internationalisation

Over the years internationalisation is influenced by external and internal social, economic, political and academic factors (Beelen& De Wit, 2012). It is clear however that internationalisation is more than students going abroad or teaching in the English language.

Nowadays there is much more attention for internationalisation of staff and the curriculum. This happened because institutions felt the need to prepare all students for life in a global society, so also the non-mobile majority of domestic or home students. Internationalisation at home–activities help all students to develop international understanding and intercultural skills. So it is much more curriculum-oriented: preparing your students to be active in a much more globalised world.

To learn more about internationalisation and what internationalisation at home is, you can read the article of Beelen and Jones (2015) who define internationalisation at home as the purposeful integration of international and intercultural dimensions into the formal and informal curriculum of all students within the domestic learning environments.

• According to Betty Leask, in her article Beside me is an empty chair: the student experience of internationalisation (2010), internationalisation is important for preparing graduates for participation in an increasingly globalised society and the development of ‘the cultural bridges and understanding necessary for world peace’. 
• As the world becomes more interconnected across borders and the boundaries of higher education itself expand, it is important for each university to pay attention to internationalisation. Each university has a lot of possibilities when working on internationalisation as can be read in the article The benefits of true internationalisation. Also the topic ‘just because a university has international students does not make it an international university’ is discussed.  
• In Internationalization Brings Important Benefits as Well as Risks and Why universities want to internationalise; what stops them information about benefits, risks and obstacles of internationalisation at a university is provided. 
• The shared vision on Internationalisation of the association of higher education institutions in the Netherlands (Vereniging Hogescholen en VSNU) is only available in Dutch. It describes that internationalization is necessary to develop the Netherlands further as a knowledge economy. To work on this development shared ambitions and goals are stated and explained.

Knowing the cultural and educational background of foreign students and which problems they are facing is essential for good communication with your students and to adapt to your students’ needs.

• The International Classroom is a short film that promotes awareness of international student issues in higher education classroom settings. As a series of six scenarios, it aims to shed light on the reactions, feelings, and thoughts of international students as they encounter tension while interacting with their instructors and fellow students.
• An MBA student from the UT, Sheng-He Chen, interviewed international UT students about their experiences. A study of international students' life situation - a case study of the international students in University of Twente contains transcripts of the interviews, which gives a good idea of what these students encounter at UT.
• Geert Hofstede is an often cited researcher in the field of cultural differences. In the article Cultural Differences in Teaching and Learning his framework is put upon the teaching and learning situation. More information is available at his personal website.
• Linda Anderson has an interesting view on the process of Cross-cultural Adaptation in an scholarly article.
  
  

The University of Twente offers a variety of services especially designed and organised to support incoming international students. These are, amongst others:

• The International Office and their International Students website which support the international students before and during their stay at the University of Twente.
• The TCP Language Centre
• International students’ support in the Faculties
• Study advisors
• Introduction programmes for international students
• International students associations
  

Teaching in an international classroom requires extra efforts and competences from the teacher. It is good to be aware of these to make a plan for personal development.

• The International Competences Matrix from Els van der Werff offers an overview of the competences a teacher needs at different levels of mastery. The vision behind the matrix is described in a short article on The Development of Competent Teaching Staff.
• Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is a person’s capability to function effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity. Linn van Dyne keeps a website on this topic. The Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) is developed to measure this. Click here to get the instrument to score your own cultural intelligence.
• Intercultural competence and related global learning outcomes are increasingly becoming a priority for postsecondary institutions to assess. This chapter on Assessing Intercultural Competence from Carla Deardorff discusses the complexities of assessing this outcome.
  

• The GIHE Good Practice Guide to Internationalising the Curriculum offers a good overview what internationalising the curriculum means.
• The Dutch-Flemish accreditation organisation (NVAO) offers educational programmes the opportunity to be accredited for the special feature Internationalisation that is now also recognised at European level as the Certificate for Quality in Internationalisation (CeQuInt).
• Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC) in Action from Leask, Whitsed and Green offers resources and examples of internationalisation at curriculum level. It contains, amongst others, case studies of internationalisation in different disciplines, a questionnaire to support discussions on internationalisation of the curriculum with staff, good practices guides, literature, websites and networks.
• Internationalizing the Co-curriculum: A Three-Part Series from the American Council on Education offers institutional strategies and good practices gathered from participants in CIGE programs and other experts in the field.

We have found a vast amount of tips on the Internet for teaching and learning in the international classroom. This is our selection:

• When international students come into an education environment that differs vastly from their own experience, they experience an “academic shock”. Dr. Janette Ryan from the Higher Education Academy explains what this means and what you can do to help students overcome this in a blogpost Academic shock: Thoughts on teaching international students.
• The Student Life Cycle website of the Higher Education Academy provides guidance and information about how to meet the diverse learning needs of international students in different phases of their study.
• Teaching International Students. Strategies to enhance learning by Sophie Arkoudis contains practical suggestions for teaching strategies that will assist the University’s international students.
• The Higher Education Academy offers a guide Engaging home and international students: a guide for new lecturers addressing issues like cultural diversity, techniques for engaging students and uncovering your own assumptions regarding education.
• EP Nuffic Academy self-study modules on internationalisation, unfortunately only available in Dutch.
• Teaching International Students: Pedagogical Issues and Strategies from the University of Michigan offers information on managing differences in background knowledge, teaching non-native speakers in English, classroom climate and promoting academic integrity.
  

Assessment is an important aspect of education and of very high importance to international students because they all want their studies to be a success. It is therefore important to take into account the cultural differences regarding assessment and marking.

• Cultures differ in their attitude towards plagiarism. In the Netherlands it is important to be creative and unique, while in other cultures it is very normal to use the ideas of others. In International students and plagiarism: A review of the literature by Bethany Hall an overview is given.
• The report Assessment and Feedback from the Higher Education Academy identifies problems teachers encounter when assessing and giving feedback to international students and offers possible solutions. Topics addressed are, amongst others, how to connect to students’ prior experiences, clarification of what is expected, marking criteria, and feedback strategies.

Dutch and international students do not mix automatically. When they are mixed and work together in a project, this will not always be successful.

• How can you stimulate students to mix?
• How can you support students working together in a project?

An answer to these questions is provided in the following articles:

• Promoting integration on campus: principles, practice and issues for further exploration.
• Multicultural group work in higher education. An explorative case study on challenges as perceived by students.
• Cultural  distance, mindfulness and passive xenophobia: using integrated threat theory to explore home higher education students perspectives on internationalization at home.
• Veen, E. van de & Andernach, T. (2006). Supporting Chinese students in European-style project work in tertiary education. Paper presented at the TEMCU conference, Granada March 2006.
• Meyer, Erin (2014). The culture map. Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. New York: PublicAffairs.