New Perspectives of Internationalisation: Enhancing the Student Experience Edinburgh 12 June 2009

Workshop team: Academy York Graeme Roberts, Senior Associate Eddie Gulc, Senior Adviser Katherine Lagar, Projects Officer Subject Centre Fiona Hyland, Research Assistant, ESCalate

Why are we involved in Internationalisation? Internationalisation is high on institutional agendas – strong message coming from the sector through institutional visits that they welcome support Internationalisation themes were present in several of the reports to Denham last year, e.g. Professor Sir Ron Cookes report on the future of e-learning There was one specially on International Issues In Higher Education submitted by Professor Drummond Bone

In the Denham report on The Future of Higher Education: Teaching and the Student Experience, Professor Paul Ramsden suggests we should encourage institutions to embrace an international perspective as part of curriculum change He goes on to say that the international experience of UK students remains a concern if we wish to ensure that our graduates acquire the characteristics of global citizens. Higher education institutions may need to review the opportunities they provide for local students to work with overseas ones, while the low outward mobility of UK students compared to their counterparts internationally may have a negative impact on the quality of our students learning experiences and employability.

Primary focus of our work has been - to support internationalisation initiatives that enhance the student learning experience Offering support in the areas of: curriculum development to enhance the teaching and learning of all students, regardless of country of origin helping ensure staff teaching an increasingly diverse student body have access to relevant information and resources, including international staff development of initiatives to enhance the learning experience of international students supporting the sector in engaging with the Bologna process

These activities are taken forward through a combination of UK-wide and Scottish/Welsh or discipline specific initiatives. Examples include: Commissioned institutional case studies A special issue of Exchange magazine, which has been the most popular issue to date Internationalisation Track at the Annual Conference in 2008 and 2009 Special Interest Groups, events, publications/ resources and communication tools, including websites developed by Subject Centres Commissioned Subject Centre projects

Support for Scottish HEIs to deliver their Commitment to Quality for International Students (Universities Scotland 2006) Support for Universities Scotland to revise their Race Equality Toolkit (2006).

Statement of eleven principles which aims to ensure that international students studying in Scotland are guaranteed an excellent educational experience in a stimulating environment which will enhance their personal and professional development. Educational experience Student welfare Academic support Careers support Visas Social and cultural opportunities Communications Financial guidance Raising of complaints Continuous improvement...AND

Scottish universities will aim to ensure that their academic staff are aware of any cultural complexities of communicating effectively with international students due to language or cultural barriers and will be supported by professional development training, thus helping to eliminate any prospective cultural clashes and misunderstandings with the rising number of international students they teach and supervise. In this way institutions will also be meeting their explicit and implicit obligations to actively promote equity and diversity, ensuring that international students are not unreasonably disadvantaged by language or cultural barriers they may otherwise have experienced.

What professional development training does your institution provide (or plan to provide) to raise staff awareness of the cultural complexities of communicating effectively with international students due to language or cultural barriers? Who this training is targeted at and how many staff have participated in it? Would your institution welcome support in this area: for example, by the Academy organising a train-the-trainers event showcasing recent resources and effective practice? 8 responses (40%) showed that, with a couple of exceptions, such training is at best patchy, rather than systematic. Academy is planning to run a joint train-the-trainers event on staff development for cultural awareness (autumn 2009).

Published by Universities Scotland (2006) To assist academic staff to mainstream race equality into learning, teaching and assessment in terms of the 2000 Race Relations (Amendment) Act and the guidance issued by the CRE in Scotland. Not prescriptive: encourages staff to reflect on and evaluate their own practice, both individually and at school or departmental level, with regard to the curriculum and how it is taught and assessed.

In the Curriculum: includes examples submitted by staff in Scotland from a range of disciplines, plus three problem-based case studies designed to develop cross-cultural competencies and understanding. In Learning and Teaching: contains a series of questions that lecturers can use to evaluate their practice with regard to the classroom environment, the needs of bilingual students, learning styles, placements and field trips. Overall aim to help teaching staff to create as inclusive a learning environment as possible.

Academy is collaborating with Universities Scotland to revise and update the toolkit in the light of the experience of users during the past two years, and enhance its usefulness as a resource for those who teach international students. Revision aims to: reflect current equality legislation; provide more examples from science and engineering; enhance the rather thin chapter on assessment; demonstrate a clear link between the equality and diversity agenda and internationalisation. Case studies being sought from Subject Centres, especially in STEM subjects.

The Academys Internationalisation pages on our website are a rich resource Developed a community of practice, supported by the Forum for Internationalisation and Intercultural Education, which has an extensive membership from across the UK and indeed further afield.

The Academys commitment to Internationalisation in 2009/10 is still being finalised. Bologna/EHEA Major piece of work the Academy will be leading on is the TALIS Centre (Teaching And Learning of International Students) Using EvidenceNet to support the dissemination of relevant work and interesting practice /research in the field of Internationalisation Maintain and further develop communities of practice, like the Forum for Internationalisation and Intercultural Education,

The Academy will lead the development of a TALIS Centre (Teaching And Learning of International Students) Funded by PMI 2 (Prime Ministers Initiative) through UKCISA. Core users of the new Centre will be academics/ practitioners working with international students TALIS will explore the development of staff capability (e.g. via focus groups, seminars and toolkits). This will be achieved in a co-ordinated/distributed fashion across Subject Centres and key sector partners.

Thank you Any Questions? Contact Details Eddie Gulc, Senior Adviser

A Changing World - Led by Dr Fiona Hyland 5 groups tackling one of the following issues: 1. How could we help UK students to make the most of their intercultural HE environments? 2. What more could be done to support teaching staff? 3. What are the key intercultural capabilities/attributes? 4. Breaking down the barriers: suggestions for encouraging students from different cultures to interact and learn from each other 5. How can we encourage UK student mobility?