Re-imagining International Higher Education Partnerships in the Aftermath of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how international higher education partnerships can be re-imagined in the aftermath of COVID-19. From the perspective of South Africa, it considers the impact COVID-19 has had on the country's higher education sector and explores how lessons learnt from the pandemic can inform the re-imagining of higher education internationalisation. In doing so, the pandemic is discussed as a phenomenon that simultaneously reaffirms the importance of internationalisation of higher education, functions as an accelerator of innovation, and has the potential to deepen existing inequalities. The pandemic is understood in this context as a crisis that has disrupted higher education in unprecedented ways. However, it is also considered an opportune moment to critically reflect on higher education internationalisation, particularly regarding inequalities in traditional internationalisation activities and partnerships. In this sense, the pandemic becomes ‘a portal', in the words of Roy (2020), an opportunity to break with the past of imbalanced partnerships. Focussing on both people and technology, partnerships can be a powerful tool in the process of imagining higher education internationalisation anew. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.