From Crisis to Vision

Higher education now faces the critical role of partnerships, linkage, and strategic joint ventures to achieve shared goals in a transformed external environment. This environment is itself shaped not only by the pressures of neo-liberal competition, but by a set of crises emerging from the contradictions that is producing greater levels of inequity and social division. It is in this context that the chapter evaluates the importance of global learning as a critical tool to understand, engage with, and potentially transform a globalized socio-economic environment and engage proactively with existing multiple crises. Academics and educators are now intimately connected to the need to articulate and demonstrate globalized learning models and reflective practice founded on explicitly international perspectives. Given the urgency, internationalization alone is insufficient to achieve transformation. A re-appropriation of purpose and values is also required within an emancipatory and social justice model that asserts human needs, not corporate efficiency.

The Development of Academic Advising to Enable Student Success in South Africa

Universities promote social justice by improving student success; a university degree is one of the most powerful tools to change the economic prospects of students, their families, and communities. For students to succeed, it is vital that they are connected to the wide range of support services in a meaningful way. Unfortunately, many students (especially first-generation students) find it difficult to connect to university environments that are complex and that are often not optimally coordinated. International and national research show that academic advising plays a critical role in improving student engagement and success by facilitating better coordination and integration of support. Academic advising provides students with relevant information, facilitates their conceptual understanding of the university, and allows students the opportunity to form a meaningful relationship with the institution through an advisor and by means of various advising initiatives. This paper shares international perspectives on the critical importance of academic advising for student success. Building on these perspectives, we reflect on the development of academic advising in South Africa and on its potential for enhancing student success in our context. We provide an institutional perspective by sharing the journey of the University of the Free State. In doing so, we show the positive impact of advising before and during the pandemic and we conclude with lessons for the future of academic advising in the South African context.

Regulating the Poor through Internal Borders: The EU in Historical and International Perspectives

Tensions surrounding internal migrants’ access to welfare and the associated politicisations about who should shoulder the ‘fiscal burden’ are not unique to the European Union (EU). Based on a Most Different Systems Design and following an institutionalist approach, this article analyses the developments associated with freedom of movement and access to poor relief/social assistance in four economically and politically diverse jurisdictions. It also considers the implications of these developments for the EU. The four cases analysed are industrialising England, contemporary China, Germany, and the United States. Although economic integration was a necessary, it was not a sufficient condition for the abolishment of residence requirements for internal migrants in all four jurisdictions. Moreover, it took political power, various coalitions, or the leadership of actors to overcome the barriers and hurdles on the path to social citizenship in the wider territorial jurisdictions. Solidarity as a precondition did not play a significant role.

International Perspectives on Spelling and Writing in Different Orthographies: Introduction to the Special Series

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue on spelling and writing in different orthographies. Most studies and theoretical models of writing are based on the English language, and it is generally assumed that what is true for English is also true for other languages. Further, there are more studies on reading compared to studies of writing and spelling. Considering that 80% of the world’s population speaks a language other than English, we need more studies on writing and spelling in languages other than English. With this intention, we are presenting 6 papers on writing and spelling in different languages of different orthographic depth, from highly transparent orthographies like Spanish and Italian to highly opaque orthography like Cantonese.