You are cordially invited to a conversation on how leadership can sustain internationalisation and North–South partnerships in a volatile environment.
- Date: 7 May 2026
- Time: 13:00 – 14:30
- Format: Online webinar
- Fee: Free · Registration required
If you do not have a Google account, please send an email to aneugeba@hs-mittweida.de and we will send you the application instructions.
Leading Internationalisation Through Disruption
University administrators are expected to lead internationalisation successfully in times of disruption. Geopolitical instability, rising airfares and financial constraints have to be navigated while accounting for digital transformation, funding uncertainty, and uneven power relations.
Resilient Partnerships in a Volatile Environment
This webinar will examine how higher education leaders can sustain internationalisation in a time of disruption. Focusing on North–South collaboration, it will explore how leadership can ensure resilience of partnerships in a volatile environment.
We posit that in a period of multiple disruptions, North–South partnerships must be led as part of a strategic, institution-wide, ethically grounded, and resilient internationalisation process. In the webinar, we will co-create ideas on how this can be achieved.
Your Speakers
Dr Nico Jooste
African Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation (AfriC)
Founding Member and Director of AfriC, and former Senior Director of the Office for International Education at Nelson Mandela University (2000–2018), where he grew international student numbers from 130 to 1500 and earned IEASA's Excellence in Internationalisation Award.
A former President of IEASA and head of the advisory committee responsible for drafting the South African National Policy for Higher Education Internationalisation, he was identified by the AIEA as one of 27 global international education provocateurs. He has published widely on Higher Education internationalisation, particularly in developing-country contexts.
Prof. Ramona Kusche
Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Professor of Global Communication and Science Management in Digital Transformation at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences since 2019. Her research focuses on intercultural communication, university and human resources development, and internationalisation of universities. She serves as Dean of Studies for the Global Communication in Business and Culture programme and is a visiting professor at various European universities.
She is project lead of NextGen, a qualification programme supporting researchers on the path to professorship at universities of applied sciences, and project lead for the ESF junior research group FiCo (Promoting Women through Individual and Organisational Competences in Education and Career). She is a member of the University Council and deputy director of the Institute for Science Transfer and Digital Transformation (IWD).
Prof Lynette Jacobs
University of the Free State, South Africa
Interim Director of the Office for International Affairs at the University of the Free State, where she also leads research on internationalisation of higher education. A Comparative and Intra-/Intercultural Studies scholar, her work focuses on inclusive education opportunities, gender and diversity, and in particular on inclusive internationalisation.
She has been involved in a substantial number of international projects, most recently as one of the project leaders of the ikudu project on curriculum internationalisation, and as Co-PI in the Female Voices in the Third Space project on equity, diversity and inclusion in South–North collaboration.
Dr Cornelius Hagenmeier
Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Head of Internationalisation at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences and Chair of the Executive Board of the European University Alliance EURECA-PRO. He is also a Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, where he previously served as Director of the Office for International Affairs from 2017 to July 2023.
An international education administrator and legal academic qualified in both the German and South African jurisdictions, he holds the German qualification for judicial appointment (Assessor Juris), an LLB (UNISA) and an LLM (UCT), and is a non-practising attorney of the High Court of South Africa. He serves on the Board of AfriC and was previously Treasurer and Executive Committee member of IEASA (2015–2018).
Jill C. Deschner-Warner
Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, Germany
A lecturer specialising in intercultural competency, organisational psychology, and leadership. Based in Germany since 2005, she teaches at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences while pursuing a PhD in Applied Data Monitoring with a focus on Corporate Social Responsibility.
With over two decades of experience in education, counselling, and corporate training, she has worked across academia, industry, and international business environments, delivering coaching and workshops for entrepreneurs and organisations across multiple sectors. Her work combines academic insight with practical application, emphasising global collaboration, leadership, and the psychological well-being of individuals in diverse professional contexts. She holds MA, MA and MSc qualifications.
Register to Attend
Participation is free. Registration is required to receive the webinar link.
Register NowIf you do not have a Google account, please send an email to aneugeba@hs-mittweida.de and we will send you the application instructions.
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