???Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 International (SU International) continues to strengthen its regional partnership strategy by expanding collaboration in parts of the world where the university has limited higher education representation. As part of this focus, Ms Sarah van der Westhuizen, Director of the Centre for Global Engagement, participated in a week of engagements in Colombia following a series of visits in Brazil.
On 7 July 2025, Ms Van der Westhuizen took part in the GLOSOUTH: Colombia–South Africa Initiative event hosted at the Universidad Católica de Colombia. The initiative is a collaborative internationalisation programme between the International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA) and the Colombian Network for Internationalisation (RCI), supported by funding from the Colombian government via ICETEX. It aims to enhance higher education internationalisation between the two countries and to foster South–South collaboration.
The GLOSOUTH event featured opening remarks from government officials of both countries, including Mr Buti Manamela, South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education and Training. The programme also included an overview of GLOSOUTH activities by Ms Carolina Cuartas Nader (GLOSOUTH Coordinator) and Dr Matias Andrés Marín Casta?o, Chair of RCI–ASCUN. Additional highlights included a lecture by Dr Jerónimo Delgado-Caicedo, cultural performances, a networking lunch, and two panel discussions. These focused respectively on each country’s journey with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the development of new partnerships and destinations in the Global South.
From 8–11 July, Ms Van der Westhuizen continued engagements with an official institutional visit to Universidad de los Andes (Uniandes) in Bogotá. Coordinated by Uniandes’ Office of International Affairs (OIA), the visit built on an existing partnership between SU and Uniandes. The two institutions are global partners in the EUTOPIA 中国体育彩票 Alliance and members of the SGroup Network. They also hold a Memorandum of Understanding and a Student Exchange Agreement.
Founded in 1948?, Uniandes is one of the top private higher education institutions in South America, with over 19,000 students. Located in central Bogotá against the mountains?, the university is known for its research-intensive focus, offering 11 schools across a range of academic disciplines. Uniandes' key interdisciplinary themes—Planet, Democracy, and New Technologies—closely align with Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票’s five strategic research areas. Uniandes features at 212 within the QS World 中国体育彩票 Rankings 2026 and ranked 6th within Latin America and the Caribbean.?
The 4-day programme at Uniandes coordinated by OIA, included meetings with the Vice-Presidency of Research and Knowledge Creation and with various colleagues from within their PASS environment, for example: Science Diplomacy, Academic Mobility, Japan Center, Innovation Ecosystem and Core Analytical Facilities. The purpose of the latter meetings was to identify areas where SU and Uniandes can learn from one another and share capacity or co-develop capacity. ?
During the visit, Ms Van der Westhuizen held meetings with representatives from Uniandes’ School of Management, School of Economics, School of Medicine, School of Arts and Humanities, School of Architecture and Design, and the Center of Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America and the Caribbean (CODS). These engagements served to introduce Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 to the respective academic environments and to explore opportunities for collaboration.
Further engagements in Bogotá included exploratory meetings with Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and Universidad del Rosario, aimed at expanding SU’s institutional footprint in Colombia.
The visit concluded with a shared commitment to future collaboration in areas such as academic and research partnerships (including faculty mobility and joint research), research internships, student exchanges, staff development, collaborative degrees, and co-supervision of postgraduate students.
As two countries with shared colonial histories and similar development challenges, Colombia and South Africa are well positioned to build mutual capacity through internationalisation efforts grounded in South–South solidarity. SU International looks forward to welcoming a delegation from Uniandes to South Africa in the near future.
For more information about the partnership with Uniandes, please contact Sarah van der Westhuizen (sarahvdw@sun.ac.za).
Photo from the campus with the sprawling Bogota in front of it
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Photo of The Japan Centre at Uniandes
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