South Africa’s policy-driven internationalisation is striving to strike a balance between global excellence and equality at home

29.5.2026 11.35

South Africa’s policy framework for higher education internationalisation prioritises collaborations with countries on the African continent and elsewhere in the Global South. Photo: Unsplash / Marek Studzinski

In South Africa, higher education internationalisation is strongly shaped by a national policy framework that aims to strengthen system-wide capacity, address historical imbalances, and connect higher education to global knowledge networks. In recent years, the country has also placed increasing emphasis on targeted bilateral collaboration platforms and has expressed a wish to establish one with Finland.

Compared to the Finnish system, where higher education internationalisation sits rather strongly in the domain of institutional autonomy – and hence is largely dependent on the priorities and practices of higher education institutions themselves – the South African model is strongly shaped by government coordination.

Following apartheid, the state assumed an explicit responsibility to rebuild and rebalance a deeply unequal higher education and research system, which came to comprise 26 universities – including both historically advantaged, well-resourced universities and historically disadvantaged institutions marked by weaker infrastructure and limited research capacity.

Internationalisation in South African higher education unfolds across overlapping priorities and uneven capacities. Photo: Unsplash / Helene Holm

As a result, policy frameworks consistently assume that government has a legitimate role in setting national priorities, coordinating actors, and steering system level outcomes. Academic freedom is constitutionally protected and remains central to higher education policy. However, policy documents clearly distinguish between academic freedom (freedom of teaching, research, publication, and scholarly expression) and institutional strategic autonomy, which is understood as being shaped by public policy objectives, funding instruments, and national priorities.

The policy framework recognizes possibilities and risks

Key policy documents include the Policy Framework for Internationalisation of Higher Education in South Africa (DHET, 2020), the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training (DHET, 2013), the National Development Plan 2030, and the National Research Foundation Strategic Plan (see list of links at the end of the article).

Summarised in one sentence, the South African policy framework is striving to strike a balance between achieving global excellence and equality at home. On the one hand, internationalisation is seen as a pathway to stronger research performance, increased international co-publication, improved global rankings, enhanced access to international research funding, and the attraction of skilled academics and postgraduate students. On the other hand, it is framed as a tool to redress historical imbalances, strengthen the capacity of historically disadvantaged institutions, and expand equitable access to opportunities across the higher education system.

The policy is implemented through a combination of measures. The framework sets clear expectations for institutions. Universities are expected to align their strategies with national policy, promote student and staff mobility, develop joint programmes and research partnerships, and implement internationalisation at home through curriculum and campus practices. Funding for international collaboration is incorporated in many national research funding schemes, and the National Research Foundation engages in joint funding calls and mobility schemes, as well as a variety of partnership programmes. Universities are also supported to participate in external instruments such as Erasmus+. In addition, domestic programmes for academic development and capacity-building support internationalisation in indirect ways, as they build the human capital needed to participate in international research.

The policy framework also addresses risks connected to internationalisation. These include the loss of skilled researchers, tensions around the employment of foreign academics, and potential misalignment with national transformation and equity goals. In practice, debates in the sector have focused less on outward brain drain itself and more on how internationalisation affects equity at home, particularly in terms of employment equity, the distribution of opportunities across institutions, and the strengthening of historically disadvantaged universities.

Currently, approximately 30% of research and development funding for South African universities comes from international sources, while around 60% of South Africa’s scientific publications involve international collaboration.

Intergovernmental consultations and bilateral higher education forums

An example of government-coordinated internationalisation is intergovernmental consultations and bilateral higher education forums.

Intergovernmental consultations on science, innovation, and higher education are conducted through mechanisms such as bi-national commissions, joint commissions, and joint committees. These take place at the policy and diplomatic level and focus on aligning national priorities, as well as exchanging practices on specific themes such as research evaluation, open science, doctoral training models, and governance practices. Examples of intergovernmental consultations include Sweden, Japan, and Germany.

At the level of universities, bilateral higher education forums focus on concrete collaborations between institutions and researchers. South Africa sees them as a way to build more strategic, long-term collaboration. They are typically supported by seed funding from South Africa and the partner country to enable activities by universities. Existing forums with countries such as Sweden, Japan, and Canada support joint research projects, events, co-supervision of doctoral candidates, and student and staff mobility, while also providing structured mechanisms for sustained institutional collaboration.

Universities South Africa (USAf) recently published a position paper on bilateral university collaboration platforms.

South Africa has approached the Team Finland Knowledge Specialist at the Embassy of Finland in Pretoria to enquire whether it would be possible to establish a bilateral higher education forum with Finland. Approximately 100 staff members from a broad range of Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences have signed up as being interested in this initiative, and a proposal for an informal forum to be proposed for the South African side is currently being drafted for discussion among the interested parties, as well as by FunIntl and Pinnet, the networks bringing together the heads of international affairs in Finland’s universities and universities of applied sciences, respectively. To sign up for the mailing list of this initiative, contact the Team Finland Knowledge Specialist by email at veera.virmasalo(at)gov.fi.

Veera Virmasalo
veera.virmasalo(at)gov.fi

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