Dr. Wayne Johnson is Director of International Affairs at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. He worked as a teacher and headmaster in South Africa before becoming Director of International Affairs at NHL Stenden. His research looks at what students learn from studying abroad and how universities can offer some of those benefits to students who do not go abroad.
Dr. Johnson grew up in apartheid South Africa, where he dreamed of travelling despite the restrictions that shaped his life. At 24, he set off to see the world with just a backpack on his shoulders. Abroad, he met people who were interested in him without judging him by his background or the colour of his skin. That experience changed both how he saw the world and, most importantly, how he saw himself.
In this Studyportals Campus Conversations interview, Dr. Johnson shares his story and discusses the changes students notice after studying abroad, sometimes only when family and friends point them out. He explains how NHL Stenden supports around 1,000 students each year through its Grand Tour programme and how universities can bring international learning to those who cannot travel. Throughout our conversation, we return to a question: what do you learn about yourself when you leave familiar surroundings?
(Photo courtesy of NHL Stenden)
From apartheid South Africa to a world of possibilities
Studyportals: When did your dream of travelling, seeing the world begin, and how did you make it happen?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: I grew up in South Africa during apartheid, and I was considered mixed race. From that perspective, your life was almost charted out for you, mostly in terms of what you could not do: you cannot go there, you cannot sit there, you cannot eat there. I always had this dream of seeing the world.
I went to high school in a township in Cape Town, and one of my classmates laughed at me when I said, “I want to see the world.” By 2002, I think I had been to almost every continent and visited places I had only dreamed about.
It took me a while to reach higher levels of education, but I always kept that dream.
When I first went abroad, in 1992, I think, after finishing my degree, I had a backpack and decided to travel as much as I could. It opened up my perspective on who I was as a person and how I saw myself, compared with who I had been told I was while growing up in apartheid South Africa.
When I finished university in Cape Town, I did something very out of the ordinary for people from my background: I decided I was going to just backpack for a year and travel the world. I travelled around Europe, including the UK, and went to the Middle East, Canada and the US, with virtually nothing- just a ticket and finding my way each day.
I started travelling when I was 24. Until then, my sense of my value as a person had been limited to what I had been told it was. But that was when I started, and I never stopped since.
Studyportals: This is such an impressive and inspiring journey! How did it change you?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: This whole experience is not only about visiting countries and meeting people from different backgrounds, but also about learning about yourself: how other people see you and how you see yourself in relation to others.
It really opened my eyes.
I was 24, and I stepped into a world where there was no apartheid; my sense of my value as a person changed completely. It took me a while to accept that people were just looking at me as me, rather than seeing me because of where I came from and the colour of my skin.
I came back to South Africa and worked as a teacher. Eventually, I became the headmaster of the school where I was teaching and continued my studies.
My dream was to be an ambassador for South Africa. I did a Master’s in International Relations in the UK and received a scholarship from Nelson Mandela himself. Those were moments when I thought, “I really want to help the world understand South Africa better and know that South Africans are also amazing people.”
It took me a little while to accept that people were just looking at me as me, rather than seeing me because of where I came from and the colour of my skin.
I finished my master's in the UK, I came back, and I worked for a Japanese company setting up an educational institution for them in Cape Town.
I later started working as International Affairs Director at NHL Stenden, and got to travel to all the corners of the world.
The only place I haven't been to is Antarctica. We don't have a campus there yet.
I never got to that ambassador role I dreamt about, but I think that through the work I've done over the last 25 years, I have been an ambassador for South Africa. I have been an ambassador for the world. That has been part of the dream becoming a reality.
(Photo courtesy of NHL Stenden)
Can you gain an international outlook without going abroad?
Studyportals: You have researched the benefits of studying abroad. How does this exposure to international environments change you?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: One of the important questions I asked students in my research interviews was: “Have the people closest to you noticed anything different since you came back?”
They talked about this with family and close ones. They were told: “You are more open to listening to other people, rather than only giving your opinion”, or, “You are more respectful and try to understand why people do things that way.”
In 99% of cases, people had seen changes in them that they had not even seen themselves. Recognising these changes made them say “I am not the same person anymore.”
That was very powerful.
Studyportals: What motivated that research, and how did you connect it to international learning for students who stay at home?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: Working in higher education in several countries, I realised that very few domestic students have international experiences. My goal was to explore how we could develop international competencies for students who stay at home. I wanted to understand how we could extend those learning opportunities to students whose studies offer less international exposure, including those in Dutch-taught programs.
First, I needed to understand the outcomes for students who do go abroad: what benefits do they gain?
There is so much research on what an international experience does for you, including your employment after higher education, your development as a person, and your awareness of what is happening around you and within you.
I tried to narrow that down to specific areas. I focused on our Grand Tour program, through which we have campuses around the world and send students abroad. I conducted a qualitative study looking at students taking part in those experiences and what the experiences did for them.
Studyportals: How did you approach this and what did you manage to find?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: I used the Threshold Concepts Theory, which is mainly used in science and medicine, to explore how we could take the outcomes of an international experience and build them into an educational programme for students at home. I focused on three main outcomes: personal development, intercultural awareness and international awareness. I looked at how we could transfer these experiences to domestic students.
I developed a prototype covering the first three years of study, with students’ competencies assessed at each stage. The idea was that students could graduate with both a degree and a global competency certificate recognising those skills.
The prototype has yet to be implemented at our institution.
Studyportals: You’ve mentioned Grand Tour, what is so special about it?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: Grand Tour is an ongoing programme that is very distinctive to NHL Stenden. We have campuses in different parts of the world. When I say “campus”, it also means a very strong strategic partnership with a local institution.
We have locations in South Africa, Thailand, Indonesia, Italy and Aruba. We are also looking for another location in Europe.
Through these locations, we have created opportunities for students to experience a similar educational approach while really understanding the local aspects of their studies.
For example, in South Africa, we offer a programme in community social development. Students do projects at the campus but also work with local institutions and NGOs to build on the theoretical part of their programme.
Our campus in Indonesia is in Bali, which is a beautiful location for students. There, we offer mindful leadership, for example. For today’s generation, that seems to be particularly important. They want to understand the intricacies of their programme, but they also want to learn how to develop themselves as people and manage their professional lives.
We partner with a local university, develop the curriculum together and deliver it using the staff and facilities there.
(Photo courtesy of NHL Stenden)
Making international experiences accessible and meaningful
Studyportals:How does Grand Tour differ from Erasmus or other student exchanges?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: The difference is that we develop the educational programme in partnership with an institution abroad. On an exchange, like Erasmus, which you mentioned, the student chooses from the list of minors offered by the host institution. That programme is not directly linked to your studies or your university. You choose something that interests you, and you pursue it through the partnership agreement we have with that institution.
There is also an organisational difference. An exchange might have only three to five places available per institution. With Grand Tour, we send about 1,000 students each year to our partner locations around the world. The programmes also form part of the accreditation cycle of the programme in the Netherlands. They are taught both in the Netherlands and at one of our international locations.
Grand Tour also helps students who are unsure about going abroad or struggle with doing it. We facilitate much of it, including pre-departure arrangements, accommodation and visas. Students find that appealing.
When they arrive, they also mix with local students. In Aruba, for example, our students sit in the same classroom as University of Aruba students and take the same programme. Both groups receive credits towards their own programmes.
So compared to exchanges, it is on a larger scale and more closely aligned with the programme here.
Studyportals:Could other universities adopt this model nationally or internationally?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: I have been at NHL Stenden for 13 years, and many universities have tried this. One requirement of the Grand Tour is that you need permission to outsource education to a partner abroad. There is also a financial requirement, because you need that partner to meet the requirements for delivering the minor.
The Dutch Ministry of Education has changed its rules on international education considerably. In the past, universities could offer a degree programme abroad, but students had to come to the Netherlands for one year. Many Dutch universities stopped doing that because it became too difficult financially.
We have been doing this since 2002, so it is built into our institutional framework. Most institutions will no longer get permission to do that, so it is difficult for other universities to operate at the same scale and in the same way.
Some universities have asked whether their students could join our programme. But because places are limited, our own students are the priority for Grand Tour at the moment.
Studyportals: How can students from lower-income families benefit from international experiences such as the ones you mentioned?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: First, our university covers the educational cost of the programme abroad for each student, so they do not have to pay tuition fees for that programme abroad.
We also monitor accommodation and living costs together with our partners to make sure we give them good, affordable accommodation.
We start promoting Grand Tour in students’ first year, so they can prepare. Some take on part-time work, which is very common among students in the Netherlands.
For students who cannot afford it, we have some bursary schemes. We also work with organisations in our region that are open to supporting students taking part in Grand Tour.
We want to offer more virtual Grand Tour opportunities for students who cannot travel. We plan to pilot this with one or two programmes, allowing students to join a classroom with students abroad. It is similar to COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning), but we call it virtual Grand Tour, so students can take part from home as well.
(Photo courtesy of NHL Stenden)
Studyportals: When you returned home, what changes did your family and friends notice in you?
Dr. Wayne Johnson: It was a long time ago, but I think it was a similar experience. One thing you find after an intense international experience is that, when you get back, nothing has changed at home. Everything is still the way it was, but how you interact with it has become completely different.
I think my parents, in particular, noticed the way I spoke and how I saw everything happening around me. I would always bring in a different perspective.
It was not only about what was happening in South Africa, but how events in Africa affected another part of the world and how that affected me. I think that is what people saw.
People also had this impression that I would not stay in South Africa for very long. From the way I talked and saw the world, they felt that this place had become too small for me.
From the way I spoke about myself, the world and the people around me, they could see that my world had become much bigger than the place where I started out. That was probably the biggest change people saw in me and in my behaviour.
They could see that my world had become much bigger than the place where I started out.
(Photo courtesy of NHL Stenden)
