The Academys Internationalisation Programme

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The Academys Internationalisation Programme

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

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The Academys Internationalisation Programme

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

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The Academys Internationalisation Programme

• 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

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The Academys Internationalisation Programme

• 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.
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The Academys Internationalisation Programme

• 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

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Internationalisation Activities

• 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

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Internationalisation Activities Scotland

• 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).

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Commitment to Quality for International Students

• 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

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Cultural Awareness

• 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.

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Survey of Scottish educational developers (autumn
2008)

• 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).

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Race Equality Toolkit

• 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.

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Race Equality Strategies

• 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.

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Revision of Race Equality Toolkit (2009)

• 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.

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Internationalisation Activities

• The Academys Internationalisation pages on our
  website are a rich resource
• www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/international
  
• Developed a community of practice, supported by
  the Forum for Internationalisation and
  Intercultural Education, http//fiiced.ning.com
  which has an extensive membership from across the
  UK and indeed further afield.

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Future Work

• 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, http//fiiced.ning.co
  m

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The TALIS Centre

• 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/distribute
  d fashion across Subject Centres and key sector
  partners.

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Thank you Any Questions?Contact Details Eddie
Gulc, Senior Adviser eddie.gulc_at_heacademy.ac.uk
www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/international

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Workshop

• 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?