Date of the exchange:
October 2024
Partners:
Sending Institution: Women's University in Africa, Zimbabwe
Hosting Institution: University of Newcastle, Australia
Dr Hellen Venganai
Director of Gender and Diversity Centre, Women’s University in Africa
Professor Penny Jane Burke
Co-Director of the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education and UNESCO Chair of Equity, Social Justice and Higher Education, University of Newcastle
Scope of Project:
- Capacity Building/Curriculum Development
- International Collaboration
- Gender Equality
- Research Partnerships
United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals:
#5 Gender Equality
Summary:
Hellen Venganai utilised her WTUN Exchange Programme Funding to visit University of Newcastle’s Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education (CEEHE). The purpose of the visit was to gain insights into their research and praxis-based, multi-dimensional model of promoting equity in Higher Education.
Hosted by Professor Penny Jane Burke, the UNESCO Chair in Equity, Social Justice and Higher Education and the Co-Director of CEEHE, Dr Venganai’s aim was to exchange ideas and explore potential areas of collaboration, such as curriculum development and the co-design of joint short courses and to share the Women’s University in Africa (WUA)’s model of addressing gender disparity and fostering equity in university education. The shared vision of the two institutions provided fertile ground for future research partnerships between the two institutions.
During the 7 day visit, Dr Venganai met with two PhD scholars whose own research projects focussed on gender and higher education in Ghana (Building understandings of the impact of gender-based violence on higher education access in Ghana); and Peru (Identifying the factors in Indigenous women students’ success in higher education: a comparative study in Australia and Peru).
Dr Venganai attended and briefed the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Sub-Committee at UoN on WUA, the Gender and Diversity Centre and it’s research focus. Together with colleagues from the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, Dr Venganai discussed and explored the feasibility of co-developing a short course on Equity in Higher Education drawing from the Graduate Certificate in Professional Equity and Inclusion currently offered at UoN..
The visit culminated in attendance at the 2024 Academy for Collaborative Health Interprofessional Education and Vibrant Excellence (ACHIEVE) Symposium.
“My exchange to University of Newcastle was fruitful and demonstrates WTUN’s commitment to enabling mobility and global citizenship opportunities, and as I share my experiences, this has ensured that I also speak about WTUN support and its purpose…I learned a lot about the work at CEEHE and their model in addressing inequities within the University of Newcastle and the surrounding communities…I have already started sharing with colleagues at Women’s University in Africa about what I learnt during my exchange regarding best practice in promoting equity in higher education through research and practice.”
Dr Hellen Venganai
Highlight:
Learning about the CEEHE’s work in addressing inequities within the University of Newcastle and its surrounding communities and accessing publications documenting their research on equity in higher education to take back to Women’s University in Africa, which are now part of their Gender and Diversity Centre library as significant resources.
Significant Outcomes:
- Dr Venganai has plans to host Professor Penny Burke online for two future webinars: One on Equity in Higher Education and another on the topic of Feminist Research Methodologies. There are plans to pursue research collaborations between the two institutions.
- Potential initiation of a network for researchers within Southern Africa around feminist research.
- Further discussions regarding the development of the proposed joint short-course will be held. The visit conducted during the short visit underscored the need for such a course; targeting practitioners in African higher education institutions involved in promoting equity and diversity initiatives.
