Internationalization , the Cur - riculum , and the Disciplines

principle has been widely used in human rights, labor, and gender discourses. It provides for the unequal treatment of fundamentally different cases and may be used in the higher education context to avoid the inequitable tendencies alluded to above. A substantive understanding of equality in partnerships could provide a suitable theoretical framework to achieve the equitable sharing of the benefits of joint endeavors and consequently lead to real equality in partnerships. Such an understanding would reflect the differences between the entities involved in the relationship and provide a framework which acknowledges that diversity can serve as the foundation for equitable governance structures for partnerships. It considers that the nature and quantity of contributions to partnerships should depend on the individual partner’s respective strength, but that the relationship should remain reciprocal. To create certainty and promote equity, it would be desirable to adopt a conception of equality that clearly defines the extent of contributions required by partners. A useful example for the application of the principle of substantive equality is the 2013 internationalization policy of the University of Venda in South Africa, which adopts a substantive understanding of equality and defines it to mean that “every partner to a relationship should make contributions which are equally meaningful taking the context of the partner into consideration.”