On Thursday I was luck enough to be invited to an event organised by our International Experience and Student Mobility team. The exciting part was that they had invited Professor Betty Leask along. Prof. Leask is a renowned researcher on the benefits of and challenges in internationalisation in teaching & earning in higher education, check out this You Tube clip in which Prof. Leask quite nicely summarises the value of international experience in a presentation at Duke University in the US.
Professor Leask shared her background with us, which raised some really interesting points. Ones that have, as last week was Freshers Week, have been quite apparent. Some 48% of Coventry University Students are international students and they make an amazing and quite possibly scary journey over here to study – having to deal with cultural and language barriers. But this is potentially not just an international issue, but also one for home students (its scary leaving home for the first time!). This week I’ve heard stories from colleagues at other universities of how difficult it can be to make the transition not just from an international location to the UK, but also from school to university. These are massive changes for young people to undertake. We need to find ways to support students in these transitions and help them break down the barriers that can leave them isolated – which are likely to make their university experience and their learning difficult, or at least not as fun as it could be. That is not just the responsibility of the Student Union or International Office it is also our responsibility as module leaders, course directors, year tutors etc.
Professor Leask discussed two ways in which support can be provided. The first was in the general campus environment, but the second was in the disciplines themselves. Looking at the induction timetables there has been a lot of work done at my HEI over the last two weeks to support international students, with lots of events being organised to help new students find their way around, meet new people and feel comfortable in their new environment. But if this is not replicated in the classroom can those barriers to integration and learning ever be fully broken down? How often do teachers see the division in class?
Just under 40% of my new first year class are international students and this similar to the other two years. These students are likely to have some excellent experiences, perspectives and knowledge that they can share on issues around energy & climate change. These can really support the group’s learning. I need to integrate these experiences better in class. But internationalisation is not just about having an international class that may occasionally share ideas. It is also about finding opportunities for further experience and ideally mobility as well. So I think in our programme we have to plan and find more opportunities for our Oil, Gas & Energy Management Students. Leask’s guide will really help with this.
We could use this guidance to give our students whether they are home or international a much better overall student experience and international experience. We need to find a way to join up what’s happening within our degree specific modules with what’s going on within the department and across the university. I have to admit I’m not sure what the other module leaders on my programme on this front – so that needs to be my staring point. The first step, I think, is working out what we currently do, however big or small, whether that is supporting better in-class integration or sharing of experiences and then work up opportunities for On-line International Learning (OIL) projects, up to field work (which absolutely IS possible in this degree programme). But I think we need to take this a step at a time; gain buy in, demonstrate quick wins and benefits both for staff and students. We need to create “global graduates” and employers are telling us that they value these skills (see here).
Time to start doing, rather than just pontificating – which I seem to be doing a lot of lately. Finding out exactly who is in charge of this at a departmental level (that’s the Internationalisation thing, rather than in charge of pontificating) would probably be a good start.
Interestingly it struck me that many of the issues discussed and the ways of dealing with them are ways in which one would manage change in any organisation….always an easy challenge!!! Why are humans so resistant to it?
There are some similar parallels in Digital Literacy and integrating that into the curriculum…..but those thoughts are probably for another blog….
dremmah 
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