PRETORIA – The University of Pretoria (UP) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, to promote ongoing cooperation between the two institutions and achieve maximum mutual benefits. This broad institutional agreement encompasses all aspects of collaborative research, student and staff exchange, as well as collaborative academic programmes.

Speaking at the partnership agreement signing ceremony, Acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Loretta Feris highlighted UP’s commitment to community engagement. “As a university, we are currently partnering with a thousand communities in and around [Pretoria], and also in the broader Gauteng region – and even beyond, in some other provinces,” she said. “We have embedded curriculum community engagement in 226 credit-bearing modules, so students actually get a credit for the community engagement that they’re doing.”

Prof Feris also emphasised the involvement of staff members in community engagement, saying, “We have 500 members of staff involved in community engagement.” She highlighted two specific sites, UP’s Mamelodi Campus and the Moja Gabedi community project, where UP works with communities to co-design solutions to challenges.

Rutgers University Chancellor Dr Antonio Tillis expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, highlighting the importance of community engagement. “As academic institutions, we have a responsibility for the communities in which we sit,” he said. “And there has to be a lived responsibility and intentionality that goes along with that responsibility.”

Dr Tillis also emphasised the importance of access and accessibility, saying, “Like the University of Pretoria, we are a campus where access and accessibility are our north stars. We are in a community where the majority of the people are poor, and many are first-generation college students.”

Dr Tillis expressed his admiration for UP students and staff’s commitment to community work, saying, “I was most impressed by the community engagement and the community-engaged scholarship of the University of Pretoria with your two satellite campuses.”

The MoU aims to provide opportunities for UP students to visit Rutgers in Camden, New Jersey, and experience how community-engaged scholarship there differs from UP’s. “We would like to offer opportunities for students from the University of Pretoria to come to Rutgers Camden and come to Rutgers University at large and experience the difference and to have that binational understanding of the importance of elevating communities, irrespective of where you are,” Dr Tillis said.

Rikus Delport, Director of UP’s Department of Institutional Advancement, said the signing of the MoU marks a significant step in strengthening the relationship between UP and Rutgers. “It’s good to know that the relationship is on solid footing, and that we now can strengthen it even further today with the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding,” he said.

The signing of the MoU paves the way for future collaborations between UP and Rutgers, and mutual benefits for both, solidifying the institutions’ partnership and commitment to community engagement and academic excellence.