Speaking at the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit in Cape Town, leaders from Australian, European and South African universities discussed how institutions can build resilient international relationships that extend beyond memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to deliver practical benefits for students, researchers and wider society.
Glenn Toogood, industry professor of clean energy at Adelaide University, said universities had an opportunity to strengthen their standing in society by demonstrating the value of their work and building relationships beyond academia.
“Building strong relationships is something that I work on quite a lot,” he said, highlighting the potential for collaboration between Australia and France, particularly in the energy sector.
Christophe Lerouge, president of IMT Atlantique, said international cooperation was fundamental to universities and research institutes, with collaboration between the two institutions focused on areas of shared interest, including energy, the environment and information technology.
For IMT Atlantique, an institution specialising in technological education and postgraduate study, international partnerships are particularly important because students are required to study abroad.
Lerouge said the relationship with Adelaide University also reflected a shared commitment to working with industry and supporting economic development in both countries.
The panellists stressed that the success of international partnerships depended on what institutions did after signing an agreement, rather than the number of agreements they held.
“We all have MoUs with many, many universities across the globe, but what is important is what you do with [them],” Lerouge said.
He pointed to the institutions’ joint research laboratory in Adelaide, which focuses on human-machine interaction and virtual reality, as an example of collaboration that had moved beyond an agreement on paper.
The partnership also includes joint PhDs, research programs and publications, demonstrating how sustained engagement between academics can translate into tangible outcomes.
Sometimes we jump straight into partnerships without thinking: well, what is the problem we’re working on?
Glenn Toogood, Adelaide University
Toogood said institutions should begin by identifying the problems they want to solve together, rather than focusing immediately on their respective capabilities.
“Sometimes we jump straight into partnerships without thinking: well, what is the problem we’re working on?” he said.
He advocated bringing people together in person to establish trust and develop a shared understanding of research challenges, noting that different disciplines could offer valuable perspectives on complex problems.
“The real risk is that we don’t invest the time into those relationships,” he said, warning that agreements could otherwise fade away without meaningful collaboration.
Lerouge agreed that successful partnerships required commitment at multiple levels of an institution, as well as financial resources and sustained engagement.
Adelaide University’s approach also emphasised embedding relationships across institutions rather than relying on individual academics or leaders.
Lerouge argued that shared values and long-term research objectives could provide a stronger foundation for collaboration than political and commercial arrangements alone.
“What is stronger is the knowledge, the values that we share,” he said, pointing to the institutions’ common interest in training scientists and engineers and advancing work on renewable energy and climate change.
For Toogood, international partnerships also offered opportunities to strengthen Adelaide University’s position as a global university, drawing on expertise from institutions with complementary capabilities.
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