The Centre for Business and Technology in Africa (CBTA), the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Cape Town and the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Windhoek have initiated the project “Community Engagement in Higher Education in the Southern Africa Region (CESAR)” and have been selected for funding by DAAD in the SDG-Partnerships programme.
The project focuses on Community Engagement, aiming to foster collaboration between the academic institutions and the local communities. The CBTA, NUST, and CPUT will work together to develop strategies and initiatives that enhance community involvement, address societal needs, and promote sustainable development.
The main objective of CESAR is to support the achievement of the SDG’s by supporting Community Engagement (CE) social entrepreneurship initiatives in South Africa and Namibia in the fields of:
- SDG 6: Affordable and clean energy
- SDG 7: Clean water and sanitation
- SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities
SDG 17 “Partnerships for the goals” will be the foundation on which the following fields of action will be addressed:
- Teaching
- Forms of CE, including Service-Learning (SL), as a pedagogical approach, will be introduced as a model to teachers/lecturers and university partners.
- Research
- Quintuple Helix partnerships will be supported through research activities and collaborations with universities, government, society and industry partners.
- Management
- The CESAR project team will engage with university Management and Administrative staff on processes, policies, structures, and procedures.
The international trans-disciplinary team of university staff and their external community, government and industry partners will collaborate through capacity building workshops and knowledge exchange activities.
Partner’s roles:
- Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)
- will, based on the described expertise of its Department of Architecture, Planning and Construction and its Institute for Land, Livelihoods and Housing will run/contribute to (the) (sub)projects conducted together with and in the communities.
- Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)
- will, based on the described expertise of its Centre for Water and Sanitation Research and Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering conduct local projects which will provide input to the workshops conducted in the framework of the CESAR project and their outputs will support the sustainability of these local projects. CPUT will provide expertise in the field of Community Engagement
- Flensburg University of Applied Sciences (FUAS)
- will be the coordinator of the project, link the partner institution to DAAD and provide expertise in entrepreneurship, higher education pedagogics, curriculum development, project management, financing of green energy projects and involvement of industry.
- All institutions‘ staff members
- will participate in the workshops held at CPUT and NUST and at FUAS on different activities of the project and support the partner universities by conducting their activities.
Funded by:
Prof. Dr. Kay Pfaffenberger
kay.pfaffenberger@hs-flensburg.de
+49 461 805 1748