Introduction

The past three decades have brought with them new forms of, and renewed scholarly interest in, the internationalization of higher education (HE). Broadly, I define internationalization of HE at the system, institutional, and individual levels, as the process of more intensively and/or strategically engaging in international activities, in preparation for an increasingly global society (McLellan, 2006, 2008). This process of internationalization is occurring at different paces and with different motivations at higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world. It is not a process that is unique to developing countries, nor to less-developed countries, but one that institutions within varying socio-economic contexts are grappling with.

One of the most visible expressions of internationalization is the increasing mobility and flow of students across national boundaries. There are many countries, primarily countries of the West, that largely play a hosting role (i.e. Australia, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States) and others, largely countries of the East, that are sending countries (i.e. China, India, Korea, and Japan). Since its first democratic election in 1994, South Africa began to join the ranks of those countries that are mainly hosting international students, especially in the case of other sub-Saharan Africans, as it by far has the most international students from sub-Saharan Africa studying at its universities in relation to other countries of that region. Thus, with that particular distinction comes certain responsibilities with regards to the treatment and education of those students.

In fact, policies that influence HE in South Africa pay particular attention to the need for its institutions and individuals to collaborate with their African counterparts and embrace greater African interaction and cooperation. This African cooperation and collaboration among individuals also includes international students from around the continent. Thus, if students from Africa are a priority for South African HE, there are several issues that arise and which must be considered, including: how these students are treated once they have arrived in South Africa; how do they find their studies and cultural experiences in South Africa; and, what are they taking away from their experiences? In this study, I present some illustrations that will help shed light on these issues and specifically in terms of the experiences of African international students (AIS) in South Africa and to tie those issues to HE policy. Therefore, the central question is, do the actions of South Africans toward AIS in that country contradict the ideals and principles of the collaborative policies to which the country and its institutions have committed?

To help answer this question, I present some experiences at South African universities, from a small sample of AIS. I place these experiences against the backdrop of continental, regional, and domestic policies that bind South African HE to collaboration and non-discriminatory treatment of AIS. I argue that the current policies, to which South Africa has committed itself, at the very least imply fair and equal treatment of AIS on its campuses, and establish the link between those cooperative policies and the experiences of these students at South African universities. As such, I take the fair and decent treatment of AIS out of the realm of only a human relations issue and place it firmly within the realm of HE policy importance, which should make it more difficult for HE practitioners and scholars to ignore.

This study has implications not just for HE policy and practice in South Africa, but for other countries where there are cooperative policies that have been signed and agreed upon by member states such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nationals (ASEAN), the European Union (EU) in European, and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) in South America. These are three of the more well-known regional blocs, which primarily might be thought of in terms of economic cooperation and integration, but which also have significant cultural and educational implications that affect international student mobility. Each has at least one clause that covers the free mobility of people, of which students would be an important part. Thus, given the cooperative nature of such regional integration policies, if it were found that students from any of the member states in any of these regions were having experiences of discrimination while studying in other member states, this would be a clear violation of the cooperative nature of those agreements.

What Students and From Where

The experiences of AIS used herein were taken from a subset of interviews that I conducted with approximately 100 international students at five different South African universities. Those interviews were with a regionally and ethnically diverse group of international students including Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, Europeans, and from the United States. However, for the purpose of this study, I extracted the interviews from the AIS in the data set. Thus, my data come from a small sample of AIS at three of the five universities where I conducted interviews – Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), the University of Fort Hare (UFH), and the University of Pretoria (UP). In selecting the students, I relied on the international offices to put me in touch with international students via a request letter I sent to those offices. The original intent of the interviews was either to (1) learn about the students' cultural experiences at South African universities (50 interviews) or (2) learn about the students' academic experiences (50 interviews). The interviews that have been included as part of this present study (representing discussions with 26 AIS) came primarily from the first set of interviews of the 50 international students about their cultural experiences. The profiles of these AIS can be seen in Table 1, which show that they represent various ages, academic disciplines, and African countries of origin.

Table 1 - Profile of AIS Interviewed.

Full table

During the 1-h interviews, which were conducted in small groups, I asked the international students a series of structured questions, a sample of which is found in Box 1. However, it should also be noted that there were several follow-on questions to be asked as well. For instance, when students were asked about the opportunities to share their culture (question #2), if they answered that they did have such opportunities, I engaged with them about how many opportunities; what were those opportunities; and how often they had such opportunities.

Sample interview questions.

Full box

Background: International Students and South Africa

According to the United Nations Education and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) in 1999, there were approximately 1.7 million students who crossed national or territorial borders for the purpose of education, or enrolled outside of their country of origin (UNESCO, 2006, 34). This number increased by 41% to 2,455,250 in 2004 (UNESCO, 2006) and then to 2,728,480 in 2005 (UNESCO, 2007). It is widely held that the numbers of international students will continue to rise because of projections in the growth in household wealth, increased demand for HE, the lack of capacity in some countries to meet this demand, and growing interest in studying overseas (Boehm et al., 2002). Because of these factors, it is estimated that there will be nearly 7.5 million internationally mobile students by 2025.

There are many values to international students for the students themselves, their countries of origin, and their destination countries. In the South African case it is argued that:... the fees and living costs paid by foreign students are a form of foreign investment, and help to fund higher education. Countries and students benefit from the international relations and links forged between students during their studies. In South Africa internationalisation is also viewed as a means of advancing communications and respect among people of different cultures ... strengthening the countries' global position ... South Africa also sees accepting students from the rest of Africa as a way of contributing to the continent's human resource development and helping to stem crippling brain drain .... (IEASA & HESA, 2008, 19)

At South African public universities there were approximately 5,589 international students enrolled in 1996 (Cross and Rouhani, 2004). According to the same source, the number rose to 11,975 in 1999. By 2007, the South African Department of Education reported that there were 60,552 international students, with 51,717 (85%) of those being from other African countries (IEASA & HESA, 2008). Clearly then, the South African international student population is primarily comprised of students from sub-Saharan Africa.

There are many reasons for the increase in international students in South Africa, and particularly the increase in AIS including the fact that South Africa '... is close geographically to many sub-Saharan African countries, uses English as the primary language of instruction, charges lower fees than developed nations and has a lower cost of living. It also boasts a large higher education sector that is accessible and offers internationally recognized qualifications' (IEASA & HESA, 2008, 19).
In addition to those pull factors Rouhani (2002) also identifies some factors which push African students to seek HE outside of their home countries and toward South Africa. Some of these push factors include: systematic problems such as education institutions in disarray due to political unrest, financial crises, lack of facilities and resources, shortage of academic personnel, and lack of access to academic literature; limited access due to high demand for HE and limited number of institutions; and general socio-political instability, civil unrest/war, famine, and such events in many African countries (Rouhani, 2002, 13).

According to Policy

With such rising numbers of AIS in South Africa, and the potential for those numbers to remain high and/or increase, South African HE policy-makers and constituents will continually need to monitor and understand the dynamics created by such African student inflows. Also, it is no secret that South Africa has been active in pursuing stronger ties with its African counterparts, through mutually cooperative policies and institutions. Although not all of these agreements mention student mobility of Africans, their nature and tone commits their acceptors to exchange and interaction between African citizens, including students. Each speaks of integration, particularly in terms of cooperation among African institutions and individuals – including students. Likewise, the attention given to the importance of African cooperation and integration in South Africa's national HE policy texts also strongly suggest the country's commitment to its fellow Africans. Thus, these cooperative policies make international students, and particularly AIS, an important policy consideration. That policy importance dictates at the very least, fair treatment and intellectual embracing of AIS within the spirit of cooperation, at South African universities. A sample of such cooperative policies that speak explicitly and/or implicitly of the importance of AIS at the continent's universities would include the New Economic Partnership for African Development, and the Southern African Development Community at the continental and regional levels, and the White Paper 3 (DoE, 1997) and National Plan for Higher Education (NPHE) (DoE, 2001), at the national level.

The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) was founded by five initiating African heads of state (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa), and was adopted in 2001 and given its mandate by the Organization of African Unity. It exists to promote the socio-economic development and integration of Africa, and is designed to address Africa's current challenges, which include issues such as poverty, underdevelopment, and marginalization of Africa and Africans, disease eradication, and to promote the renewal of the continent. Currently NEPAD comprises 15 of the 53 AU member states, including South Africa. According to its framework document it is a... pledge by African leaders, based on a common vision and a firm and shared conviction, that they have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development and, at the same time, to participate actively in the world economy and body politic (NEPAD, 2001, 1).

Of its eight main principles, most can be translated directly into the need for the welcoming and fair and dignified treatment of AIS studying across the continent. Just as an example, one can look at these two objectives of NEPAD:

• anchoring the development of Africa on its resources and resourcefulness of its people;
• partnership between and among African peoples.

The emphasis given to the need for the development and self-determination of the people of Africa, as well as the need for their partnership building, is evident in these objectives and throughout a reading of the text. Given that students crossing various African boarders, and in the case of this study coming into South Africa, are playing a growing role in such partnerships and cooperation and will hopefully comprise the future leadership of many African institutions, should South African universities not want to strengthen its partnerships with its African neighbours, through strengthening its relationships with AIS on its campuses?

In strengthening those people-to-people relations, South Africa and Africa as a whole would be following the NEPAD objectives of trying to anchor the continent's development 'on its resources and the resourcefulness of its people' as one of its key objectives suggests. Students can be very resourceful and the research that they produce, primarily at the postgraduate level, as well as the personal friendships that all students hopefully develop with their South African university classmates, can be the building block for many developmental activities in the future, in keeping with the NEPAD objectives listed above and others described in that agreement.

Regionally, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was originally known as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference, which was formed in Lusaka, Zambia in 1980. SADC, now based in Gaborone, Botswana, is made up of 14 member states including South Africa, and it seeks to encourage and increase development and cooperation among its member states. Its main organ for influencing and addressing HE is the SADC Protocol on Education and Training which outlines cooperative objectives for its member states, with regards to encouraging human resources and capacity building through education and training.

Cross and Rouhani (2004, 245) call the SADC Protocol of Education and Training, 'the most significant development regarding the flow of international staff and students in South Africa' because it strongly encourages the free movement of citizens, including students, of member states across one another's borders. Freer movement of students within the region as an objective would seemingly come with an inherent assumption that once students have actually moved about the region and found themselves at a university in one of the member states, there would be some sense of feeling at home and/or belonging at the institution. This would include freedom from discrimination and access to the same education and human resources as other students.

Domestically, in a previous study, I argued that '... the importance of internationalization is implicit, and thus relevant, in many of the priorities outlined in at least three of the country's key policy documents that are strongly influencing HE – the White Paper on Science and Technology, the White Paper 3, and the National Plan for Higher Education (McLellan, 2008, 134). For the purposes of this paper focusing on international students, the latter two are most relevant. International student mobility is one expression of internationalization and thus is also an important policy priority for South Africa to consider, according to the explicit and/or implicit priority that these national HE policy documents give to internationalization.

In such domestic policies a high priority is assigned to the cooperation and integration of people and institutions across Africa, and particularly in the Southern African region. This, I argue, can be extended to African students, whether it is specifically mentioned that way or not. However, there are specific examples from such national policy documents that are quite explicit in this regard, such as in the National Plan for Higher Education (DoE, 2001, 25):... there is as yet untapped potential to recruit students from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, especially at the postgraduate level.

This statement and others like it found in these key South African policy texts sets as one of the main HE objectives that of allowing greater access to South African HE by students from Africa, and particularly the Southern African region. That access cannot be seen in isolation of what should happen and what type of experiences the AIS should have once that access is granted, which should include fair treatment and access to the appropriate services and activities that will help the AIS to achieve their educational goals and ultimately the goals of mutual cooperation and forging of bonds that cooperative policies have set as primary objectives. Within this cooperative context then, a central question for consideration is whether or not the spirit of these cooperative policy commitments matches the experiences of AIS studying in South Africa?

Experiences and Expressions from AIS

To help address that question, in this section I present primary data illustrating some of the experiences that AIS have had at South African universities. The primarily negative experiences that I will highlight come directly from those AIS who have experienced them. It should be noted though, that negative experiences and problems faced by international students have been well documented by several scholars (Ramphele, 1999; Pritchard and Skinner, 2002; Rouhani, 2002; Hanassab, 2006; Sawir et al., 2008) and so the experiences that the AIS described to me will perhaps not be surprising to many. But, the policy disconnect to be shown is what some might find most surprising.

Specifically referring to AIS in South Africa, Rouhani (2002, 15) analysed some of the problems faced by AIS and found that they typically experienced: fear of crime or being victims of crime; not being recognized as fully fledged international students, in comparison to overseas students; lack of language courses for students whose mother-tongue or second language is not English; financial difficulties; and xenophobia. It is this last issue – xenophobia – that has gotten much attention in South Africa recently.

Xenophobia is a study unto itself, but it does merit some discussion here, and some of the experiences of the AIS in this study could be classified under the heading of xenophobia. Kleg (1993) argues that xenophobia is related to a fundamental fear of difference that can result in cultural shock, which results from feelings of being uncomfortable among individuals of other cultures. Several scholars have written about xenophobia in South Africa and some of its causes and policy implications (Klotz, 1997; Morris, 1998; Tshitereke, 1999; Harris, 2001, 2002; Reilly, 2001). There have also been countless articles in South African newspapers centred on xenophobia and its causes and implications (i.e. Hunt, 1996; Magome, 2008; Mkhwanazi, 2008). Most of these authors present the argument that the rise in acts of xenophobia in South Africa can be directly attributed to the rise in the number of migrants (legal and illegal). They also argue that this is particularly the case for those coming into the country from other African countries.

Ramphele (1999, 3) also writes thatIn the wake of what international students are increasingly beginning to perceive as xenophobic rhetoric and discriminatory behaviour by all and sundry, and at a time when the term 'foreign' is beginning to assume some negative overtones ... Xenophobic sentiments feed on perceived and real differences and prey on feelings of deprivation supposedly caused by the international students who does not belong.

In trying to analyse some of the reasons for such xenophobic feelings, problems, or treatment, Ramphele (1999, 3) provides an intriguing argument which centres on the 'foreignness' of international students in South Africa.The issue of foreignness can be a source of tension between a section of largely black South African students and black students from neighbouring African countries. South African students feel deprived and invoke their citizenship or South Africanness in the face of competition from foreign students who compete for local resources in order to make ends meet. They stress the foreignness of their competitors and seek to remove them from the equation. They even blame their deprivation on 'foreign' students who do not belong.

It is this difference and particularly this foreignness that is perhaps the primary source of the tension, and thus potentially negative perceptions and treatment of international students by South Africans at its universities as will now be discussed. Chief among the negative experiences expressed by AIS was the unfriendliness of their South African university-mates, as illustrated in the following statements:... in the first days it was difficult because I feel the students weren't friendly enough. And I was feeling like, I don't know how to explain it ... they were not friendly.

I think the South African students are not welcoming ... South African students don't receive us well. Maybe it's the culture, I don't know. They're just not friendly at all. They only talk to you when they need something from you.

One might argue that it is normal for there to be some animosity and unfriendliness towards international students because of their unfamiliarity and cultural differences. This might be true, but what is curious is that, according to these AIS, their international student counterparts that came from non-African countries did not receive this same unwelcome reception from their South African counterparts. This treatment of AIS vs their western counterparts, or the level of negative vs positive experiences of AIS vs non-AIS was also evident to me as I carried out my interviews. As I stated earlier herein, the interviews from which the data presented here come included interviews with international students from all over the world. In those discussions, I talked with international students from Australia, Great Britain, the United States, and even one from China, and each of those discussions did not include significant amounts of negative experiences or treatment from South Africans. There can be many reasons to explain this, but that is for another paper. What is important here is that there are AIS who believe and perceive that they are treated with less respect and less friendliness than are non-AIS.

The other major issue that arose with almost all of the AIS was the issue of language. This is often a key issue among international students studying around the world. However, the experiences of the AIS in this study were such that the language barrier created feelings of being discriminated against or episodes of ill-treatment by South Africans toward them. Several comments illustrate this point.I think the language thing, when they find out that you don't speak the language, they sort of look at you in sort of resentment.

I just experienced that when I went to buy gum. The guy was speaking in a language I didn't understand and I said I'm sorry I don't understand can you speak English? He said no, I don't speak English. I don't understand English.

I think we've all had the experiences that when someone sees us and talks to us, they speak to us in a local language. Then, when we say we don't understand can you speak English, they get angry with us and say if you don't understand then leave.

The National Plan gives importance to the value of African languages and in particular their role in contributing to an African renaissance, whereby African nations are to work closely with one another toward a more prosperous and self-determining continent and nations.... important fields of study which impact on the development of a common sense of nationhood and that could play an important role in contributing to the development of the African renaissance continue to be marginalized in higher education institutions. These include ... fields of study such as African languages ... The Ministry would like to encourage institutions to develop and enhance these fields and will monitor developments closely (DoE, 2001, 27).

In such statements, the South African policy-makers clearly commit themselves, and thus their constituents, to an embracing of other languages from Africa. As such, the treatment of AIS because of their lack of abilities to speak South African languages contradicts such policy statements.

Although these negative experiences seemed to occur for AIS in various locations around the campuses or in the communities in which they lived, many of these experiences occurred while they were living in university accommodations (the 'res' as it is referred to in South Africa). For instance, after discussing the issue of language, one of the AIS also added... for the first time when I had to stay in res, I was the only international student and at the end of the day they made me feel very unwelcome ... and you know, I just had to move out or I wouldn't enjoy it ...

An extreme case, but one that is illustrative of how harsh the treatment of AIS can be, and again shows how that treatment can often occur in the 'res' as highlighted previously, is as follows:This year when the first years joined us, one 19 year old young man was asked to share with a South African student. When he was sleep, his first week here, the South African went out drinking He came back around 2 or 3 and was sleep for a couple hours. When he felt like he needed to relieve himself, instead of going out to the toilet, he went and urinated on the [AIS] student.

Experiences such as this, although extreme (and hopefully very rare), illustrate just how bad it can get for some AIS in South Africa. In following arguments such as Ramphele (1999) and Rouhani (2002) discussed above, a primary reason for this negative treatment, or xenophobia, is the lack of understanding, and I would add even interest in understanding, the cultures from which these AIS come. It stems from an inability to deal with, or a complete rejection, of difference. Because of many reasons (some of which I will discuss below) the South Africans who engage in such treatment of their African counterparts have not yet developed an appreciation for their African counterparts' culture and/or language, and as such, this lack of understanding might lead to what was discussed by the scholars previously mentioned as xenophobic actions and other discriminatory behaviour. However, this treatment does damage to South Africa's abilities to promote cultural ties with its African counterparts, which is something they have committed themselves to according to the cooperative policies they have agreed to as the following shows, as one of the objectives of a regional policy is... to promote student and staff exchange programmes negotiated on a bilateral and multilateral basis by the sending and receiving universities for educational purposes and to promote cultural ties and engender commitment to the Region (SADC, 1997, 7).

Another states that,The New Partnership for Africa's Development will be successful only if it is owned by the African peoples united in their diversity (NEPAD, 2001, 12).

However, although such policies commit South Africans and other Africans to promoting cultural ties and uniting in their diversity, it seems that this very diversity and difference, coupled with a lack of understanding and acceptance of those differences, is what leads to the unfriendliness experienced by the AIS above, and is indeed one the reasons for this unfriendly reception, given by one of the AIS.

Given such treatment and the negative experiences that these AIS verbalized, one might expect them to be bitter. However, there was a remarkable level of understanding and sympathy on the part of AIS toward their South African counterparts, and in some cases they seemed to even excuse the actions of their South African counterparts.It's a mixed feeling. We're in a section of South Africa that is kind of closed because of the rural setting that we're in. So, it's the element of not knowing what the outside world is doing and what it's like, that makes them uncomfortable.

At this moment in the social dynamics of the nations they are at the time when they are just opening up to the world and there is a lot of insecurities because of their new democracy. Because there are some things that they still haven't gotten a hold of.

This level of understanding on the part of the AIS and the treatment they were receiving from their South African counterparts is more in keeping with the tenets of cooperation and mutual respect that the policies discussed herein have committed African countries to. However, although they agree with the previous isolation of South Africans as a viable theory to explain their sometimes ill-will toward other Africans, some of the AIS were not so understanding.... we've all been colonized and we've all suffered. Not just them. I have to end up telling them that ... just because we're here getting an education doesn't mean we want to take their things. They actually got their independence because of our countries.

Coping with the negatives

Having had these negative experiences as illustrated above, AIS have had to develop methods to cope if they hope to stay at the universities and complete their studies and many feel the universities are slow to respond to their needs.The university, to me, they are not concerned about this issue we're talking about [international students and their cultural needs]. So a set of people needs to inform them that we need to organize some language and cultural programmes.

I think the international student in each university should have a common organization that is a general body representing all international students in South Africa. You tell me what is happening on your campus, and I tell you what's happening on mine.

However, while the universities slowly respond to the needs of AIS, the students themselves have begun to develop what seems to be a central coping mechanism among all of the AIS I spoke with. That is, they all said that they socialize and interact more with other international students than they do with their South African classmates. For instance, one AIS, when I asked if she socialized with South African students outside of the classroom, answered no, and that all of her friends were international students. Others had similar responses, and the following is illustrative of those:... we are lucky ... the number of us [international students] is very high. So in my case I end up just aligning with foreigners and not locals.

This alignment among the AIS body is not surprising as many students tend to navigate toward other students with similar experiences and who are in similar situations as themselves. However, it is a method that the AIS particularly are using to help them cope with negative experiences that they might encounter or to help them avoid such experiences. It may be one method of assisting AIS that South African universities could consider in terms of developing better mechanisms to ensure that the AIS and their interactions with one another, with other international students, and with South African students, are facilitated, funded, and supported.

Is it all negative?

It would not be fair if readers came away with the impression that all South Africans treat AIS horribly, or that the experiences illustrated herein are in the majority. That is not what the argument here is saying at all. There are also many positive statements made by the AIS interviewed. Most of them were happy to be studying in South Africa and of the education they were receiving. They were also in general agreement that as time progressed in their studies, their own tensions had eased and they had found ways to cope with being a 'foreigner' and most have made South African and other African friends.I wouldn't say it's all negative. There is a bit of positive vibes here. You do get some students who appreciate the different approach to work that we have. They see that the [AIS] actually do contribute. You then get people who invite you to some things that are happening around town and in the villages ... As soon as you break ice and realize that this man is human, he is just like you, then everything is better.

As such, there are very positive interactions between South Africans and their African student counterparts on the country's campuses. The importance of this paper is to prod policy-makers and HE stakeholders to ask questions and think about where the country's universities are in terms of implied good will towards Africans that is evident in almost all major continental, regional, and domestic policies that impact HE.

Limitations and Areas for Future Study

There are limitations of this study that future research should be able to address. Firstly, since this paper is not intended to spark specific universities to action (although hopefully it will raise the concerns of many and they will heed some of the recommendations I offer in the next section), nor to present any of these universities negatively, I have not identified the AIS commenting with their particular university. Additionally, since this paper is not intended to analyse the treatment and experiences of AIS based on their respective countries of origin, for the purpose of my analysis here, I also have not associated comments from the AIS with their respective countries.

These two methodological decisions have several implications. Firstly, it has not been possible, or necessary, within the space provided for this paper, to discuss the universities' cultures, histories, or resources. For instance, the UP and UFH are far different universities in terms of their history, culture, resources, and study bodies at TUT, which is a former technikon – HEIs that focused mainly on a hands-on approach to education and career training, with an emphasis usually on technology. Also, in terms of the country origins of the students, given the geographic proximity of countries like Namibia or Zimbabwe, or the language barriers between say Mozambique (a Portuguese speaking country) and Botswana (where English is a primary language) there may be some obvious differences in terms of the experience of those students at South African universities. Another difference I chose not to highlight was potential differences between undergraduate and postgraduate students, males and females, and those within certain academic disciplines.

The decision not to analyse the demographic profile of the AIS, and to lump them all together, as well as the small sample of AIS used does not, however, detract from the broad issues of concern voiced by these students and such concerns should be considered against the backdrop of important cooperative policies that the South African public has verbally and textually committed itself to nationally, regionally, and continentally. This paper thus seeks to raise issues about the treatment of AIS at South African universities, and particularly to investigate whether or not the policy attention paid to students from Africa is just rhetoric or if it is manifesting itself into legitimate fair treatment, integration, and cooperation between South Africans and AIS.

Finally, some might argue that SADC students, particularly because of the nature of the SADC Protocol (1997) stating that students from the region should eventually be treated as 'home students', are not international students. They are not South African citizens and as such, still fit the definition of international or foreign students according to the government's (and conventional) definition of such students.

In light of these various limitations, there are many areas to be further explored concerning international students broadly, and AIS particularly, that can inform policy, practice, and scholarship. It would be interesting for scholars to look at a cross-comparison of the experiences of African vs non-AIS at South African universities. It would also be appropriate in the South African HE policy context, to take up as Hanassab and Tidwell (2002) suggest, the task of 'investigating international students more specifically, taking into account variables such as gender, academic field, region, and degree objectives ...' as this would help policy-makers obtain '... a more complete knowledge and understanding of these students' (p. 319). Also, a more thorough investigation of the specific reasons behind discrimination toward AIS studying at South African universities might help policy-makers and practitioners develop interventions to attack those problems at their root. Some of these limitations I will seek to address in a forthcoming second part to this study, as I will interview a much larger sample of AIS and expand that to include more South African universities and account for such issues as age, degree status, and other characteristics. However, from the experiences discussed herein, I can offer some recommendations that might help institutional and national policy-makers and practitioners better avoid or cope with the types of experiences of AIS discussed herein.

Recommendations

There may be some areas where, at the national and institutional levels, some interventions might help to improve the situation for AIS and other international students on campuses. In this regard, I offer the following five policy and practical recommendations:

1. Strengthen IEASA international student portfolio: As all 23 public South African universities are members of the International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA), each can make a better effort to promote the participation of their institution in IEASA workshops and programmes aimed at strengthening on-campus international relations between students, faculty, staff, and communities. Currently, as indicated by some of the AIS to whom I spoke, the IEASA involvement via an international student portfolio committee on its management council is ineffective. Also international students do not find it useful to belong to the organization even though there are discounted fees for them to join. A reinvigoration of this portfolio on the management council of the organization and on campuses might help to create solid programmes and activities that will help AIS and other international students better integrate with their South African counterparts and on their respective campuses.
2. Country-wide or regional-based international student organization: Develop an international student organization that allows students from different universities to interact, share common experiences and support one another.
3. Inclusive on-campus international student organizations: Ensure that the international student organizations on campus also include South African students.
4. Replace the use of the descriptor 'foreign students' with that of 'international students': Use of a term other than 'foreign students' in university communications as the phrase 'foreign' is often used negatively, as I highlighted herein. Perhaps the term 'AIS' or just 'international students' would be best in university communications, statements, documents, and discourses.
5. Front line service sensitization programmes and campaigns: I know from personal experiences and interactions with AIS on campuses that the front line administrative offices such as registration, residence offices, and student financial services are often just as discriminatory toward these 'foreign visitors' as are others on campus. Perhaps the written commitment to ensure the integration of AIS into the university community should be obtained each year from managers of these key university offices. This might allow those working with international students on campuses to have more appropriate and ongoing interaction with the key administrative offices which engage on a daily basis with the AIS and help to foster future buy-in and cooperation from such offices and managers regarding the treatment of such students.

Conclusions

Universities invoke cooperative policies when it is time to apply for research grants, when it is time to partner with well-known universities from around the world, or when there is a clear road to raising the university's profile as a result of some item on that policy's agenda. However, as I have attempted to demonstrate in this study, the invoking of such policies does not receive much enthusiasm or attention by some South Africans when it comes to the treatment and acceptance of their African counterparts on university campuses. This treatment of AIS at South African universities is a human relations issue, as well as a policy issue that the HE system and institutions must consider because, as Ramphele (1999, 3) articulates:... South Africa owes its neighbours an incalculable debt of gratitude for their invaluable contribution to the demise of apartheid. Many exiled South Africans were educated in these countries at the expense of these countries' taxpayers. Moreover, the apartheid regime's policy of destabilization and the wrath that neighbouring countries incurred for supporting anti-apartheid forces did a lot to derail these countries' development plans.

Obviously, common human decency and dignity would dictate that AIS should be treated with the same respect and cultural and intellectual embracing as domestic students or any other group of international students. An important lesson to be taken from this study is that as policies are developed and accepted, their implicit broader implications for individuals must also be understood and embraced. In the case of South African universities, the policies that they and their nation have developed and priorities with regards to the interaction and cooperation with African counterparts, must also consider how those priorities translate to the embracing and treatment of people. There is something terribly wrong when almost all major policies accepted by a country and its HEIs preach and prioritize African cooperation, but AIS continually experience discrimination and ill-will in direct conflict with those policies. I am not arguing that all AIS are treated harshly or are disrespected at South African universities, but that even where a few are, it goes against policy and needs to be recognized by those touting more cooperation and integration of the African continent, and less dependency on the outside world.

In light of the experiences discussed herein, there is a clear gap between what cooperative African policies commit the country to and how those commitments are being realized. Although not completely surprising that there is a gap between policy and practice, the reasons for that gap seems to be a lack of appreciation and/or acceptance of the cultural differences between South Africans and other Africans, which is in clear conflict to policy as the following indicates.No African country is a replica of another and no African society is a mirror image of another. However, we believe that the variety within our oneness can be enriching. It is part of the purpose of this Declaration to mobilize all those enriching qualities to build African unity, in respect to the specifics of our countries (NEPAD, 2005, 14).

In light of the experiences described herein, this celebration of the differences across the African countries within a spirit of African oneness is where South African universities are seemingly falling short. I am not arguing for preferential treatment of any particular international student group, but rather that the treatment and experiences of such students must occur with full consideration of cooperative policies to which South Africa and its HEIs have committed.

This is the case not just in South Africa and the continental, regional, and domestic policies it has committed to, but also in the case of the European Union, Mercosur in Latin America, ASEAN in Asia, or other regional cooperative agreements and trade blocs. International students from the countries involved in these agreements, who are studying across their member states, must be viewed and treated within the spirit of these agreements as well. What this study demonstrates is that cooperative policies themselves are not enough. However, they should serve as a rallying point whereby member states that accept them, must consider their relationships with fellow citizens visiting and studying across and among one another's boarders. In the specific case of this study, South Africans must consider their relationships with their African counterparts against the backdrop of their responsibilities according to these cooperative policies.

NEPAD is founded on the principles of 'partnerships', SADC on the principles of 'community' and 'harmonization' and the South African HE policy documents on the principles of transformation including the social, cultural, cultural, and economic development role of HE. These principles alone suggest the need for cooperation, interaction, and mutual respect and treatment among individuals and institutions covered under the policies. Thus, when one signs on to a policy, the implication is that the signatory and those under the umbrella of that policy are expected to adhere to its tenets. If one examines the policy documents discussed herein, it will become clear that this spirit of cooperation is something that the South African policy-makers take seriously. It is now time that they convince the general population of such, and that South African HEIs and their constituents, more fully and seriously consider their relationships with their African student counterparts within this spirit.

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