see what they can take with and enhance their systems back at MSU.

“This partnership is already beneficial because it helps us understand that though we are on different continents, are different schools and have cultures we still face the same challenges and we can learn a lot from each other in terms of addressing those challenges. We can also learn a lot when it comes to innovation for success,” said James Lucas: Assistant Dean for Global Education and Curriculum at MSU.

“It is refreshing to have learnt how UP is tackling its challenges and moving forward. There is a lot we can do around data analytics and enhancing community engagements. We are definitely taking that back home.”

Bethany Judge: Director of Undergraduate Engagement Initiatives at MSU echoed that the university will implement some of the ideas that came around data analytics during their discussions and have the information available for their MSU advisory board.

“UP’s community engagement projects are also phenomenal, I would hope that we look at our own engagements and work more on that or mimic what UP has accomplished,” she said.

Jonelle Golding: Interim Director of University Advising at MSU said their visit means that both institutions can bring bigger and better institutional change around how to deal with certain things.

“It is impressive what UP has achieved and how it is empowering its students,”