Rhodes is a research intensive university with several areas of research having international profiles.  International collaboration is inherent to these areas, and the most productive research areas coincide with the most internationalised areas of the university. 

A notable example is Prof Tebello Nyokong, the NRF South African Research Chairs Initiative Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Nanotechnology, and Director: DST-Mintek Nanotechnology Innovation Centre.  She has undertaken formal international collaborations with counterparts in France, Russia, China, UK, Belgium, Japan, Germany, Chile, and was awarded a prestigious Adjunct Professorship by the University of Tromso in Norway.

Another notable example is Prof Christopher McQuaid, the NRF South African Research Chairs Initiative Professor of Marine Ecosystems, who also attracts a large number of foreign collaborators (Scotland, Chile, Italy, and several others), and is an honorary Visiting Research Professor of the University of Hong Kong.

There are a lot of examples of international research collaborations at Rhodes.  Good use has been made of NRF KIC funds for international mobility, research partnerships through the NRF/DST bilaterals with Algeria, Kenya, China, Germany, Japan and Angola. The SANPAD programme has seen extensive partnerships with Dutch researchers in the Netherlands. Other current research partnerships include Belgium, India, Brazil and neighbouring SADC countries.

In a world of Geo-political reorganisation, many Rhodes academics are actively engaged in understanding the new configurations from a variety of perspectives. In 2012, Rhodes University opened a new Chinese Cultural Centre. The Confucius Institute has seen a steady increase in the numbers of students who are studying Mandarin, since its inception in 2009.

In the first quarter of 2013, an exhibition, curated by Prof Simbao, ”Making Way: Contemporary Art from South Africa and China”, explored the ways in which contemporary artists based in South Africa and China engage with new paths of movement, with economic and cultural shifts, and with the rise of new regimes, new leaders and new social and urban spaces. This was the first time the works of the internationally acclaimed Chinese artists, Wu Junyong, Chen Qiulin, Maleonn and Qin Ga were shown in South Africa. Rhodes is involved with the African Humanities Program (AHP), a Carnegie Corporation funded programme of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), which is an initiative to revitalize the humanities in five African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, South African, Tanzania and Uganda.

Prof Herman Wasserman from the School of Journalism and Media Studies set up the Unit for Media Research in the Global South, which responds to the research challenges posed by new developments in the global media world order. He is part of an international research team, funded by the Finnish Academy, researching media systems in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS team held their first meeting at the University of Tampere, Finland and travelled to Russia to present papers in a plenary panel of the Moscow Readings conference in 2012.

The Political and International Studies Department recently hosted an International Relations (IR) conference “African Voices in the New International Relations Theory” (2013), first mooted by our Visiting Nelson Mandela Professor Amitav Acharya, and recently elected the 2014 - 2015 President of the International Studies Association (ISA). The conference interrogated key questions around Africa’s marginalisation in International Relations theory when the axis of world politics has shifted from East-West to North-South, with South-South relations on the rise, and the political and economic space increasingly opened up for the former “Third World”.

The Geography Department, which deals with broad issues of space, development and landscape is very active internationally, and has had regular faculty and student exchanges with Swedish universities, facilitated by the Linnaeus-Palme programme. The curriculum for undergraduates includes simulation games that have been developed to help students understand poverty and what it would be like to live on a dollar a day. The department also the first South African Inter-University SRC Colloquium on Internationalisation was held at Rhodes, during International Week in 2013. 21% of Rhodes students are international. has a research programme in Antarctica.

The Environmental Learning Resource Centre and the Centre for Higher Education Research Teaching and Learning (CHERTL), both in the Education Faculty, have been running an international training programme with the United Nations Environment Programme and seeks to support the Global University Partnership on Environment and Sustainability (GUPES) initiative. The 2012 cohort of African participants included universities in Botswana, Ethiopia, Swaziland, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. It builds on the work of the Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainable Development in African Universities (MESA) Partnership Project established in 2004.

There is a wide range of active research partnerships. In a recent academic display, in which 14 departments participated, during the Rhodes University international week, over 50 active global partnerships were mentioned. Cross border research is an integral part of the academic life of the University.

Rhodes academics played a key role in helping convince the world that South Africa is the perfect place for the scientific world to invest billions in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. The appointment of acclaimed European radio astronomer, Professor Oleg Smirnov, is a pertinent illustration of Rhodes University’s keen commitment to forging key strategic global partnerships.

Our staff is highly mobile through research contract partnerships with many other countries, through RU financially supporting presentations at International conferences, and through financial support for attendance at international symposia and workshops. All staff is eligible for support to attend International Conferences annually. PhD students are also eligible to present at International conferences.

Mobility is a regular feature of the academic life of Rhodes University. The Research Office retains record of grants awarded to students, postdocs, researchers and other academics. During 2011, 119 students received travel and subsistence grants to travel internationally. 219 researchers/academics received travel and subsistence grants to travel internationally and 19 post-doctoral students travelled internationally.

Rhodes University host a relatively large flow of international academic staff for its size.  An identity framework is in place for visiting scholars and students, most of whom are from other countries, to facilitate the provision of access to the Library, and IT resources.

Regular collaborators are frequently formally recognised as research associates, which enables them to compete for internal research and travel funds.

Several sources of visiting scholar funding exist to attract international and high profile local scholars to the campus for collaboration and mentoring purposes: A visiting professor’s fund run by the International Office and awarded on a competitive basis, an ad-hoc visiting scholars’ fund administered by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for opportunistic support of visiting scholars, a targeted Senior Scholars’ programme funded by the Mellon Foundation to support visiting scholars who will act as mentors to emerging researchers (the majority of whom are international scholars), and several targeted international scholar support grants (the Hugh Kelly grant in the Sciences, the Hugh le May grant in the Humanities, the Hobart Houghton award in Economics).

Last Modified: Fri, 19 May 2017 14:55:20 SAST