Internationalisation of HE:
recent conceptualisations
and implications for
practice
Sue Robson
Alina Schartner
Internationalisation
• pervasive but contested concept in contemporary HE, often
economically driven (Turner and Robson, 2008; Tian and Lowe,
2009; Brandenburg and De Wit, 2011)
• 'The presence of international students is often seen as a key to
internationalisation (as well as having obvious commercial
benefits), but the actions taken to accommodate and integrate
those students are often inadequate or inappropriate.’ (Reid and
Spencer Oatey, 2013)
• a marketization discourse steers thinking away from a radical
reassessment of HE purposes, priorities and processes that student
diversity and multicultural interaction require (Caruana and
Spurling, 2007)
New conceptualisations: the
‘international’ university
contemporary universities
are places where cultures
(and so perspectives)
meet
Clifford and Montgomery (2014).
New conceptualisations:
the ‘international’
university
Comprehensive internationalization
is a commitment, confirmed through
action, to infuse international and
comparative perspectives throughout
the teaching, research, and service missions of
higher education. It shapes institutional ethos and
values and touches the entire higher education
enterprise.
Hudzig, 2011
New conceptualisations: the
internationalised self
'...the business of the
University is to enable us
to grow beyond ourselves,
not to constrain us within
established self-views or world views’.
Killick, 2013
The ‘internationalised’ self (Turner and Robson, 2008)
Strategic and Reflective Thinking
Engagement with and management of thinking and learning, supported by valuegrounded thinking (including critically reflective thinking and interpersonal and
intercultural understanding/competence)
↕
Cognitive skills
Information gathering
Building language and understanding
Productive thinking
Experiencing,
recognising, and
recalling
Development of meaning (e.g. by
elaborating, representing, or sharing
ideas)
Comprehending
Understanding disciplinary discourses)
messages and recorded
Working with patterns or rules
information
Concept formation
Organising ideas
Intercultural activities, participation
in knowledge cultures, or
communities of learning
Reasoning
Understanding causal
relationships
Systematic enquiry
Problem solving
Creative thinking
Intercultural
awareness
New conceptualisations: the
‘international’ curriculum
IoC for global citizenship
Key principles:
participation,
responsibility,
activism
Viv Caruana in Clifford and Montgomery
(Eds.) (2014).
The challenge
Internationalisation at home:
• curriculum content (contexts, values and
understandings)
• processes of teaching, learning and
assessment, with regard for the
• skills and competences students (and staff)
require for life and work in a diverse world
Hudzig, 2011
The challenge
• internationalising the experience of the
international student in the host institution
• internationalising the experience of local
students
• addressing the challenges of classroom diversity
• innovative teaching with intercultural groups
• the development of inclusive practices for cohort
interaction and styles of participation
• innovative use of technology to enhance learning
Internationalisation in HE
– lessons from the ‘lived’
experience of
international students
24th November 2014
Learning and Teaching Seminar
alina.schartner@ncl.ac.uk
Background
A longitudinal PhD project investigating the academic,
psychological and sociocultural adjustment and adaptation
of international postgraduate students at Newcastle
University
• Questionnaire (N = 223); completed in Oct and June
▫ Subscales and single items measuring contributory
factors and outcomes
• Semi-structured interviews (N = 20); Oct, Feb, June
▫ Open questions – How have things been going for
you?, What’s been happening to you?
Predictive Component
Contributory factors
English language ability
Intercultural competence
Knowledge about the UK
Autonomy in the decision to
study abroad
• Social contact
• Social support
•
•
•
•
Adaptation
• Academic achievement
• GPA taught
• GPA research
• GPA overall
• Psychological adaptation
• Wellbeing
• Satisfaction with life
• Sociocultural adaptation
Monitoring Component
Adjustment
OCT
FEB
JUN
International Student Adjustment
Similar challenges to ‘home’ students
• From home to away – practicalities of fending for self…
• Psychosocial - loneliness, anxiety, social acceptance…
• Transition to UG or PG study
BUT a question of degree of challenge
Challenges more specific to international students, in
life and study
• Intercultural adjustment
• Language
• Educational adjustment – to new ‘national’ systems, norms,
expectations for teaching and learning
(Andrade, 2006)
Maybe go to
somewhere sunny
otherwise you will be
depressed.
(Turkish, male, 23)
I think the old men
they are very
gentlemen.
(Chinese, female, 24)
I can meet Italians in
Italy, why should I meet
new Italians here?
(Italian, female, 23)
Student
Voices
The young ones are very
crazy and party people.
(Romanian, female, 22)
I don't have British
friends (…) where
can I find them?
(Turkish, female, 22)
It was absolutely
worth it.
(Finnish, female,
27)
Implications for orientation and support
Intercultural training
Intercultural competence malleable/trainable
Pre-arrival
▫ Part of language preparation (Byram and Feng, 2004)
In situ
▫ Experiential learning (Deardorff, 2006)
▫ Accredited community-based learning
▫ ‘Internationalising’ the local community, ‘localising’ the
international community (Green and Finn, 2010)
English language support
Language requirements
Applied language training
▫ Language in-use
▫ Exposure to local varieties
‘Specialised nature of academic discourse’
(Schmitt, 2005)
▫ Course-specific terminology
▫ Language support at course-level
Knowledge about the host environment
Pre-arrival orientation
▫ Explicit communication (Carroll, 2005)
▫ Expectation management
▫ Course-specificity
‘Knowledge in action’ (Etherington and Spurling,
2007)
▫ ‘Safe’ environments
The motivational variable
The decision to study abroad
▫ Degree of autonomy/self-determination (Chirkov
et al., 2007)
Proactive students
▫ Socially
▫ Academically
Tailored support services
Social connectedness
Persistent lack of host contact
▫ Instrumental/formulaic
▫ How to help hosts ‘buy in’?
Centrality of ‘international ties’
▫ High quality support
▫ Actively foster in and beyond the classroom
Complexity of co-national contact
▫ Comforting BUT ‘Not why I came here’
▫ Recognise importance of co-national ties (esupport!) (Schartner, 2014)
References
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Andrade, M.S. (2006). International students in English-speaking universities: Adjustment factors. Journal
of Research in International Education, 5(2), 131-54.
Byram, M., & Feng, A. (2004). Culture and language learning: Teaching, research and scholarship. Language
Teaching, 37, 149-68.
Carroll, J. (2005). Strategies for becoming more explicit. In Carroll, J. & Ryan, J. (Eds.), Teaching
international students: Improving learning for all (pp. 26-35). London: Routledge.
Chirkov, V.I., Vansteenkiste, M., Tao, R., & Lynch, M. (2007). The role of motivation to study abroad in the
adaptation of international students: A self-determination theory approach. International Journal of
Intercultural Relations, 31(2), 199-222.
Deardorff, D. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of
internationalisation. In Byram, M. & Feng, A. (Eds.), Living and studying abroad: Research and practice
(pp. 232-56). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Etherington, S., & Spurling, N. (2007). Knowledge in Action: International students and their interaction
with cultural knowledge. Retrieved from www.ece.salford.ac.uk/proceedings/papers
Green, P., & Finn, D. (2010). Defining the global village: Community-based learning and its implications
for international students and the HE sector. Retrieved from http://www.hw.ac.uk/AEteam/Themes/DFinn_HW_Confce_Dec2010_pptV2.pdf
Schartner, A. (2014). 'You cannot talk with all of the strangers in a pub.' A longitudinal case study of
international postgraduate students' social ties at a British University. Higher Education, DOI:
10.1007/s10734-014-9771-8
Schmitt, D. (2005). Writing in the international classroom. In J. Carroll & J. Ryan (Eds.), Teaching
international students: Improving learning for all (pp. 63-75) Routledge: London.
Internationalising the Curriculum
Research and Practice Network
Language & Intercultural Communication
Curriculum design & development
Pedagogy
Staff development and training for IoC
Student Engagement in IoC
Global Citizenship & the Curriculum
Global Citizenship Sub-Group (art design and communication
disciplines)
Mobility & the Curriculum
Professional enquiry through action research
Share findings
PLAN
PLAN
Exploratory/
REVIEW Inductive
Cycle
DO
REVIEW
Negotiated/
Deductive
Cycle
DO
•How do we ‘normalise’ the
study abroad experience?
•Can we make it compulsory
and in which subjects?
•How do we leverage the
experience of “returners” to
internationalise at home
•Improve employability?
•How do we work with them
to internationalise at home?
•If and how to address the
ISB results?
•How to reverse the ‘deficit
model’?
•What are the incentives and
rewards?
•How can organisational
“slack” be introduced to
facilitate?
•Is staff mobility a strategic
plan or tactical initiative?
Students
Outgoing
Staff
Outgoing
Students
Incoming
Staff
Incoming
•How do we work with
them to internationalise at
home?
• How do we extend
student mobility to staff
more extensively?
• What are the needs of
short-term incomers to
maximise the benefits
•For institutions?
•For incomer?
HEA Internationalisation Framework,
2014
Aims to
• provide a high quality and global learning
experience for all students;
• foster approaches to learning and teaching that
transcend national and international boundaries;
• address individual and institutional roles and
responsibilities.
Dimensions of Internationalisation
Cultural
context
people
Activity
Culture
Values
place
Knowledge
programmes
Enabling a global learning experience
• integrated global perspectives and opportunities for
cultural immersion and language acquisition,
through inward and outward mobility.
• A module in a hospitality course video conferences
with students in xxx. Students benefit from direct
contact, cross-cultural understanding and develop
confidence to visit in person, developing language
skills. Links with an international hotel chain
provide international students with work experience
abroad.
thanks to Viv Thom, SHU
Internationalising through informal
learning
• online resources
• social networks
• social spaces –
library, culture cafe
http://www.culturalcafe.co.uk/about
thanks to Plymouth university
Embedding global social responsibility
A cultural development programme
(http://www.ncl.ac.uk/impact/Music-artculture.php) grown out of research led by Dr Nanette
de Jong of Newcastle University’s International
Centre for Music Studies is contributing to the fight
against poverty, HIV/AIDS and gender inequality in
Southern Africa by strengthening the region’s cultural
sector. The programme broadens the range of
cultural activities available to these groups by
providing training and leadership workshops to
prepare women and young people for employment in
the cultural sector
Facilitating a global academic
community –
The FASMED project in the Research Centre for
Learning and Teaching
(http://www.ncl.ac.uk/cflat/documents/Issue17January2014.pdf) involves working with partners
from eight countries to look at how technology can
help raise attainment levels among low achieving
students in Europe and South Africa.
Fostering intercultural engagement
Newcastle University offers a suite of Masters level
Cross Cultural Communication (CCC) programmes
to enable students to meet the growing need for
expertise in CCC in careers in tourism,
humanitarian aid, sport, education, trade etc.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/about/subjectareas/ccc/
New conceptualisations: the
responsible ‘international’ university
Universities taking a
responsible approach to
internationalization are
more likely to achieve the
transformational
institutional change that will
help to maintain their
reputation and foothold in
international markets
Robson, 2011
references
Brandenburg, U. and de Wit, H. (2011) The end of internationalisation. International Higher Education
2011 Issue 62, 15-17. Centre for International Higher Education.
https://htmldbprod.bc.edu/prd/f?p=2290:4:0::NO:RP,4:P0_CONTENT_ID:113987 )
Caruana, V. & Spurling, N. (2007). The Internationalisation of UK Higher Education: a review of
selected material. Project Report. Higher Education Academy.
Clifford, V. and Montgomery, C. (2014). Challenging conceptions of Western Higher Education and
developing graduates as global citizens. Higher Education Quarterly. 68, (1), 28–45,
Deardoff, D.K. (2006) Theory Reflections: Intercultural Competence Framework/Model
http://www.nafsa.org/_/file/_/theory_connections_intercultural_competence.pdf
HEA (2013) Scudamore, R. Engaging home and international students. A guide for new lecturers
http://www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/raceequalitytoolkit/learning_teaching/bilingual-students.htm
Hudzik JK (2011)Comprehensive Internationalization: From Concept to Action. NAFSA
McKernan J 1996 Curriculum Action Research. Kogan Page
Nainby, K. Warren, J.T. and Bollinger. C . (2003): "Articulating Contact in the Classroom: Towards a
Constitutive Focus in Critical Pedagogy." Language and Intercultural Communication 3.3 ; 198-212.
Paige, R. M., & Mestenhauser, J. A. (1999). Internationalizing educational administration. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 35(4), 500–517. QAA for HE, January 2012
QAA (2012) International students studying in the UK - Guidance for UK higher education providers
Reid S and Spencer Oatey H: (2013) Towards a Global Citizen: utilising a competency framework to
promote intercultural knowledge and skills in higher education students Ch9, p 125-141 in Ryan J.
Ed. (2013) Cross Cultural Teaching and Learning for Home and International Students, Routledge.
Robson S (2011) Internationalization: a transformative agenda for higher education? Teachers and
Teaching, 17:6, 619-630http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2011.625116
Tian M. and Lowe, J. (2009) Existentialist internationalisation and the Chinese student experience in
English universities, pp. 659-676, Compare, 39(5): 659-676
Turner Y, Robson S. (2008) Internationalizing the University. London: Continuum.
Additional Resources
Website http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/internationalisation
Teaching International Students Resources
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/teaching-international-students
International Student Lifecycle Resource Bank
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/international-student-lifecycle
Other internationalisation resources
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/internationalisation/internatio
nalisation-resources
2011/12 Special Interest Group meetings for Internationalisation
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/internationalisation/sig_resour
ces
Going mobile Report
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/internationalisation/Going_Mo
bile
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