Lessons Learned from a Near-Symmetrical North‒South Student Exchange/ International Service-Learning University Partnership

This article reports on an interview-based assessment of the eight-year experience of a North‒South university partnership between a Canadian university and three universities in a Sub-Saharan African country. The partnership concerned an asymmetrical student exchange program whereby southern graduate students traveled north to study while northern undergraduates traveled south to perform international service-learning internships. Unlike conventional partnerships that tend to be hierarchical and one-way, the article finds this partnership demonstrated characteristics of Koehn and Obamba’s (2014) “near symmetrical partnership” in which partners consider the relationship reasonably balanced despite acknowledging enduring power imbalances. The article identifies four factors that appear to have contributed to this near-symmetrical status: the asymmetrical nature of the student exchange program; reliance on thick ties between a small number of key actors, including a boundary spanner; deliberate efforts to counter the imbalance; and positive effects of funder regulations. The conclusion presents recommendations for funders and university partners.