UWC teams up with European and South African partners for large international project

University of the Western Cape has established an international partnership in the fields of healthcare and welfare with 3 European universities of applied sciences and 2 research universities in South Africa. The partners have received a grant of more than €800,000 from the European Union's Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education programme to help them achieve their goals.

The international project, which was launched with a meeting in South Africa late last year, will run until September 2019. The higher education institutions taking part will focus on 3 pillars: the Patient Partner Programme, the Health and Lifestyle Programme and the Care for the Caregiver Programme.

Caring Society 3.0 consortium

The Caring Society 3.0 consortium formed for this project consists of 6 partners. In addition to UWC, it includes the Finnish Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Karel de Grote Hogeschool based in Antwerp, Belgium, Avans University of Applied Sciences in Breda, Netherlands and 2 research universities from South Africa: the University of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Taking part in the project on behalf of UWC is the Department of Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science. The project will be carried out in South Africa and will extend over several years. The aim is to join forces with the participating universities to improve South African healthcare through knowledge exchange.

Project programmes

The Patient Partner Programme involves patients directly in the learning process. As part of this programme, professionals are taught how to consider things from a patient's perspective. This allows patients, in turn, to contribute to the community.

The Health and Lifestyle Programme promotes a physically active lifestyle among young people. More physical activity during classes, prevention and learning how to make healthy lifestyle choices are the focus areas of this programme.

Care for the Caregiver, the final pillar, aims to provide healthcare professionals with further training and multidisciplinary professionalisation opportunities related to screening and rehabilitation of discharged hospital patients in their own homes.

The design of learning modules for current and future professionals is an objective of all 3 programmes. The project partners will collaborate closely on this, with each of them contributing their own expertise. The consortium also aims to create opportunities for student and teacher mobility and for work placements abroad.

Internationalisation

Participation in this project allows UWC to contribute to international knowledge development in healthcare and the community and the internationalisation of students. With this project, UWC demonstrates its firm commitment to internationalisation of education, 1 of the focus areas laid down in its UWC Institutional Operating Plan 2015-2020.

For more information please contact the project leader, Dr Marie Young, Head of Department Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science. tel: + 27 21 959 2377  |  fax: + 27 21 959 3688 , email: myoung@uwc.ac.za