The Desmond Tutu programme (DTP)

Chair on Youth, Sports and Reconciliation
On June 16, 2007, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpila Tutu visited VU University Amsterdam on the occasion of South Africa’s Youth Day, which commemorates the Soweto Uprisings of 1976. As an international icon and Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Tutu is a global symbol of reconciliation, multiculturalism and the striving towards a ‘Rainbow Nation’. To honour Archbishop Tutu’s lifetime struggle against inequality and his quest for reconciliation, VU University Amsterdam offered the Archbishop a Chair on Youth, Sports & Reconciliation to bear his name.
 

'Yu, u nobuntu: I am what I am because of who we all are'

 The themes of the Chair and subjects related to it, also provide directions for VU University Amsterdam’s internationalisation programme in South Africa, the Desmond Tutu Programme (DTP). The assumption underlying the DTP is that VU University Amsterdam works together with its South African partners in a spirit of international academic cooperation, while at the same time contributing to issues of capacity building at campuses in South Africa.

On 4 December 2008 the official launch of the DTP took place in the presence of Archbishop Em. Desmond Tutu himself, and the first four Desmond Tutu Chair holders were installed. Initially, four faculties were hosting a Desmond Tutu Chair for an initial period of five years: the Faculty of Social Sciences (Prof. Stephen Ellis), the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (Prof. Chris Elbers), the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences (Prof. Geert Savelsbergh), the Faculty of Theology (Prof. Eddy Van der Borght). On October 1, 2009 VU University added a fifth Desmond Tutu Chair holder to the programme at the Faculty of Medicine (Prof. Marceline van Furth).

Video message by Archbishop Desmond Tutu supporting the Tuberculous Meningitis Township Project! See the message here.     

The programme

The Desmond Tutu Programme focuses on the themes of Youth, Sports and Reconciliation. Its aim is to strengthen cooperation between VU University Amsterdam and its six partner institutes in South Africa through the joint supervision of South African PhD’s and by encouraging student exchange at Master’s and Bachelor’s level. The academic cooperation that the DTP envisions is of value to both students (BA, MA) of South African partner universities and students (BA, MA) of VU University Amsterdam in terms of creating and offering more opportunities for international experience and exposure for these students. For staff members of both VU University Amsterdam and its South African partners, especially through the South African PhD’s linked to the MoU partners, the DTP offers excellent opportunities to develop research projects and related networks. 

The five chair holders, apart from co-supervising South African PhD-students, will develop research programmes within their respective faculties around the themes of the chair and will relate their research to already existing research programmes within the respective faculties. The remaining nine VU faculties will participate in the general Desmond Tutu Programme in terms of joint PhD supervision and Bachelor and Master teaching and exchange.

The holders of the VU University Desmond Tutu Chair (DTC) will stimulate, and contribute to, academic cooperation between the Netherlands and South Africa, through the (joint) supervision of South African PhD students, through teaching Bachelor and Master students at and exchange students between VU University Amsterdam and South African universities, particularly, but not exclusively, focusing on our six partner institutions in South Africa with which VU University Amsterdam has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on an institutional level.

Aims of the Desmond Tutu Programme

The DTP aims at the following:

• PhD students: from South Africa; (jointly) supervised by VU and South African (MoU) professors (joint degrees). The target number of PhD’s for five years, starting in 2009, is 17 (5 x 2 for Desmond Tutu Chair holders (=10) and 7 for remaining VU University Amsterdam faculties = 17. This number may increase if suitable PhD candidates and a combination of joint (Dutch- South African) supervision can be found. The South African Research Foundation (NRF) will help in selecting a shortlist of suitable candidates, after which, together with VU University Amsterdam, a joint selection of the final candidates will be made.
• The number of PhD’s has increased in 2010. On 7 October 2010, Archbishop Desmond Tutu celebrated his 79th birthday, the official start of his retirement from public life as he had announced earlier this year. As a present and sign of gratitude SAVUSA and The National Research Foundation (SA) offered him an extra PhD to be added to the already existing program of Desmond Tutu scholarships.
• Professional development courses at PhD level for staff members of faculties at historically disadvantaged campuses of MoU partners (is included as possibility in the target number of 17 South African PhDs mentioned under the first bullet);
• Master students: 
  1. Exchange of Master students between VU University Amsterdam and (MoU) partners;
  2. Professional development courses at Master level for staff members of faculties at historically disadvantaged campuses of MoU partners.
• Bachelor students: exchange between VU University Amsterdam and (MoU) partners;
• Developing specific DTP Projects: a DTP Lectures Series; projects around the World Soccer Championship 2010 in South Africa; a Digitization Project around the Gandhi archive at UNISA and a Management of Diversity project.  

Fourth of December: Impression of the day

The VU-aula was filled to capacity when Tutu, accompanied by some 100 Professors in academic robes, walked in to take his place on the platform together with National Research Foundation representative Dr. Romilla Maharaj. After an introduction by Rector Prof. Dr. Lex Bouter, Dr. Maharaj held a speech in which she stressed the value of academic cooperation between VU University Amsterdam and South African universities, and especially the importance of good PhD supervision.

After this, the four Chair holders were introduced by means of a short film, and called to the stage to receive a glass symbol of their new Chair.
The next speaker, Secretary Bert Koenders, emphasized that initiatives like the DTP can have a catalyzing effect in stimulating the exchange of students. After a musical intermezzo by famous Dutch singer Herman van Veen and guitarist Edith Leerkes, one of the DTP projects, the VUmc TB Meningitis project KIDS headed by Dr. Marceline van Furth, was presented by means of a video.
Amsterdam city councillor Carolien Gehrels said she was inspired by Desmond Tutu's continuous fight against poverty and inequality. She stated that sports can be a good way to overcome inequalities. 

 Desmond Tutu declared that humanity has made a big mess of this earth, and that things like the financial crisis and the climate change are caused by human greed. 'We are all family. Would you deprive your sister of fresh drinking water?' Tutu expressed his gratefulness for the four chairs that had been installed in his name ('One chair was not enough; two-two!'). He encouraged young people not to become cynical.

'Dream, young people, dream and put a smile on God's face!'