In her presentation at the DAAD/DIES Building Bridges workshop, MUT Senior Director: Marketing and Communications and internationalisation practitioner, Mbali Mkhize, captured this approach through the concept “Leading Internationalisation from Every Desk.”
Mkhize argued that internationalisation cannot remain the responsibility of an international office or a handful of specialists. Instead, it should operate as an institutional ecosystem in which professional and support-services staff understand how their everyday roles contribute to the university’s international experience and global positioning.
“Internationalisation happens at many desks across a university, at admissions, registration, finance, research, student support, communications, partnerships, the library, human resource and development, and in our academic departments. If these parts of the institution do not understand their contribution, internationalisation becomes fragmented. We need to move towards a cohesive ecosystem where internationalisation is understood, governed and lived across the university,” said Mkhize.
The programme therefore deliberately placed professional staff at the centre of internationalisation, recognising them not merely as administrative support for international activities but as important institutional actors capable of initiating and leading change.
Participants developed change projects addressing practical challenges and opportunities within their home institutions, translating the training into interventions that can strengthen internationalisation beyond the life of the programme.
This approach reflects the broader purpose of DIES, which seeks to professionalise higher-education management, strengthen institutional systems and enable DIES alumni and participants to act as multipliers of knowledge and organisational change.
For MUT and SMU, the conclusion of the programme is not the end of a year-long training cycle. It represents the beginning of a growing network of university professionals equipped to lead internationalisation from every desk, embedding global engagement into the everyday systems, decisions and services that ultimately determine whether internationalisation succeeds.