The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE) at the Durban University of Technology in partnership with the Technological Higher Education Network South Africa (THENSA) hosted 40 members of the French and German delegation for three days from Tuesday, 06 March 2024 to Thursday, 07 March 2024 at Steve Biko campus in Durban and Indumiso campus in Pietermaritzburg.

The aim of the delegation visit was to brainstorm ideas on forming mutually beneficial short-and long-term partnerships, that will see DUT, France and German students participating with DUT in joint projects and research studies with joint supervision from the respective institutions. The German delegation consisted of representatives from the German University Consortium for International Cooperations (DHIK), led by its chairman, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Leonhard. Both delegations got the opportunity to tour the FEBE’s laboratories in both Durban and Midlands campuses.

At Day One of the visit, the Acting Executive Dean: Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at DUT, Professor Sudesh Rathilal delivered his presentation, narrating programmes covered by the faculty, as well as the number of enrolled students from diploma to post-doctoral programmes.

Prof Rathilal also highlighted the issue of perception as the cause of the uneven number of students in the FEBE as 70% of students are male and the female students only make up 30% of the population.

“I think we need to make a big effort to attract females into what is perceived as a male dominated faculty. In our recruitment drives we will try to concentrate more on attracting female staff so we can adjust the balance,” shared Prof Rathilal.

Prof Rathilal highlighted that it was hard to adjust the balance, especially at a staff level, if they do not have students coming to study from an undergraduate level.

The French delegates expressed high interest in collaborating with DUT, in terms of sending DUT students abroad to learn and access their advanced technology facilities. They also suggested the idea of exchanging schedules and academic calendars to balance school holidays. Day One concluded with an Engagement dinner for the French and German delegation.

DUT hosted the dinner for the delegation at the Riverside Hotel in Durban. The delegation got a chance to meet with the DUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Thandwa Mthembu and Mr Eric Apelgren, the Head of Department: International Governance Relations at eThekwini Municipality.

Facilitating the dinner was Dr Lavern Samuels, Director: International Education and Partnerships at DUT who expressed his gratitude to the international partners and potential partners on their interest in partnering with DUT. He further mentioned that DUT has a 15-year history of formal international collaboration.

Welcoming the delegation at the dinner, the DUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Mthembu shared his excitement on the talks of DUT deepening their academic collaboration with French and German universities. Prof Mthembu indicated that these talks speaks to DUT’s ENVISION2030 which seeks to achieve global collaborations. He shared that they might not know who will benefit from this collaboration but he is certain that someone who has not even been born yet will benefit from it in the future.

Welcoming the delegation to Durban was Mr Apelgren, who assured them that they have made the right choice in expressing to partner with DUT as it is the number one University of Technology in South Africa. He was certain that the collaboration will have a great impact in the city and South Africa as a whole.

DHIK chairman, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Leonhard was ecstatic that the collaboration started off on such an inspiring note. He mentioned that they were at DUT to start an international collaboration. He indicated that it will be a collaboration where the higher education can unite together to overcome global challenges. He expressed that international collaboration should not exisit on Zoom meetings but it needs people to actually meet face-to-face and to have the personal contact in order to have a clear understanding of the issues and discuss solutions in person.

With the continuation of international delegation visits for that week, the final day of the visit took place onThursday, 07 March 2024, where DUT played host to German members of the Duale Hochschule Baden Wurttemberg (DHBW) Ravenburg and Karlrune delegation visiting the Faculty of Engineering and the Built at Indumiso campus in Pietermaritzburg.

Accompanying them to Indumiso were DUT’s Professor Sudesh Rathilal and Dr Nomcebo Mthombeni, where they were warmly welcomed by DUT’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Thandwa Mthembu and the Interim Midlands Campus Direcor, Prof Mashupye Kgaphola.

The delegations were led by Prof.Ing. Herbert Dreher, president of DHBW Ravensburg and Dr. Ing. Stephan Schenkel who is the current President of DHBW Karlsruhe. Also present were Professor Thomas Dobbeistein and Ingela Lundin who is an international Relations Officer at DHBW Ravensburg.

Upon arrival, Mr Shanely Hay, a lecturer at Engineering faculty guided the tour to all theEngineering facilities, together with the HoD, Dr Morakane Khahledi. Civil Engineering staff, Mr Wealth Maseko explained more on the equipment they have at the survey lab, while Nkosinathi Hlalukane narrated further on the water and structure lab. Obed Tchakubuta and Sibongiseni Nzama gave more insight into the DUT soil lab.

Concluding the tour, Mr Hay gave a brief overview on the new Engineering Block building that is still under maintenance. The delegation was impressed with the DUT laboratories at Indumiso campus and were looking forward to the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding between them and DUT to officially formalise the partnership.

Pictured: The German delegation with DUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Thandwa Mthembu and Interim Midlands Campus Director, Prof Mashupye Kgaphola during their visit at Indumiso Campus.

Thubelihle Dumakude and Simangele Zuma