PIE spoke to three internationalization leaders from universities in Mexico, the UK and Spain to find out what internationalization means to their institutions.
Mobility isn't everything
“We have less than 5% international students at our school,” Matxalen Llosa, head of internationalization at the University of Cantabria in Spain, told The PIE.
“The population of Cantabria is not very diverse. “That number is growing, but our college students are largely first-generation students in the region,” she agrees.
“What we’re trying to do is encourage students to become international.
“We take them on international mobility, but we also [that experience] “We just do international educational activities.”
Cantabria's greatest venture into internationalization lies at the alliance level. They are founding members of EUNICE, the European University for Personalized Education.
We collaborate at various levels with nine other member institutions in mid-sized cities in Sweden, Poland, Finland and Belgium. Alliances formed during the pandemic work together to provide possible inter-mobility pathways and Collaborative Online International. learning.
“The biggest challenge is being prepared to get to know each other. I believe that the basis of an alliance is to create a network of trust. Once you make it, it's very easy to make. And finally, now that we know each other well, it is much easier to work on common projects,” says Llosa.
EUNICE helps issue certificates of “common competency” units that students can obtain in their fourth year before starting higher education.
Criteria that must be met for this include proficiency in English or any allied language, participation in a physical mobility program or a “multicultural” module at the university.
However, Llosa emphasizes that few students choose to study abroad due to their ability to afford it and their individual commitments.
“What we’re trying to do is help students BE international”
“We try to provide a world to the students here through many cultural activities, with units doing COIL activities.”
Global research also forms another part of Cantabria's internalization strategy. The institute established a two-week summer course on global studies and created a large online open course on the topic.
“At the end, students will receive a certificate showing that they are working internationally. [competent]“Slab added.
three I's
Speaking with The PIE in his hometown of Tecnológico de Monterrey, Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Ignacio de La Vega made a bold claim.
“Tec de Monterrey is the Real Madrid of international mobility,” he says.
“Maybe it’s because of our dimensions. But that's part of our mission, too. We have advanced our investments and commitment to mobility,” he says.
About 8,000 of Tec's students go abroad for a semester each year, compared to 4,000 per semester before the pandemic. After declining during the COVID period, numbers have recovered to just over 2,000 per semester.
Tec has 35 campuses throughout Mexico and four of its own academic representations in Boston, Copenhagen, Berlin and Chicago.
When new President David Garza took office in 2020, he wanted to bring leadership under the three I's: Internationalización, Investigación (research), and inovación.
“It is very important to our agenda. I'm very impressed with what we're doing in terms of mobility. [when I joined]But we wanted to continue to push other aspects of internationalization.”
De la Vega helped the university create the Tec Global Shared Learning Initiative, or Tec Global. The easiest wins he can address, he says, are the internationalization of the faculty and the provision of English in Tec.
When he served as dean of the Graduate School of Business in 2017, he helped create the university's first English degree in business administration.
“How can we continue to promote English language education if we want to attract degree-seeking students? that [has been] “This is what we have been working intensively on over the last few years,” he says.
Tec also created an International Development Council, comprised of higher-level institutional organizations and chaired by former MIT President Rafael Reif.
“Tec de Monterrey is the Real Madrid of international mobility”
The partnerships Tec is currently trying to build are “thought-driven,” de la Vega insists. That means building “up to three very deep, vertical, high-level” partnerships.
“We are looking at several options in the U.S. and Europe and how to work with partner organizations to advance large-scale projects that are appropriately aligned with our vision.”
core pillar
When Jo Angouri designed the University of Warwick's education internationalization strategy, she enlisted the help of those who really matter.
“We talk to students about what they want without actually giving them the opportunity to actually own at least part of this discussion,” she asserts.
Angouri sees that everyone is on a learning journey, and through the strategies she wrote, she wanted to emphasize global learning and go beyond linearity.
“International is [often] It seems very narrow when it comes to the specific design of study abroad or the boundaries between online, offline, short-term and long-term travel. It's a very static approach.
“Our internationalization is built on our values as a university about making the most of educational innovations and designing to ensure that study abroad opportunities are truly available throughout the student lifecycle. It’s part of the degree,” explains Angouri.
“We talk about the students, and we don’t actually give them the opportunity to own at least part of this discussion.”
She emphasizes that mobility can be understood in a much more dynamic way than what happens at the end of second year.
Angouri also values the need for transnational cooperation “for the kind of education we want our students to receive.” The partners that Warwick currently has are vital in providing opportunities to work closely internationally, not only at student level but also at faculty level.
Warwick is a founding member of EUTopia, another European university alliance that aims to become the institution of the future on the continent.
The project has undertaken a pilot phase, establishing 30 “learning communities” that can connect educational institutions and add value to existing educational offerings for students and staff.
“We were in the age of COVID… so we used technology to enhance learning and give students the opportunity to work with their peers. [in other institutions] As part of the curriculum,” says Angouri.
More than 7,000 students were connected through our six original partners, more than 1,000 of them at Warwick.
Currently, EUTopia has 10 partners, including Warwick: Babeş-Bolyai University in Romania, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ca' Foscari University in Venice, CY Cergy Paris University, Technische Universität Dresden, University of Gothenburg, University of Ljubljana, NOVA Universities Lisbon and Pompeu. University of Fabra – Barcelona.
Angouri emphasizes that under no circumstances is he a fan of internationalization initiatives that use the “top-down, bottom-up” metaphor. “Students and staff have no problems with anything. They are the center,” she says.
“And unless we design things to be more flexible, we’re not going to be able to provide opportunities for most students. That’s what I want to see.”