After an intense application and selection process, we have finalised the four second-year students who will travel to Oslo in August to represent UWC Physiotherapy as part of a funded student-exchange programme. The students will spend 2 weeks at the Oslo Metropolitan University, spending time with undergraduate students in their Physiotherapy programme, visiting clinical sites, and speaking to patients and clinicians.

The visit is part of a larger project that aims to explore how culture and society influence rehabilitation and student approaches to learning. This student exchange component is only one of three aspects of the larger project, in which UWC and OsloMet are exploring different ways to encourage curriculum internationalisation without requiring student mobility. The other aspects of the project include the rest of the second-year cohort working collaboratively with students in Norway to explore how they think about rehabilitation in their different contexts.

While on the exchange programme, our students will be blogging about their experiences, sharing photos and videos of their interactions, and updating their classmates on what it means to be a physiotherapy student in Norway. In 2020 UWC will host 4 visiting students from OsloMet who will spend 2 weeks in Cape Town doing similar work. The outcome of the project will be a collection of resources that may be useful for others who are interested in internationalisation of the curriculum.

Note: I’d also like to say a big “Thank You” to Jemma Houghton and Chandre Pinto from the newly established Student Representative Council who were very much involved in the selection process.