Partnerships

Here at the South African Theological Seminary we believe very strongly in the concept of partnering with like-minded groups, churches, institutions and organisations. Together we can do so much more than we could individually. For this reason, we have forged about 70 active partnerships in various parts of the world.

These partnerships take many forms and are designed around the particular needs of the group involved. The most common types are listed below:

1. A group of people from one church decide to enrol for one of our tertiary programmes, in which case they would receive a substantial discount on the fees paid by individuals. The more students there are in the group, the greater the discount. Examples of this kind of partnership would be Lewende Woord, Doxa Deo and Grace Bible Church.
2. A whole denomination/movement could train all its leaders through SATS. In the South African context these include Salvation Army, The Baptist Convention, The Wesleyans and New Covenant Ministries.
3. Churches who have run in-house training programmes could submit them to us for evaluation. Should the programme be of a sufficient standard, we would award a certain number of Recognition of Prior Learning credits to each person, who has successfully completed that programme, and who then enrols with SATS.
4. Certain organisations want specific programmes or individual subjects written for them by SATS. Current initiatives include a Train-the-Trainer programme for Missions Training Schools under the auspices of Globeserve and a degree programme for Bible translators working for SIL (The Summer Institute of Linguistics).
5. In certain countries, especially in South America and parts of Europe, government accreditation for theological institutions is very difficult or even non-existent and partnering with us ensures their students get an accredited degree. Examples include ISTL in Switzerland and FIET in Argentina.
6. Many institutions do not have graduate/postgraduate programmes but want their students to continue their studies after graduating with a Bachelor's degree. One such school is EFGBC in Ethiopia

In all cases the partnership is designed around the needs of the students and is formalised through the signing of a simple Memorandum of Understanding.

For more information contact ann@sats.edu.za .