INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Campus expands its
International Footprint
Annette Willemse
The International Office of the Vaal Campus is
making strong headway in expanding the
Campus’s international footprint. The
Campus is currently home to more than
100 international students represent
ing 20 different countries, including t
he likes of: Algeria, Canada, China,
Eritrea, Germany, Ghana, India,
Pakistan, Rwanda, Swaziland, Kenya and
the United States of America.
The International Office recently hosted a delegation from the Botswana Consulate on the
Campus and discussions focused on greater
collaboration between the University and the
Consulate as well as issues such as accessibility, skills demand and academic programme
offerings.
Representatives from the
Marketing and
Communication Department accompanied the delegation on a tour of the Campus – which included the
newly built Learning and Research Commons.
The latter represents a R70 million investment and
functions as the heartbeat of the campus’s academic
endeavours.*
International Office in a nutshell
The International Office on the Vaal Campus came into
being in 2011 and serves as the first port of call for all
international students or post-doctoral fellows who are
intending to study on the campus. The vision of the
office is to support the advancement of internationalisation by performing a consultative and facilitative role
as well as rendering a specialist service in assisting
international students, international academic staff,
post-doctoral fellows and University staff with relating
issues. These specialist services include dealing with
enquiries from prospective students, giving information
and advice with regards to study permits and useful
information on issues such as accommodation, travel,
safety and campus life. An initiative that is also bearing
fruit is the formation of an annual Internatio