The YEBO! project, focusing on the promotion of the internationalization of doctoral studies in South Africa, aims to address and redress the problem areas of doctoral studies. The YEBO! project is a response to the target of the South African Government's National Development Plan to have an estimate of 5,000 doctoral graduates per year by 2030 in the fields of Science and Technology. Preliminary findings indicated that capacity building is critical in supporting doctoral studies. The imperative developmental areas include supervisory support and capacity, grant capacity and proposal writing capacity, with the potential to increase access to research networks, international funding and internships. The aforementioned do not exclude capacity support to institutions in support of doctoral studies, from an international perspective, and with a focus on best practices. Three principle approches were identified in response to the capacity development needs of South African universities: - A web-based portal that encompasses research and funding networks, identification of funding opportunities, with an emphasis on training materials and videos accessible to all. - Four themed conferences, co-organized by programme and partner countries, focusing on best practices for the internationalization and promotion of doctorate studies, and fostering networking and cooperation opportunities.- Three training sessions, organized in South Africa, with a focus on supervision capacities.

Inspired by the EU funded network of ‘Higher Education Reform Experts’ (HERE), the South African Association of Technical Universities (SATN) and 6 of its members, in cooperation with European partners, is launching and piloting a similar network in SA, comprised of two academic leaders from each partner university. The ‘HERE SA’ are strategically selected given their roles in overseeing and guiding teaching and learning strategies and with potential to be catalysts for change in the HE sector. The HERESA project will train and capacitate these individuals, enabling them to train other peers at the management level and to contribute to holistic higher education development to meet labour market and societal needs. The network will be instrumental, in the first instance, in supporting the SATN members to refine and revise their institutional strategies for teaching and learning. These key areas are: 1) strengthening governance and university leadership, particularly related to teaching and learning, 2) innovative curricula development, oriented towards the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), competence-based learning (CBL) and work integrated learning (WIL), and 3) entrepreneurship education in collaboration with industry partners. Technical assistance will be provided by EU partners from Italy, France, Sweden, Finland, Spain and Ireland, to support the SA partner universities to implement these strategies and train staff. In addition to facilitating cooperation, exchange of practice and training around these issues and advancing strategy development, the SA HERE network will be expanded at the end of the project and become an important dialogue partner with the Council for Higher Education (CHE) and a means to connect policy and practice more pragmatically and systematically in South Africa.

The overarching aim of the EURYDICE project is to increase students' employability in the field of renewable energies, on the basis of closer collaboration between university and industry. Industry often complains that practical experience of the graduates is missing. This lack can be found on all the layers of the education system in South Africa: vocational training, diploma studies, bachelor and master degrees as well as doctoral studies.Within this project we focus on renewable energies with the overall goal to enhance employability. The energy generation landscape in South Africa is undergoing a fundamental transition, as the vision of the energy strategy is to contribute to an affordable energy for all. Closing the gap between TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training Colleges) studies and diploma study by the definition of industrial experience requirements for University of Technology (UoT) diploma students. This leads to an increased preparedness and “studyability” of UoT diploma students. Industrial stakeholders will be integrated into the process. The project will develop an “Industrial Portal” as working tool. Increasing industrial experience in UoT bachelor education by the integration of practical experience into the curriculum. Within the project offered Fast-Track Acceleration program for graduates, enables students for a fast employment or starting a new enterprise in the field. To increase industry cooperation in post graduate education “OpenLabs” and “MobileLabs” are developed within the project. It is intended that industry brings industrial problems into the “Labs”, which will then be solved by the students.Workshops and summer schools guarantee that best-practices in defining and implementing the measures are being used, that input of all relevant stakeholders (i.e. South African students) is been taken into account.

The project aims to build capacity to internationalise and transform higher education curricula by broadening student participation in the internationalisation process. The project is key as institutions are not prepared for curriculum internationalisation, which will become mandatory in the near future, particularly as physical student mobility is unable to reach a sufficient number of students in South Africa.iKUDU will develop and effect strategies to guide curriculum internationalisation through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) virtual exchanges. COIL is a novel teaching and learning initiative that advances global competencies across shared multicultural learning environments using Internet-based tools and online pedagogies. Students in two countries use electronic communication to work jointly through virtual exchange. Noteworthy is the intentional development of intercultural communicative competence amongst staff and students. Working with a peer in another country, the lecturer facilitates the competencies and skills necessary to live and work in a multicultural, interconnected world through COIL virtual exchanges. The project will train 55 teaching staff to become experts in curriculum internationalisation and transformation, and COIL virtual exchange. They will be equipped to train additional COIL virtual exchange experts. During the project’s lifespan, 55 sustainable COIL virtual exchanges will be developed with European partner universities, in which 2625 South African students will partake.The impact of the project will be that all students at partner institutions will benefit from internationalised and transformed curricula. The 55 trained COIL virtual exchange experts, who will be competent to train future cohorts, will be a critical mass to ensure that in the longer term a substantive part of the student population at South African partner universities will be able to access international exposure through COIL virtual exchanges.