Trends in internationalisation in higher education: transnational education to student mobility, internationalising the curriculum and why crossing borders matters


Internationalisation

NCUK has long held a mission to bring together people from different backgrounds on university campuses through its network of university partners and pathway qualifications. The organisation’s first pathway programmes were established in 1987 by a consortium of universities, with the purpose of broadening access to higher education for international students. “We were a very early entrant into the pathway market, and we have a deep and unique perspective on the value of pathway routes,” explains NCUK CEO Stuart Smith. “Pathway education is critical in supporting the diversity of international higher education.”&nbsp;

NCUK has released a report, co-authored with management consultants Nous, titled the Power and Impact of International Pathways. The report describes pathways as a route for students who need further academic or language support, or as a bridge between local qualifications and destination countries’ education systems. For example, students might have completed 12 rather than 13 years of secondary education in some countries.&nbsp;“NCUK supports students of all abilities, empowering each student to achieve their university ambitions,” Smith says.

NCUK works with university partners to set clear and transparent entry requirements for students to join their pathway programmes, so that the content and structure of programmes give them the best chance of success once at university. Quality assurance processes ensure that qualifications awarded are robust and offer high-quality learning experiences.&nbsp;

“The quality of students entering our pathway programmes is critical to their potential to progress,” Smith adds. “We have established entry requirements from over 150 international qualifications and the content and delivery of our curricula recognises the diverse learning and teaching needs of international students. We are proud of our pathway routes, providing a bridge for international students to gain a university experience in any of the top global study destinations, and sparking the start of a journey of transformation.”&nbsp;

NCUK’s in-country pathway offering helps to accommodate more students from diverse backgrounds and educational systems into international university study. NCUK qualifications are taught at over 120 schools, colleges and universities in more than 40 countries. “This means our students can choose to study closer to home initially if they wish. This is an important part of our offer, considering the multiple political and economic factors – such as cost of living – that are currently driving changing student demand. Equity of access to international higher education is an important driver for us,” Smith explains. Pathways support universities’ diversification goals and, in 2023, NCUK placed students from 77 different nationalities with its university partners.&nbsp;

To demonstrate the value of its pathway routes, NCUK is now embarking on a project to gather and analyse data on its students’ outcomes. Ninety-five per cent of international year-one students passed their course, and 89 per cent of those who graduated from university partners in 2020/21 achieved a 2:1 or above. “We are proud of the success of our amazing NCUK students. Let’s continue to celebrate the power and impact of the role that pathway routes play in transforming lives through education,” Smith says.

Read the Power and Impact of International Pathways.

NCUK has released a new report, titled the Power and Impact of International Pathways, which outlines the benefits of pathway routes for students, universities and the economy

Pathways widen access, support diversity and empower students to succeed at university

During their higher education experience, students look forward to experiential learning that extends beyond textbooks and the classroom; they are eager to explore the world and expose themselves to different cultures. A short-term international experience can enrich their lives, push them out of their comfort zones and boost their independence. It can also change their outlook on life. How do we guide a student who comes to us looking for opportunities? As faculty, we can facilitate this in simple ways.

The challenges around student mobility

Students, parents and faculty members often don’t realise the huge potential a short-term international experience can have on the development of a student because the challenges associated with student mobility cloud their judgement. The financial cost and fear of sending their children alone to a new place make the parents hesitant, while students themselves might be put off by poor foreign language competency, competitive entry-level requirements, insufficient funds, separation from social circles or a lack of confidence in venturing into an unknown place. For faculty members, it might be a lack of understanding of the possible options.

Other obstacles might include mismatched application timing, limited places, regulatory concerns and policies of the host country, global political situations and difficulty in integrating mobility plans into the existing academic structure, among others. Although finance is undeniably a huge concern, there are scholarships out there. Some academic and research student mobility options offer to cover travel and living costs and provide allowances to students during their experience.

Identify your students’ needs

We need to support students in finding an opportunity that helps them work towards their future goals. One of the first steps we can take when assisting is to understand what they are looking for. Are they seeking an opportunity within their specialisation or something different? Often, students opt for an employability-focused activity that they can add to their CV, and they might decide on their country of choice based on their future plans. We need to help students decide on the best options for them from the platter of available opportunities.

Some of the opportunities that we can educate students about include:


	Observership programmes in which students can watch experts in their field at work
	Training courses that provide students opportunities to build skills beyond those taught in an academic context
	Study abroad programmes at other institutions
	Summer/winter school opportunities
	International volunteering opportunities
	Cultural immersions that help students experience and appreciate diversity
	International contests
	Overseas clinical placements
	Internships
	Virtual courses.


The opportunities we suggest need to align with the academic calendar. We can also look into the possibility of the student being able to accumulate credits from the experience. Other things to bear in mind are the language in which the experience will take place and whether taking part is within the student’s budget.


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Find opportunities for student mobility programmes

We can look for collaborators who can help us create mobility options within our networks. They might be adjunct faculty, a research collaborator, an academic point of contact or a professor we met at a conference or on a networking platform. Opportunities could even arise through alumni working in other universities we can work with to co-create short modules for students from both universities or organise joint events such as student conferences or a research colloquium that brings together students and faculty members from different institutions.

We should also follow and keep track of notifications we receive from our university’s international or research office. There might be calls for applications and fellowships that are in line with our students’ objectives.

Regularly check the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IAESTE) and AIESEC, both of which provide summer programmes and volunteering opportunities.

Partner with other universities

It is important to be well-informed about the internationalisation policies of our universities and those we form collaborations with. This will help us find opportunities that align with our objectives.

An existing general agreement with a partner university facilitates easier discussion around collaborative options. If no such agreement exists with a university you are considering collaborating with, have an initial discussion with your point of contact at the potential partner university on areas of collaboration and bring the proposal to your university’s international office.

If your university doesn’t have an international office, you should help your department and institution as a whole develop a positive attitude towards internationalisation by encouraging student mobility initiatives. These small efforts can also have long-term impacts on collaboration between universities, visibility and global ranking.

Identifying appropriate opportunities for our students means extra time and effort from us. However, going the extra mile could have huge benefits. Let us pave the way for student mobility options to help our students make the most of their university experience and build the foundations for a successful future.

Sunila John is an associate professor in the department of speech and hearing and an institutional chairperson of international collaborations at Manipal College of Health Professions, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.

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How to facilitate short-term student mobility

Let us pave the way for student mobility options to help our students make the most of their university experience and build the foundations for a successful future, writes Sunila John

How can faculty members facilitate short-term international student mobility programmes?

Assuring the quality of transnational education (TNE) has become a growing issue within the university sector in the UK and abroad. The challenges include geographic, cultural and institutional differences when it comes to optimising student experience and establishing effective higher education (HE) partnerships. Seeking to embed a strong communities of practice approach to transnational education, we have developed a professional development series (PDS).

Given that those working in HE are typically time-poor, we needed a simple approach to both running and participating in our programme. We decided on 12 hour-long sessions focusing on learning and teaching, qualitative and quantitative research skills, embedding employability within the curriculum and working successfully within partnership educational arrangements.


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Drawing on our experiences, we share 11 steps for engaging partnership educators. These are aimed at colleagues globally working with educators on the front line of TNE partnerships.

1. Establish a support team of educators at the host institution

Draw on the expertise of colleagues from your own institution who can support relevant sessions. This can be framed as a professional development opportunity; participants can use the experience to apply for senior or principal fellowship of Advance HE. Our PDS involved a team of five educators who delivered around two sessions each. 

2. Identify front-line educators at your partnership institution 

Explain that the project involves delivering sessions and participation will build valuable skills and a community of practice. 

3. Identify educator needs and knowledge gaps 

Use a survey or email to establish what kinds of educational development provision will be useful to your front-line partnership educators. This should strike a balance between prompts (“Would a focused session on supervising dissertation students be useful?”) and more open-ended questions.

4. Define the scope and focus of the educational development sessions 

Use partnership colleague feedback, internal discussion and your experience to develop your session schedule. Our PDS programme covered sessions focused on education (for example, “Evaluating the quality of learning and teaching”, “Supporting learners who are struggling with their studies”), research (such as “Understanding research ethics”, “Exploring quantitative research”), graduation plans (“Embedding employability in HE curricula”) and partnership work (“Working successfully in partnerships”).

5. Clarify the best times for sessions to maximise attendance 

Facilitating sessions that cross geographic and time zones clearly brings challenges, so work with TNE partners to identify one or two weekdays (and times) when teachers are available to attend. Consider session regularity; our PDS sessions ran twice a month, but your sessions might work best weekly, bi-monthly or less regularly.

6. Maintain a consistent branded promotional approach 

Ensure that promotional messaging for your programme is consistent across all elements (including pre-session activities and meeting hyperlinks) and communicates its coherence. In messages, always thank relevant educators on all sides for their time and contributions to the educational development series.

7. Use CPD sessions to model effective learning and teaching practices 

Educational development sessions for partnership educators can also be a chance to share best practice, develop communication channels and build communities of practice. Sessions provide an opportunity for the host institution to demonstrate key pedagogic principles of good teaching and learning that partnership educators can use in their own practice. Align each session with Advance HE’s professional standards framework, so those attending can use this as evidence of engaging in continuous professional development.

8. Host session-related educational resources online 

Your platform that houses online resources should ideally be open and accessible. We used Padlet as a dedicated collaborative online platform to host session slides, session recordings, session-based activities and additional resources such as articles, and learning and teaching resources. 

9. Ask for session evaluations as you go along 

Each of our sessions included a form to generate quantitative and qualitative feedback. Session attendees were prompted to complete these at the end of each session. 

10. Record, reflect and use the experience to improve the educational development programme 

Keep partnership in mind when you come to validate your host institution teacher qualification, recognition and accreditation, so that it’s a strategic whole-institution approach to developing partners, too. View the educational development initiative as a step in a longer pedagogic journey. As the creator, reflect on how future educational development initiatives could work. Doing this with the PDS has led to generating ideas to “scale up”, reconfigure and build on the ambitions for our programme’s next iteration.

11. Co-construct future sessions with partnership educators and learners 

Part of building successful communities of practice involves a shared domain, community and practice. We have increasingly explored possibilities for co-constructing session materials and co-facilitating sessions with partnership educators. 

Our practical guidance here is to explore possibilities with partners far in advance of sessions and assume that time and discussion will be required to overcome potential obstacles. We also suggest that initial co-facilitated sessions focus on relatively straightforward topic areas (such as assessment feedback) so that both sides of the partnership can readily draw on recent experiences to contribute understanding and insights and learn from each other.

Dom Conroy is a principal lecturer for collaborative partnerships in the School of Social Sciences and Professions, and Santanu Vasant is head of educational development and digital education, both at London Metropolitan University.

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How to co-create transnational professional development

Co-creation with TNE partners allows both front-line educators and host institution opportunities for quality assurance and pathways to build communities of practice. Here, Dom Conroy and Santanu Vasant outline 11 steps to working with international partners

Crossing time zones: developing a transnational professional development series 

For international students whose first language is not English, a writing course can be among their greatest challenges. In particular, first-generation learners may need help adjusting to a new learning environment made up of various languages and ethnicities. However, the impact of a writing course can go far beyond its learning outcomes, helping students form bonds with those from other countries and enriching their&nbsp;international experience.&nbsp;

Writing courses involve working with students to make their English error-free and polish their style. Teaching a writing course to a diverse group of students comes with its own challenges, especially when the class speaks and interacts in many languages as well as English. Although the presence of multiple languages and cultural contexts could be considered an impediment to learning, this diversity can actually be helpful in speeding up the process.


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Here are some strategies that can help a diverse group of students transition to university, while also meeting the learning expectations of the course. 

Pair up 

International student groups&nbsp;tend to divide themselves along ethnic, linguistic, gender or religious lines. Students can benefit from international exposure by mingling with their counterparts from different backgrounds. For a writing course I recently ran, I divided the class into pairs and named them writing buddies. Given the strict deadlines of the semester and limitations on the instructor as to how much personal attention can be given, this peer group worked wonderfully. But it’s important to choose the writing partners carefully – here’s how:


	Choose partners of similar ability based on an ungraded writing and speaking test, because&nbsp;the pressure of grades could&nbsp;hinder the process of getting to know the students better (including their academic and social background). 
	Harness the diversity of the classroom when forming partnerships. For instance, I paired Indian boys with Zanzibari boys, Zanzibari girls with Indian girls, Zanzibari girls with Zanzibari boys. One of the immediate results of this process was that everyone started pronouncing each other’s name correctly. 


In some cases, the pairing might not work and the instructor should strive to find out why. For example, two students from different countries may not want to be paired up and will only work with students from the same country –&nbsp;you can discourage this line of thinking. But if both the students are introverts and find it extremely difficult to communicate with each other, alter the pairing. 

Adapt the syllabus 

Structure the course syllabus with tasks designed to be done together. Students tend to only focus on their own writing and how they can rectify their mistakes. The writing buddy experiment forces a change in this approach. In giving feedback to their partner, students can become more aware of the writing process as they’re faced with their own errors. For example, one student, while correcting the other’s excessive use of commas, became aware of his own punctuation mistakes, specifically the use of periods. 

Texts from diverse backgrounds can be used so that students can help each other understand cultural references.&nbsp;I chose reading materials from African and Indian contexts, allowing buddies to explain cultural peculiarities and connotations in measurement units such as&nbsp;feddan, cow dung cakes known as uppala, used as fuel&nbsp;in India, and&nbsp;food items such as&nbsp;pakori&nbsp;(fritters). Students were also able to find common ground with similar kinds of foods and eating habits through these discussions, which led to writing about food and memory. This kind of exercise helped in expanding vocabulary, writing with care, cultural sensitivity and forging bonds based on similar experiences.

Change the grading pattern

The weekly course material should provide discussion points, which can be themes for the partners to write on through the week. That way, the course material is woven into their writing practice and graded. 

Of course, there should be individual grading depending on the nature of the class but this kind of group writing exercise can be assessed throughout the semester. Factor in the amount of work put in by the partners and the quality of feedback they receive. I witnessed remarkable growth in both the supposedly weak students and the “better” ones, not only in terms of grades but in self-reflexivity.&nbsp;

By the third week of my class, students began making jokes about their partners, acknowledging their strengths while admitting their own weaknesses – a welcome change for a class that had previously stuck to their own homogenous groups. Gradually they overcame their initial reluctance and started to help each other.&nbsp;This went beyond the writing course. In other classes, too, some of them sat together and helped each other with their studies. Some joined the jogging club and became running mates.&nbsp;

The time frame may differ depending on the nature of the classroom, but learning together for many first-generation learners in an international university set-up can ease the transition to university. Peer group networks, besides being sites of solidarity, can be turned into valuable resources and avenues of knowledge-sharing. 

Umasankar Patra is&nbsp;assistant professor of English&nbsp;at IIT Madras.

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Writing courses can be enriching for international students

For many international students, English writing courses are a requirement. While such courses can help them polish their definite articles, they can do so much more. Umasankar Patra suggests harnessing the diversity in your classroom

Writing courses can be more enriching for international students than you think

Staff-mobility programmes greatly influenced the course of our careers and challenged us to grow personally and professionally. Shelini was first introduced to the opportunity of exploring new cultures and travelling through the staff-mobility programmes promoted at her university.&nbsp;Her passion for experiencing diverse cultures took her to China, Helsinki and the US during her PhD to attend workshops and have new teaching experiences. 

When she joined the University of Surrey in 2020, Shelini quickly signed up for the Erasmus+ staff-mobility scheme. Through this programme, she embarked on three transformative trips abroad: she participated in a mindfulness workshop in Romania, gaining global networking and work-life balance insights; in Sweden, she discovered student hackathons that offered students credits and prizes, inspiring her to establish a similar programme at her university; her immersion in the local culture of Trinidad and Tobago led to a collaborative online international learning (COIL) project involving students from Surrey and Trinidad. Her times abroad exemplify the personal enrichment and professional growth that staff mobility programmes can offer. 


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Meanwhile, Paul used staff mobility to fortify research connections, engaging in exchanges across Brazil, Germany and the US, focusing on cancer health. The mobility experiences allowed him to build his professional network and exchange ideas in science. He was able to develop his confidence in laboratory techniques and build up his scientific portfolio.

The benefits of staff-mobility programmes

Just as mobility exchanges bring unique benefits to students’ learning experiences, staff mobility exchanges can open your mind to new ways of working. Including: 


	New research collaborations: diverse collaborations spark fresh insights and growth in research
	Fostering cultural understanding: interactions with diverse cultures cultivate empathy, tolerance, cultural understanding and inclusivity among educators
	Professional development: mobility programmes offer growth through seminars, workshops and courses, enhancing teaching skills and competence
	Skill development: exposure to diverse teaching environments hones skills such as adaptability, intercultural communication and problem-solving
	Elevated teaching quality: new insights enable educators to share best practices and fresh perspectives with their departments upon return.


&nbsp;

How to set up a staff mobility exchange programme

With the loss of Erasmus+ funding to the United Kingdom, it’s crucial for UK universities to explore cost-effective avenues for both in-person and online mobility exchanges. Consider starting with teacher exchanges with nearby universities or any institutions with which you have an existing partnership. Seek financial support for short academic exchanges.

Before you create a teacher exchange programme, set goals and objectives. Do you aim for participants to partake in knowledge sharing? Cultural immersion? Curriculum development? Research collaboration? Or something else?

Look for institutions that are aligned with your focus, academic approach and shared interests. Reach out to them and express your interest in establishing a staff mobility exchange programme, highlighting the mutual benefits of the partnership. Emphasise how it contributes to professional development, cultural understanding and educational enrichment for both parties.

Hammer out the practical details, including the length of the exchange, specific activities that it will involve (such as teaching specific courses, conducting research or cultural immersion activities) or any responsibilities the staff will have (for example, attendance at department meetings, submission of progress reports or active engagement in the host institution’s academic community).

Once you have agreed on the length of stay, objectives and finances of an exchange, draft terms and conditions for the partnership, with help from your international office, that include the post’s responsibilities, expectations and any financial arrangements.

Ensure staff attend pre-departure orientation sessions and receive comprehensive guides. These should cover cultural sensitivity, administrative procedures, host institution requirements and practical aspects such as navigating daily life (grocery shopping), obtaining local communication (how to get a SIM card) and understanding customary gift-giving practices.

If going abroad is too much of a stretch, online mobility initiatives can be incredibly impactful. Start small with a pilot study, focusing on a specific theme, and bring together educators from around the world for virtual career and professional development sessions. The Active Learning Network, for example, is currently piloting a virtual teacher exchange programme across 50 institutions globally. This initiative pairs educators from diverse backgrounds in a buddy system, fostering best practice exchange and mutual mentorship on a bi-monthly basis, without any costs.

How to overcome resistance to staff mobility programmes

There are many obstacles to going abroad. Time constraints, administrative duties, workloads and childcare responsibilities can all get in the way of these enriching experiences. Some staff might be resistant, have funding concerns or face logistical hurdles. 

It’s crucial that programme leaders emphasise the long-term benefits of staff mobility and how it contributes to a more internationally focused teaching career. Clear communication and awareness-raising efforts within the institution are essential to address these concerns. Share past success stories and note that a mobility trip could be paired with student recruitment or research collaborations, ensuring financial justification and added value.

Securing financial support for staff mobility programmes

Begin by exploring institutional budget allocations within your college or school. Additionally, reach out to your international exchange office to enquire about existing funding opportunities. Seek external stakeholders who might be interested in supporting such initiatives – we recently went on a trip to India and one university we visited had institutional funds to bring in teaching staff for knowledge exchange.

Craft a compelling case for your mobility, outlining the purpose of the trip, anticipated gains and how that knowledge and insight will be put into practice when you return. Share success stories and highlight the tangible benefits that staff mobility brings to the institution.

The decision to go abroad is a powerful catalyst for personal and professional growth, providing a gateway to a world of knowledge, experiences and connections. By taking the leap, we can transform our teaching practices, broaden our horizons and contribute to a more globally engaged academic community. Universities can help staff to embrace these opportunities through clear planning, financial support and relevant pre-departure information. 

Shelini Surendran is the associate dean for the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, International at the University of Surrey.

Paul Townsend is the executive dean for the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey.

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Why you should do a staff mobility programme

Whether you participate in an exchange or a traineeship, mobility programmes offer teachers unparalleled growth, but there are obstacles universities should help staff overcome

Why you should do a staff mobility programme and how to set one up

International students enrich the social and cultural vibrancy of the UK’s universities, its cities and regions. They enhance the learning experience, offering diverse perspectives and viewpoints.

Nowhere is this more true than in Sheffield in northern England. Every year, students from more than 150 countries come to study in the South Yorkshire city. Not only this, but international students offer significant support to the local economy. The 2021-22 cohort brought a net economic benefit of £516.8&nbsp;million across all constituencies in Sheffield.


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However, after January 2024, new UK legislation says that international students looking to study in the UK will not be permitted to bring their partners and children into the country on their student visas unless the course they’re studying is a research-based degree or they are pursuing a PhD or other doctorate.

We at Sheffield Business School were not the only ones saddened by this news. This has been a controversial decision. A lecturers’ union said the legislation was “deeply shameful” and “anti-migrant”. The director of Universities&nbsp;UK International said these new laws were likely to disproportionately affect women and people from certain countries. It is likely that these regulations will particularly affect students in Nigeria and India.

As part of a university-wide initiative at Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Business School is helping to support international applicants affected by this new legislation. There must be a dynamic approach enabling institutions to respond quickly to the challenges these students are facing.

Here are some of the ways that universities can offer support to international students.

Make a statement in support of international students

A public statement is one way to show that the new regulations do not reflect the institution’s views towards international applicants. UK universities need to demonstrate that they welcome and encourage prospective students looking to study here.

Recently, Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield joined forces with the South Yorkshire mayor, Sheffield MPs, council leaders and business leaders to deliver a statement of support for international students.

This statement outlined the positive impact that international students have on the region culturally, socially and economically. It was backed by the students’ unions of both universities.

The statement coincided with Universities&nbsp;UK’s #WeAreInternational campaign, which was relaunched in May 2023 to celebrate the economic, cultural, social and civic contribution international students make to the UK.

By posting our support on our social media channels, our website and by working with the media and organisations across the city, both universities have sent clear messages to prospective international students that Sheffield is a welcoming city.

Offer administrative support to international students

Supporting international students early in the application process to offer expertise and guidance from dedicated teams at the institution helps make students aware of the options available to them. Visa applications are expensive and can be confusing; universities can play a valuable role in helping international applicants understand which visas they’re eligible for and which are no longer available to them.

For example, under the new legislation, students will no longer be permitted to switch to the skilled worker route before they have completed their programmes, but they can still benefit from the graduate route, which allows eligible students to remain in the UK for two to three years after graduation.

Students need to be aware that a specialist service is on hand to support them throughout their journeys. Sheffield Hallam University works with students from application to ensure that they are well versed in all aspects of visa regulations, border control advice and preparation to travel and study in the UK. The international student experience team is well versed in UK&nbsp;Visas and Immigration (UKVI) requirements and helps to provide expert advice and support from application through to graduation.

Along with our international student support team, we have teams in our international offices in China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Malaysia, as well as education agents in more than 35 countries, to address student queries and concerns. This service provides support and advice that is specific to the country in question. For example, with the devaluation of the naira in Nigeria, local advice gave us the opportunity to respond to Nigerian students’ financial challenges by developing personalised payment plans during their year of study.

Help international students feel welcome

UK universities might not be able to change the legislation, but institutions can take concrete steps to make that every international student’s study experience in the UK memorable.

First, ensure that potential applicants and current students from abroad have access to help and advice so they can settle quickly into life in the UK and concentrate on their studies.

As well as answering questions and helping with problems online, Sheffield Hallam’s international student support team offers a free pre-booked airport meet-and-greet service so a student’s study journey is supported as soon as they arrive.

Once they’ve enrolled, which can be done by the student online two weeks before their course starts, all new postgraduate students are invited to join Success at Level&nbsp;7, an online live seminar programme offering practical guidance and study skills support to help them understand the expectations of their courses and assist them in graduating with the very best qualifications.

Sheffield Hallam University offers students ongoing support through access to drop-in study sessions and one-to-one help. Our student support triangle provides students with a personal team of three dedicated advisers: a student support adviser to help when problems affect a student’s studies; an academic adviser to support their learning journey; and an employability adviser to help them choose and build the right career.

Our strong relationship with international officers in the students’ union has provided us with opportunities to promote students’ voices and to further build support communities and events to celebrate specific cultural groups.

UK universities recognise how valuable international students are, in so many ways, especially the huge contribution they make to diversity and cultural awareness here in the UK.

Kate Morse is associate dean (global development and academic partnerships) in the College of Business, Technology and Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University.

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How can UK universities support international applicants?

Higher education institutions can help international students feel welcome and valued through their admissions processes, administrative help and public statements, writes Kate Morse

How can UK universities support applicants affected by student visa changes?

International students face multifaceted challenges upon arriving in the UK. They must demonstrate proficiency in English, navigate the academic norms of a new institution, foster connections with domestic and fellow international students and find their own sense of belonging. With the international student community projected to increase by 5 to 6 per cent annually until 2030, institutions need to address these issues in detail. 

Research I conducted at the University of Westminster, consisting of an online survey and follow-up interviews, examined four key hurdles international students encounter when arriving at UK higher education institutions. Those were: educational, language and sociocultural difficulties, and discrimination. To better address the unique needs of these students and empower them on their academic journey, here are my tailored recommendations.

Start before arrival

Introduce a “bridge the gap” course designed to assist international students as they transition into UK higher education from diverse educational backgrounds.&nbsp; This course could cover various topics international students commonly encounter difficulties with, such as adapting to different styles of teaching, understanding the assessment methods and marking criteria, grasping the grading system, acquiring academic writing skills specific to the UK and promoting cultural integration. 


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Guide the way

To guide international students as they arrive on campus, improve the signage by making it larger and in a range of languages, and increase the visibility of student helpers and members of staff. At the University of Westminster, we had student helpers in brightly coloured t-shirts waiting in the reception area to greet the new intake. This can reduce students’ anxiety about getting lost and create a more welcoming environment. 

Provide access to mentorships

Improve student retention and alleviate anxiety by offering international students the opportunity to enrol in a mentoring scheme. During the critical adjustment period, such schemes will help them access academic guidance. 

Boost your students’ well-being 

Improve the promotion and communication of your institution’s well-being and support services through a variety of channels such as email, international blog and social media, to reach a broader audience. This will help create a campus climate where students feel cared for.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Organise recurring workshops that address the primary causes of stress and provide strategies on how to effectively manage them. International students often experience high levels of academic stress as they navigate the UK higher education system. It’s important that they acquire the skills for managing stress in a healthy way.&nbsp; 

Flag up English language development support services

Make international students aware of the importance of continuing their English language development throughout their academic journey from the very start, at the offer stage. Encourage them to attend the academic English modules and workshops your institution offers and make sure they know about the available services for continuous improvement. This will help them navigate the challenges international students can face when writing and speaking at a UK higher education institution.

Encourage the academic English department to collaborate with heads of schools and course leads to identify the evolving academic support needs for international students and adapt their workshops accordingly.&nbsp; 

Actively foster their sense of belonging 

Course leads, personal tutors and lecturers have a pivotal role in shaping international students’ sense of belonging. Encourage them to create a supportive environment, provide timely assistance and reach out to students who may be at risk of disengagement, particularly during their first semester of study. A student’s sense of belonging can significantly impact their well-being and academic success, and nurturing this feeling is crucial for their overall journey. Proactive members of staff can make all the difference.&nbsp;

Use communication channels to increase international students’ engagement in university and student union social events. Although international students often struggle to establish social connections in a new environment, these events can significantly contribute to their social integration.&nbsp;Often students study abroad to enhance their language proficiency and forge friendships with domestic students, yet establishing these connections can be challenging. Organise social events outside degree programmes to facilitate interaction.&nbsp; 

Embed EDI into staff training

It’s important to foster a culture of respect and understanding on campus – and enhance the educational experience for all students. Run mandatory staff training sessions on equality, diversity and inclusion, focusing on awareness and prevention of microaggressions and strategies for promoting an inclusive classroom with students from diverse backgrounds. 

All UK university students should complete a mandatory equality, diversity and inclusion essentials course, which demonstrates how diversity can be celebrated in the curriculum and in class. It should highlight the role of domestic students in fostering an inclusive classroom atmosphere and be tailored according to the composition of the institution’s student body.&nbsp; This is vital for creating a welcoming campus environment and preparing students for their academic journey with peers from diverse backgrounds.&nbsp; 

Katherine Mansfield is senior lecturer in academic English at the University of Westminster.

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Four key hurdles international students face

How can we make international students’ academic journey a positive one? Katherine Mansfield suggests ways to alleviate their social, academic and language challenges

Four key hurdles international students face – and what to do about them

Collaboration should be at the core of any international research effort. The success of the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (Ripe) project is the collective expertise and contribution of every team member. The project has been running for more than a decade and the key to our excellence is transparency, openness and trust. 

Ripe is an international research project founded in 2012 with the mission to engineer crops to be more productive by improving photosynthesis, the natural process all plants use to convert sunlight into energy and yields. Our hope is that, by equipping smallholder farmers with higher-yielding crops, we can&nbsp;ensure that everyone has access to enough food to lead a healthy, productive life.

The Ripe project is centred around a community of excellence in photosynthesis research, with around 100 researchers coming from five higher education institutions and two government organisations. This makes for truly inspiring and innovative work that has led to the development of new ideas, techniques, infrastructure and skills that have been key in driving the photosynthesis research forward. For example, we test theories and plant genetic tweaks that we’ve developed here at the University of Essex in glasshouses. Once they’re proven in that controlled environment they are tested in field trials at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This allows us to test the science in various ways, creating a more robust knowledge base and understanding.

A culture based on teamwork

Ripe research leaders were selected not only based on their expertise but also on their willingness to foster collaboration and maintain an open approach within a team. A key part of working together is trust in each other. This applies not only to Ripe leadership, but also to building teams within our own labs and bringing in candidates that fit this mindset. I also believe the Ripe team really enjoys working together – this alone has been a major contributing factor to our success.


	Five ways to motivate and inspire a high-performing team
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Building trust

When Ripe first began more than a decade ago, one of the most important decisions was that we would work only on our own research objectives. We would collaborate with each other and work together to get the most benefit for the project, but we would not pursue research that was part of another objective outside of Ripe’s mission. This concept is the foundation Ripe was built on and instils a sense of trust that every team member will dedicate their research effort towards their own objective. This approach requires researchers to balance between fostering collaboration and ensuring each individual’s ownership of their contribution, which has led to the success and quality of the exciting scientific discoveries that have come from Ripe. 

Even though there might be shared skill sets among us, it is important that we focus on our own deliverables within our areas of expertise. This way we avoid redundancy in our efforts as well as drive an open attitude towards collaboration and exploring possibilities within someone else’s domain when an opportunity arises. This strategy of working within your expertise is practised by leaders at the very top of the project down to each individual lab, where postdocs have their own lines of research. 

Open and free communication

Another important aspect of Ripe’s culture is that when we gather as a large team to share our work, we’re all allowed to speak freely. I feel, and have always felt, comfortable speaking up and listened to when I have something to say. The culture in Ripe is to encourage the sharing of ideas so that everyone is allowed space to voice their opinions. This does not apply only to the lead principal investigators but to everyone – postdocs, students and technicians. It is important that everyone feels like they get to be heard and contribute to the conversation, and everyone should have the opportunity to add value. 

For the University of Essex, we have achieved remarkable success during the Ripe funding period. The project has allowed us to establish new collaborations, further adding to Essex’s long-standing reputation as a leader in the advancement of photosynthesis research. 

For me personally, it has been a privilege to be part of this programme with a mission to provide higher-yielding crops for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South-east Asia, helping the people who need it most. As our collaborative effort now moves to translation into crops, I am looking forward to working more closely with and learning from researchers established in these geographical areas. This goal is important for the team and is a major driver for our research and our willingness to collaborate to get the best results.

Christine Raines is a professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Essex.

The University of Essex has been shortlisted for International Collaboration of the Year at the&nbsp;Times Higher Education&nbsp;Awards 2023 #THEAwards. See the full list of shortlisted candidates. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on Thursday 7 December in Liverpool.

Academics and university leaders from across the UK and Ireland will come together that week at&nbsp;THE Campus Live UK&amp;IE&nbsp;to talk about institutional strategies, teaching and learning, the student experience and more.&nbsp;Join us&nbsp;for this two-day event in Liverpool.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Why international research projects depend on trust

To build an excellent research team you want talented individuals – but they also have to enjoy working together. Christine Raines explains how teamwork and open communication have made Ripe succeed

The secret to long-term international research projects is trust and transparency 

International collaborations can offer exceptional opportunities to work with a range of organisations and bring fresh perspectives to a research problem. This has certainly been our experience in our work with Arup and the United Nations Development Programme in our Cities Alive: Designing Cities that Work for Women project. 

Collaboration can also mean greater access to resources and research teams. For example, working with the UNDP gave us access to its vast data resource of case studies. In addition, the collaboration benefited from Arup’s offices located in 20 countries and six continents which helped to create a network of global champions to support the project. 

Here are five suggestions of how your university can stimulate greater cross-organisational and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Be bold and collaborate widely

Think about engaging with partners from spheres outside of academia. This can create an opportunity to hear diverse voices and build cross-disciplinary engagement. We chose to partner with Arup, a multinational professional services firm, and the UNDP, primarily because of our shared values. However, each of our partners brought access to a different audience. We were able to work across Arup’s professional practice networks and the UNDP’s global development network in order to meet three of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Partners from professional practice can bring an alternative perspective to problems and frequently have additional sources of funding available to them. This project was partly funded by “Arup University”, for example. 

Prioritise dissemination across diverse audiences

Think about the opportunities for widening communication at an early stage. Leverage your partners’ networks to be more imaginative about your reach. Working with the UNDP on our project brought introductions to key individuals in the UN’s global regions, resulting in invitations to speak at events such as Re:Think 2022 in China with a live, online audience of 1 million people and 4 million subsequent downloads. That size of audience would be hard to reach through academic routes. Presenting at this scale can also bring in some new, and often surprising, opportunities such as our engagement with organisations such as the World Resources Institute. We also had opportunities to engage more deeply with non-academic audiences through YouTube and a range of global publications and outlets including the World Economic Forum,&nbsp;El Pais and Yahoo News, along with specialist publications like Cities Today and Women’s Agenda. The team were also able to share our work at many levels, from global conferences to local government workshops in the UK. This may not have been achievable without our partners.


	
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Aim for awards recognition

Think about how your project can gain recognition in different fields. Very few partners commence a research collaboration with awards at the forefront of their mind, however this type of recognition can help the team have greater impact and should be considered as part of your communication and outreach strategies. Each partner in a collaboration should ideally be taking the lead in awards relevant to their own professional areas, internal awards and external opportunities. We originally submitted nominations to the Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Awards at the University of Liverpool and the Inclusion Award at Arup, as well as the Royal Town Planning Institute: Awards for Research Excellence, and won them all! Being shortlisted for the THE Award for International Collaboration of the Year has been the icing on the cake.

Think about wider impact

Lateral thinking can help to identify other potential benefits your partnerships can bring to the university. For example, can any aspect of the partnership contribute to teaching and learning outcomes across other faculties? Students can bring fresh eyes and a different generational approach and values to research collaborations. For the students, these experiences can improve their employability skills. The initial research work in our project included working with master’s students, but we have subsequently widened its reach to our undergraduate and PhD communities as well as the new Feminist City Network created within the university by the Heseltine Institute. 

There may be other opportunities to demonstrate greater social value by thinking imaginatively about how the partnership can be perpetuated and developed. For example, was there a research thread that could not be accommodated in the original project but could be developed through another collaboration? We have already started to develop some new ideas through the creation of a cross-faculty and cross-disciplinary Living Lab at the University of Liverpool which will build strong links with local stakeholders.

Be open to novel opportunities

Be receptive to unexpected connections and less obvious research areas. To help facilitate this process, think about how you can keep your collaboration energised and moving forward. You can offer to make introductions to other networks and constantly explore new ways to work together. Ideally, you should never allow a highly successful collaboration to end, even though the original project may have reached a conclusion. We are currently using our experience from the Cities Alive: Designing cities that work for women report to ensure that we continue to collaborate with our partners on a local and global level. Meanwhile, the University of Liverpool is already working with Arup to develop a new theme from the original research which will be published in 2024. 

Catherine Queen is a lecturer in planning at the University of Liverpool.

The University of Liverpool has been shortlisted for International Collaboration of the Year at the&nbsp;Times Higher Education&nbsp;Awards 2023. See the full list of shortlisted candidates. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on Thursday 7 December in Liverpool.

Academics and university leaders from across the UK and Ireland will come together that week at&nbsp;THE&nbsp;Campus Live UK&amp;IE&nbsp;to talk about institutional strategies, teaching and learning, the student experience and more.&nbsp;Join us&nbsp;for this two-day event in Liverpool.

To extend your research’s impact, be bold 

International collaborations expose your work to new and bigger audiences and give you unique opportunities for cross-organisational and interdisciplinary engagement, says Catherine Queen
 


To extend your research’s impact, be bold and collaborate widely

The transition to university can be daunting. For international students, this transition can encompass much more than moving away from home for the first time. Starting university in a new country can mean adjusting to a new culture, engaging in courses in a non-native language and navigating the ins and outs of a different educational system. These multiple issues must be specifically addressed if international students are going to experience a smooth transition.

Peer-to-peer mentoring that focuses on assisting international students to feel comfortable in their transition is an excellent approach. While peer-mentoring programmes that focus on academic support for specific degrees can be useful for students to adjust academically, those that consider the wider picture of what it means to transition to university can prove more useful for international students.


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Here are four ways that holistic peer-mentoring programmes address the nuances of international student transitions to university.

Deploy peer mentors to uncover an institution’s unwritten rules

Peer mentors are invaluable in helping to explain the unwritten rules of the university to new international students. Mentors, as fellow peers and students who are already familiar with the “hidden curriculum” of the university, are in a position to answer questions that might seem silly. A mentor, for example, might share that in Australia, it is often completely acceptable to call your professor by their first name – without their “doctor title”. Unwritten rules will be unique to each university and might also be unknown or not well known by the professional staff. This means that peer mentors are in an ideal position to provide this information to new international students, ensuring a smoother transition.

Start the transition before the student arrives

Getting a jump-start by connecting a new international student with a student mentor prior to their arrival in country is imperative to a smoother transition. Mentors in the Set4ANU mentoring programme connect with their mentees via email, one week before in-person orientation, when many of them are still in their home country. By connecting peer mentors with students before their arrival, the new students’ concerns can be addressed or alleviated by advice that peer mentors provide.

For example, a peer mentor might advise a new international student that they can buy things such as a rice cooker, pillows or bedding once they arrive and do not need to bring these with them. Similarly, a peer mentor might advise that the weather in Australia might be much colder than expected and that the student should bring warmer clothing with them.

Guarantee that the student knows at least one other person when they arrive

By introducing new international students to a peer mentor before orientation week, it is guaranteed that a new student has at least has one person they know. One of the most daunting aspects of moving to a new country and starting at a new university as an international student is not knowing anyone. With a peer mentor in place, they immediately know someone that they can lean on for support.

Introduce international students to support services

Peer mentors are not expected to know the answers to all their mentees’ questions. One important aspect of being a mentor is helping to connect mentees to the professional support services that universities offer for ongoing support, such as academic support, counselling, medical and other university-managed services. New students are more likely to seek out and attend these services if they are first introduced by a fellow peer or someone they trust.

International students’ transition to university can be filled with unique barriers and challenges. Peer-mentoring programmes that take a comprehensive approach to support that considers cultural and social issues alongside academic concerns are in the best position to provide a smooth experience. International students who are matched with a peer mentor in such a programme can access a wealth of knowledge about unwritten rules at the institution, alleviate concerns before their arrival, feel comfortable in knowing at least one person they can lean on for support and be introduced to further university-managed ongoing support.

Naia Robinson is a student engagement officer at Australian National University.

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Ease international students’ transition with peer-mentoring

Enlist peer mentors to help make international students’ transition on to your campus a smooth one. Naia Robinson shows how

Ease the transition for international students with a holistic peer-mentoring programme

During the UK’s hottest summer on record and as the world was emerging from a global pandemic, we were gearing up to be an official partner of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (B2022). Our participation included hosting the largest athletes’ village in the games’ history and providing facilities for hockey and squash matches. In hindsight, it was the most amazing journey for our staff, students, city and partners, both in the run-up to the games and in their operation. But it was not an easy feat to pull off. We achieved it through meticulous planning, adaptability, teamwork and strong partnerships across the institution and externally.

Responding to last-minute changes

We had half the time to prepare that previous host cities had enjoyed – and much of our work had to be done during lockdowns. In addition, our planning was affected by major external challenges including the invasion of Ukraine, political uncertainty in the UK, fluctuating athlete numbers caused the pandemic and a series of train strikes. Initially, we were signed up to host 1,500 members of the games workforce, but after the construction of Perry Barr Village was delayed, we ended up housing 3,200 athletes from across the world.

Creating the ‘biggest hotel in Europe’

Just a week after the last student left our on-campus accommodation for the summer, we managed to create one of the biggest hotels in Europe. The fast turnaround stretched us, and it was all hands on deck – at one stage, two of our directors donned rubber gloves to help clean bathrooms to prepare for our first international guests.

A hotel is a very different proposition from student accommodation. For example, we needed to equip all rooms with bath sheets and linen, which we don’t normally stock. The switch to a games village presented major challenges. We had to:


	build and equip three dining halls and four kitchens&nbsp;in just four weeks
	place new food and beverage outlets&nbsp;in pedestrianised areas, inaccessible to vehicles
	install temporary water, waste and power provision&nbsp;as well as refrigerated storage
	provide about 8,000 university staff with accreditation passes that allowed them to work on campus during games time
	recruit 500 staff for four daily shift patterns, 75&nbsp;per cent from the local area
	accommodate and arrange staff transport, and provide&nbsp;uniforms of all sizes
	work&nbsp;with so many&nbsp;specialist teams that we needed a four-page glossary to keep track of all the&nbsp;acronyms!


In the 18-month lead-up to the games, the university’s accommodation, catering, cleaning and waste, security, parking and sport teams met monthly to iron out these issues. With so many people involved, we had to be meticulous about communicating anything that might affect normal university activity, and we conducted tours for students, staff and visitors to show them the huge scale of the transformation. As the first athletes arrived, we accelerated to daily meetings at 6.30am. By the time the games began, on a boiling hot day in July, the sense of excitement was at a fever pitch.

Serving 10,000 meals a day

To fuel the 3,000 athletes and 1,000 support staff in the athletes’ village, 500 catering staff served 10,000 meals and 15,000 drinks for 18 hours every day for 14 consecutive days. For context, summer conferences at the university usually cater for a maximum of 600 delegates.

We worked with the food consultancy group Russell Partnership to create a well-balanced menu that would suit every palate and also showcase food and drink from the West Midlands.

Our chefs aimed very high – sometimes, too high: during an early food-tasting session, the games committee baulked at carrots roasted with turmeric and requested simpler fare. But we got the balance right on the day, and the authentic African Caribbean and Asian menus, and British dishes made with local ingredients, were enthusiastically received.

As the games got under way, you could feel the whole university community glowing with pride at being part of such a huge international event. Seeing the Royal Family at our beautiful hockey pitches on television, with the university’s domed Aston Webb building on the horizon, was wonderful.

The entire experience fine-tuned our event-planning expertise. Only through meticulous planning, stringent oversight and unprecedented levels of teamwork – vital when working with such a large number of organisations – were we able to succeed.

Malene Stanley is director of venues and events, campus services at the University of Birmingham.

The University of Birmingham has been shortlisted for International Collaboration of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2023 #THEAwards. See the full list of shortlisted candidates. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 7&nbsp;December in Liverpool.

Academics and university leaders from across the UK and Ireland will come together on 6-7 December at THE Campus Live UK&amp;IE to discuss institutional strategies, teaching and learning, the student experience and more. Join&nbsp;us for this two-day event in Liverpool.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

As an official partner of the Commonwealth Games 2022, the University of Birmingham housed and fed over 3,000 athletes from across the globe. Malene Stanley explains how they turned their campus into an athletes’ village in just a few months

Transforming a university campus into an athletes’ village

Moving to a new country is a challenge for anyone. For the thousands of international students that comprise a significant proportion of the global student population, this may also involve being away from home for the first time, dealing with a strange academic system, studying in a non-primary or foreign language or coping with a minimal support network. 

To effectively engage this diverse and critical student base, we are challenged as educators to make their educational experience just as valuable as their tertiary qualification. Here, we provide a few ways to mitigate the cognitive overload for international students at various points of their student experience.

It starts with us

Engaging with academic staff can be particularly daunting for international students, who are more likely to view academics primarily as authority figures. Host a preliminary teaching session to introduce yourself, clarifying how students should address you as an academic (eg, using your first name or which title you prefer), and offer personal information about yourself, such as hobbies and interests.


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Show vulnerability by sharing parts of your life, but don’t limit yourself to success stories. Instead, include times of adversity, fear and perceived failure. As a result, students will feel “seen”, relate better and develop trust in their educators to seek help if needed. To assist educators in helping students with their well-being, the Mental Health First Aid programme&nbsp;is available in Australia and provides academics with key skills and resources.

Check in with students

Using surveys to build up a profile of each student will help you to provide the support they need. Start the semester with an online pre-class survey in your learning management system or LMS, using questions to gauge student “bandwidth” and identify any barriers to learning,&nbsp;such as access to technology, hours worked in part-time employment and understanding of academic honesty. Later, anonymous mid-term surveys can show how well you’ve understood student expectations and what could be reinforced or evolved. This feedback loop will encourage students to have agency in their education. If engagement is low, tagging the surveys to other summative assessments can help.

Promote student support

The initial weeks of courses can overwhelm international students with information, but it’s important that they know about support services, resources and policies at their institutions. As well as including a URL on the LMS and referring to it during introductory week, create an FAQ page and adopt a multi-hit model, which will present these resources to students at relevant junctures. For example, information about laptop loan schemes may be more pressing early in the semester, while counselling services could be helpful in the lead-up to assessments. 

Provide directions and instructions for accessing close-proximity student spaces for group assessments or free-study periods, encouraging student collaboration. These can be developed as a standard set of instructions to include in personalised email replies for efficiency.

Keep it future-facing

Career sessions integrated within courses can help students to understand potential careers and how to achieve them, acting as a great motivator. These can link to career services, offering résumé-writing workshops, interview preparation, LinkedIn advice and providing career focus. 

Connect to networks

Foster a sense of belonging by providing connections to existing peer networks and participating in events yourself. At our institution, student-led societies organise social events such as an International Student Welcome or an International Food Fiesta, with relevant staff invited. If these groups don’t already exist, call for student representatives to set them up or even organise events yourself. 

This holistic approach to student experience, creating a culture that provides a sense of belonging while promoting transformation in disciplinary knowledge, will allow international students to thrive both personally and academically.

Written by the Effective and Engaging Teaching community of practice members: 

Alistair Standish is a senior lecturer in biological science; Catherine Irving is a lecturer in communication and critical thinking; Danijela Menicanin is a senior lecturer in biomedicine; Matthew Arnold is a lecturer in medicine; Navodana Rodrigo is a lecturer in architecture and civil engineering; Greg Hurnall is a technology and digital enablement specialist; Viythia Katharesan is a senior lecturer in biomedicine at the University of Adelaide. 

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Add value to the international student experience 

Given the unique challenges international students face, how can universities create an inclusive and supportive community? Educators share suggestions for helping international students thrive

Let’s make the international student experience as valuable as the degree

Teaching international students is like embarking on a culinary adventure. Every student brings their own flavourful mix to the classroom, enriching the academic experience. But to create a balanced and delicious meal, we must recognise the individual ingredients and spices each international student brings. Join me as we embark on this culinary-academic voyage together, discovering ways to build effective global classrooms!

Set the stage with a pre-class appetiser

Imagine hosting a dinner party with guests from around the world. You wouldn’t dive straight into the main course without checking their culinary preferences or for any food allergies, right? Similarly, before the academic feast begins, organise a pre-class meeting to understand your international students’ educational backgrounds and expectations.


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From my international business experience, I vividly recall a visit to Japan when a client first understood the phrase “it’s a piece of cake” to mean “it's a simple cake recipe”. We all laughed about this incident together, but it served as a good reminder of the importance of clear communication.

Experience has shown me accurate and culturally sensitive communication within an online classroom environment, where students from diverse backgrounds interact, is a necessity. Being mindful of idioms and cultural nuances ensures all students can participate fully in discussions.

Weekly check-ins are a recipe for success

Just as consistency is key in cooking, maintaining a connection with international students is equally essential. Consider holding regular check-in sessions with them so you can ensure they remain up to speed on material covered in lessons and keep the relationship gently simmering.

Online collaborations offer an immersive educational experience. One memorable experience during my undergraduate years involved working on an international project together with students from different countries via an online forum; we shared perspectives and ideas across time zones while working on our project together. It truly demonstrated the value of global connections through technology.

Cultural differences are the spice of life

Imagine mixing spices from various cultures together into one dish; the result can be an exquisite fusion of flavours. In the classroom, identifying cultural differences such as variations in academic etiquette or citation styles can enhance students’ experiences and lead to increased understanding and mutual respect among teachers and students.

Online collaborations present an unparalleled opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity. During one online discussion, a student from Brazil shared her views on teamwork, emphasising the importance of close bonds within groups, while another from Germany stressed efficiency and task completion as essential aspects of teamwork. These diverse points of view helped to enrich our discussion and appreciate global perspectives more fully.

The secret ingredient? Open communication

Effective communication is the cornerstone of success when teaching international students, so aim to foster an environment in which your pupils feel safe expressing their thoughts and worries openly.

Encourage online students to ask questions and seek clarification, since online platforms can sometimes feel distant, and create an atmosphere of open dialogue. This “secret sauce” will help to promote knowledge transfer, while simultaneously creating space for cross-cultural discussions.

A culinary extravaganza lies beyond the classroom

Learning should not stop when the figurative class bell rings; it goes beyond classroom walls. Encourage international students to immerse themselves in local academic culture and community life.

Online collaborations offer opportunities for extracurricular engagement, like international student meet-and-greets. Students can form virtual study groups, explore academic resources together or even organise cultural exchange events online – activities that not only enrich their academic journeys but also foster lifelong global friendships.

As educators, we have the privilege of cultivating an environment for learning that transcends borders. Teaching international students can be like creating a global banquet showcasing each students’ rich cultural perspective. By setting the scene and maintaining regular check-ins with students, celebrating cultural diversity and encouraging open communication and extracurricular engagement, we can ensure our global classroom offers learning that is both enriching and deliciously diverse.

Like any seasoned chef, educators have the responsibility to craft masterpieces that satisfy diverse palates. By following these steps, you will soon become a global classroom connoisseur with cultural enrichment and academic excellence mingling seamlessly in your classes for all to savour.

Embrace the spice of diversity, encourage open dialogue and provide a global classroom experience that leaves all hungry for more.

John Sinclair is a part-time faculty member in the MBA programme at CSU Global.

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A smorgasbord of strategies to help international students 

Educators are like seasoned chefs with the responsibility to create harmonious classroom environments that celebrate the flavourful cultural diversity of international students, says John Sinclair 

A smorgasbord of strategies to help international students feel included

In November 2022, Australia’s minister for education, Jason Clare, announced the Australian Universities Accord to “build a long-term plan for Australia’s higher education system”. In July 2023, after a period of consultation, the accord panel, led by Mary O’Kane, released the accord interim report. Outlining their vision for the future of higher education, the panel used an&nbsp;image of an echidna to “signify that there are ‘spiky’ ideas in the report”.

However, we argue that it does not go far enough to disrupt the status quo when it comes to the treatment of international students in higher education, nor does it sufficiently address universities’ reliance on funding from international students to generate income. While acknowledging these issues and arguing for sustainable approaches, the accord offers little to improve the situation. Ultimately, the only sustainable solution, as we will illustrate, is to shift to a social justice approach.&nbsp;

While we welcome the suggested shift from the neoliberal view of international education as an “industry” and international students as a “commodity”, the shift to “soft diplomacy” does not deviate from the current economic paradigm because it is still based on “the national interest”. The interim report specifically names and identifies “regional prosperity and development” as the benefits that international education can yield for Australia.


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We also have concerns that “soft diplomacy” is not based on a two-way (or mutual) exchange of knowledges, ideas, cultures and languages, and instead focuses on how Anglo-Western knowledge systems can be exported through education systems to wield geopolitical influence (i.e. “regional prosperity and development”). It does not value the diversity that international students bring – their differing ways of knowing, being and doing that can be shared with the Australian population.

The suggestion of a levy on international student fee income stands in stark opposition to the proposed shift away from treating international education as an industry. Instead, it acts to consolidate the integral role that international students play in funding Australia’s universities and redirects that funding away from international students themselves towards institutions that they do not even attend or infrastructure that might not benefit them. This further encourages discourses about international students as cash cows, thus reducing their contribution to universities and Australian society more broadly to monetary terms and subjects them to exploitative approaches to education, as described in the interim report. Not only does establishing a levy on international student income fail to depart from the international education as an industry approach, but it might also threaten any attempts at soft diplomacy because other countries could perceive this action poorly.&nbsp;

The review asks how best to create “a sustainable education sector”; we believe that sustainability is only possible when it is not exploitative. The only sustainable solution is to shift to a social justice approach in line with the ethical practice of “welcome”. A social justice approach to international education is one that values international students’ diverse knowledges, cultures and languages. We have some suggestions for how such an approach can be adopted.

Special fund for international students

While we do not support a levy on international student fee income to “fund sector priorities such as infrastructure and research” as suggested by the panel, we do support the establishment of a special fund for international students. This could be funded by a levy to provide the supports that they require for an improved educational experience. As previously suggested, the fund could provide “interest-free loans, scholarships, tuition and residential accommodation fee reductions, as well as support ongoing health and well-being student services” in addition to crucial English language learning support.&nbsp;

There is also the need for greater funding transparency – an important question raised in the interim report. Transparency should be used to ensure a degree of accountability for how income from international student fees is used. Universities should be required to expend an agreed-upon proportion of income from international students on their education (i.e. the purpose for which it is provided).

Initial preparatory courses

The importance of English language support has been recognised by the panel, but their suggestions of “improvement to language testing and admissions benchmarks” will not address the situation – “adequately tailored support” will. The suggestion that improvements to language testing and admissions benchmarks are required to “protect high-quality education experiences for all students” is firmly entrenched in the “English-as-a-problem” mindset. It positions speakers of other languages as a “threat” to quality education rather than holding the system accountable for the quality of education that they provide.&nbsp;

English language tests do not sufficiently measure the language needed for Australian university life, neither in the classroom nor socially. Instead, to best support international students, adequately tailored support should be provided through specific and targeted courses. Three types of initial preparatory course are required: Australian English language and culture; the university environment; and discipline-specific preparation courses.&nbsp;

Academic support&nbsp;

As acknowledged by the panel, “greater professional development of staff, including cross-cultural competency in teaching and learning, is also relevant”. International (and local) students require ongoing academic language support specific to their studies – and their university educators, as experts in their fields of knowledge, are best placed to provide this discipline-specific knowledge.

Together, these suggestions will better meet the goal of ensuring “high-quality education experiences for all students” and enhancing “Australia’s education reputation”.&nbsp;

Carly Steele is a lecturer and early career researcher; Ana Tankosić PhD is a Fulbright alumna and a sessional academic;&nbsp;Sender Dovchin is an associate professor, director of research and principal research fellow. All are at Curtin University.

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How do we ensure international students are treated fairly?

Treatment of international students needs to shift to a social justice approach, and the interim report from Australia’s Universities Accord Panel doesn’t go far enough. Here’s how we can do more

What will it take to ensure that international students are treated fairly?

First and foremost, international students are students, and every office at an institution can play an important role in supporting them with feeling. That said, international students’ needs differ from those of their local peers. Campuses can support these students (and provide resources that will benefit all learners) with a culture of collaboration across campus, consistent communication and intentional programming. 

Here are practical tips for campus administrators, faculty and leaders to enable international students to make smooth transitions to their US campuses.

How to help students prepare for their journey abroad

An international student’s experience with a US university typically begins with application through the admissions office, generally about six months before their start date. They usually need a visa before they can begin their studies overseas. Visa regulations vary widely. Each campus has officials within the admissions or international office responsible for working with international students to issue important visa documents and to answer questions about students’ immigration status. 


	The hows and whys of improved interactions with international students
	How to champion the international student experience from admission to graduation
	Five useful measures for welcoming students to international classrooms


To support success in this area, Georgia Tech hosts a series of synchronous webinars to cover important information such as obtaining student visas and the employment benefits available to international students. A key to success is considering time-zone differences and ensuring the pre-arrival sessions are recorded and made available online after the sessions.

It is essential not to advise a student on their visa status if you do not have specialised visa knowledge, because erroneous advice can endanger a student’s visa and complicate their life. Refer students to the appropriate office or copy in your campus international office when advising students to ensure they get the best possible guidance. 

In the period between being accepted to an institution (and obtaining a student visa) and when they travel to campus, students must organise housing (on- or off-campus) and transportation. This is a crucial period for helping students navigate new systems and find resources. 

Campuses should provide consistent messaging and communication about when to arrive and what orientation programmes students should participate in. Coordinated communication is necessary to identify (and close) gaps in information or services to support a smooth transition. Ultimately, this will save everyone time and frustration. Offices such as housing, orientation programming, international student services and academic programmes should collaborate to ensure that information is clear and consistent and that websites reflect the same information.

Recognise that organising housing from abroad is a daunting challenge for students coming to the US. Web resources that give detailed information about off-campus options as well as neighbourhood information, costs, how to read and understand lease agreements, utility deposits and budgeting for essential household items are incredibly useful for new arrivals. 

Housing offices often already have this information; you can link directly to their websites. 

Explaining the local higher education system

Educational norms vary widely across the globe. Communicating expectations and academic culture is another area where collaboration among campus units is powerful. Educational resources (such as webinars, information sessions or print materials) that discuss academic norms around homework, attendance requirements, teaching styles, the relationship between students and professors, concepts of academic plagiarism, tutoring and academic support resources can help students adjust to their new environment. 

Regular collaboration and coordination among academic advisers, registrar, bursar and international student offices will make course registration, late-arrival support and bill payment smoother for all involved. To develop this, campus international offices often consult with undergraduate and graduate academic advisers to discuss registration considerations for international students and late-arrival services. 

Guidance for building a support network&nbsp;

International students often arrive on campus knowing no one. Campuses that plan welcome receptions or workshop series at the start of a semester to connect international students – not only to each other but also to student clubs and organisations, campus resources and the local community – serve their students well. Facilitating a peer ambassador programme and using the ambassador network regularly in programming and outreach is a way to share information from a student perspective. This can offer a level of detail that often is unavailable to campus administrators. 

Living in a new cultural environment can be exhilarating and exhausting. Students navigate unspoken cultural rules and norms that might differ dramatically from their home cultures and ways of being each day. Programming that introduces dimensions of culture and helps students explore the unspoken values, attitudes and beliefs that shape their own cultures and their new local ones is invaluable. Your campus’ international office and local counselling services might be able to help with developing such programming. 

When organising events and programmes, pay attention to details – such as providing meal options (for example, vegetarian, kosher or halal offerings) – and consider opportunities for intercultural development that celebrate and encourage students to share their cultural identities. Many intercultural resources are available online, and international offices can often share activities to facilitate intentional programming.&nbsp;

Don’t forget holistic well-being resources

Most international students will be unfamiliar with the local healthcare system and might need additional support in understanding how to access medical care. It’s helpful to share information about the local system, student insurance and on-campus health resources in international student orientation materials and sessions. 

A how-to guide for where to find familiar foods (flavours from home can stave off homesickness), faith organisations and other well-being resources can help international students maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle during this challenging transition. A model practice collaborates with campus partners who do this work (such as the university health centre or on-campus counselling services) to present at orientation, develop web and print content to share via email and newsletters, and invite them to join regular programming.

Career and professional development&nbsp;

Many international students begin interviewing for summer internships during the autumn semester of their first year. Institutions need to help international students understand the employment benefits available. At Georgia Tech, we offer ongoing support with career and professional development through collaborations among the career centre, the international education office and alumni services. International students receive help with converting their résumés to the preferences of US employers, preparing for interview and understanding the career exploration experience of international student alumni through panel presentations. The Office of International Education hosts regular group workshops and provides individual student support. This can help students understand employment benefits associated with their visa status to prevent unintended violations of student visa rules. 

It’s incredibly beneficial to partner with your career centre and alumni services to develop resources, because they probably already have programming that can be adapted to suit an international student audience. 

Ashlee N. Toomey-Flinn is director of on-campus internationalisation at Georgia Tech.

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Helping international students settle into US universities

International students enrich and add value to American campuses. Here, Ashlee Toomey-Flinn offers practical tips for ensuring they transition successfully into their US university experience

Supporting international students in their transition to US institutions

“Internationalisation” is the buzzword of our time, and all over the world we see universities and colleges racing ahead in a bid to increase their enrolment of foreign students to boost their university rankings. As someone who has always been supportive of internationalisation, I can only state that I am personally in favour of such engagement, although it does bring a host of challenges that we need to talk about.

Over the past three decades I have taught at several universities across Europe and Southeast Asia, and the common denominator in those experiences is the fact that my classes have almost always been mixed. Much of the work I have done has also been informed by my own experience as a former international student in the UK in the early 1980s, when I had to adapt to life in a foreign country for the first time and adjust to new modes of learning that I had not experienced before. The learning curve was steep and, while learning the basics of student life, I also had to adjust to a new climate and a different kind of society. The experiences of foreign students today are hardly any different.


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Now that I’m sitting on the opposite side of the room, as a teacher rather than a student, I can see how the issues faced by international students can spill into the teaching experience as well. Those of us who have had the opportunity to teach international students will be familiar with the first challenge that has to be overcome: language and communication. For reasons that are historical in nature the reality is that the international language of academia today happens to be English. This is, as we all know, one of the legacies of Empire and it can also become a sensitive topic of discussion in some postcolonial societies where forms of linguistic nationalism have been on the rise over the past few decades, coupled with calls for the decolonisation of knowledge production. 

While these debates are important, I would like to focus on something far more mundane, which is the disparity in English proficiency among international students. Sadly, there remains a tendency to assume that when a non-native English speaker speaks with an accent, that person’s competency and knowledge is possibly compromised as well. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Overcoming this first hurdle is crucially important when handling mixed international classes, and from the first day the teacher has to emphasise to everyone the simple fact that what is said/discussed is far more important than how it is said. 

A further suggestion for those of us teaching international students is that it’s imperative to demonstrate we know what our students are trying to communicate, rather than correct their speech or writing all the time. In my experience, English proficiency always improves over time, especially when non-native speakers feel they are taken seriously from the outset. Conversely, to constantly interrupt and correct our students when they speak will only alienate them further and may demotivate them entirely in the long run.

Getting over that first hurdle does not mean the race is over, though. For those of us who teach in the humanities, subjects such as history, political theory and international relations can present us with veritable minefields in which cultural sensitivity is paramount. In such subjects, contestation of interpretation can be par for the course. It’s difficult enough to deal with contestation in a lecture setting where our students already share similar cultural backgrounds or have had prior exposure to historical data that is similar in form and content. But try conducting a course where students from different countries have been taught very different – and at times conflicting – accounts of their national histories, and you will see how differences of opinion can very quickly turn into hotly contested political debates, often with nationalist sentiments in tow.

I have experienced this myself while teaching topics such as the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia or the partition of India to classes with students from countries that were affected by these events. Here is where the lecturer has to remember that our international students have come to us with their own historical baggage and years of pre-university learning. The idea that needs to be dispelled is that there is such a thing as a “universal student” who has somehow been manufactured via a cookie-cutter process, all of them imbued with the same perspectives, values, understandings and expectations. 

My suggestion to teachers who will face such situations is to begin their very first class by laying down ground rules and expectations for their courses. It’s vital to remind everyone (ourselves included) that we’re there to explore and discuss openly, and that in the course of learning together, challenging our assumptions is part of the learning process itself. The first thing that needs to be established is the distinction between our personal beliefs or stances and the subject matter that needs to be studied critically and objectively. Above all, everyone in the class must be made to feel that nobody is being attacked, harassed or ridiculed when we engage in discussions about areas such as national politics or the political conduct of a certain country. As teachers we need to emphasise that the classroom is not a tribunal and that nobody is being judged in our discussions. 

While there are no ready-made solutions to the challenge of dealing with radically different cultural-political attitudes and stances, our duty as teachers is to spark interest in enquiry and encourage our students to question and think. In situations where some students feel compelled to silence the voices of others, the lecturer’s role is to create a space where thinking aloud can happen. Ultimately, all students – locals and international alike – must remember that critical thinking is what universities were set up for in the first place. 

Gaining that coveted university degree is a process that requires open thinking and engagement. Our task as teachers is to constantly emphasise this, while also being aware that our students may come from very different parts of the world and are not a homogenous mass. 

Farish A. Noor is professor in the Department of History at the University of Malaya. He has taught at several universities across Europe and Southeast Asia, including Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and the International Islamic University of Indonesia.

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Farish A. Noor draws on three decades of teaching across different continents to offer advice on the challenges inherent in teaching students from diverse backgrounds

Navigating the choppy waters of intercultural differences in an international classroom

As universities continue to grow, the increase in the number of international students is inevitable. It’s vital for institutions to do all they can to ensure international students feel secure and welcome upon their arrival, particularly because they are leaving their homes and preparing to live in countries that they might not have visited before – or even heard of before they applied. As someone who worked on the welcoming committee for international students arriving in Cyprus, I would like to share the strategies I feel are necessary for institutions to take in order to ensure international students have a smooth transition to university life. 

1. Preparing for arrival

Having previously worked in my university’s international students office, one of my tasks was to prepare a list of new students arriving on the island, alongside their flight details so that a member of staff at the institution could meet the students at the airport. Of course, the list had to be carefully prepared so students were not missed at the airport. Students who see their names being held up at arrivals certainly feel more welcome. The member of staff greeting students at the airport would then transport them to the relevant dormitories on campus. 


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2. Arrival

Upon their arrival at your institution, international students might feel lonely and not know where to go, stay, shop or even what to do. For this reason, it’s crucial that a member of staff provides a mini tour of the institution, particularly the main areas of interest such as the supermarket located on campus, student dormitories, the library, cafes and areas to socialise. It’s also vital to ensure that a member of staff is always available at the dormitories to assist, particularly because some students will arrive in the early hours of the morning and not know where to go for simple needs. Finding initial basic needs covered – such as clean bedsheets and a small pack containing simple things including shampoo, handwash, a towel, snacks and water – upon arriving at their accommodation goes a long way towards helping international students settle.

3. Orientation programmes

One- or two-week orientation programmes organised by the university – not just for international students but all new students – work very effectively towards preparing freshers for university life. Such programmes should include a tour of the main areas at the university and can also incorporate sports activities such as bowling, football or basketball, which can help students integrate and mix with one another. After the first few days, organising trips to nearby historical sites or sightseeing tours as part of the programme helps greatly with the students’ orientation. Such programmes are fundamental in helping international students feel welcome as they will have all-important opportunities to socialise with other students and become familiar with new faces before lectures start.

4. Online platforms

Despite the disadvantage of not meeting face to face, online platforms can still be made available by institutions for students to discuss points of concern or tips for learning, regardless of which faculty they are enrolled in. This can help international students integrate with other students but, as discussed before, orientation programmes are usually a better option because students will have the opportunity to meet and socialise face to face.

5. Meet-and-greet session

Arranging a meet-and-greet session is probably the most important option available to universities to help international students feel more welcome. Students from each year group can participate in the sessions, giving details of their experience of university life, what they found most challenging, what they found interesting, as well as tips for studying, learning and revision, and so on. Ensuring students from different backgrounds participate in the sessions will help international students realise that any issues they face are surmountable and that others like them have succeeded in the past.&nbsp;

Of course, there are many strategies besides those mentioned above, but in my experience, these are the most useful.

Ayten Ordu is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the Near East University, North Cyprus. Her research focuses on aspects of civil law. 

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Ayten Ordu provides five top tips that will help ensure international students have a smooth transition to their new surroundings

How to help international students prepare for university life ahead of and after their arrival

An international student orientation programme should be more than a single day of welcome; it should act as a guiding light, helping students overcome obstacles and thrive in their new academic and cultural environment.

While each international student’s experience is unique, new arrivals face common challenges in academics, social interactions, adapting to a new culture and maintaining their well-being. Regardless of their adaptability, all international students need support from their host institutions for a smooth transition. One effective tool for providing this support is an international student orientation programme. These programmes, while tailored to the culture and resources of each institution, share a goal: helping international students adjust to the university. 


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This article describes the international student orientation programme at the University of Canterbury (UC) in New Zealand, where the international office collaborates with other student service teams to welcome students from around the world and help them overcome the challenges they encounter. Manaakitanga is a guiding principle for university staff, and a core value at UC, ensuring a supportive and inclusive environment for every international student in their academic pursuit and cross-cultural journey. 

Orientation begins before students arrive on campus

A comprehensive orientation should start before students leave their home countries. This is a crucial time because students may be anxious about moving to a new country. The primary objective of pre-arrival sessions is to assist students in completing essential procedures, such as applying for student visas, booking international flights and securing the right accommodation. These sessions should provide information about what life will be like at the new institution and in the host country and help alleviate students’ concerns. 

This period is also an excellent time to introduce students to key support staff. Institutions can effectively engage with students through means such as email, online meetings and social media. Email offers the advantages of hyperlinks and allowing for self-paced reading. Content within emails can encompass welcoming messages, reminders to apply for visas and book accommodation, instructions on enrolling and introductions to the host country’s culture. 

Zoom meetings enable real-time interaction with other international students. These sessions can include welcome messages from senior staff, opportunities to meet key student support staff and Q&amp;A sessions. In addition, short videos on social media platforms provide an engaging format that can be easily shared with a broader audience. These videos can also contain welcome messages, feature senior students introducing the campus and key student support services, offer insights into the host country’s culture and language, and provide helpful tips for arrival day.

What happens when international students arrive on campus?

Orientation sessions should take place shortly after students arrive in the host country and before their academic classes start. These sessions should aim to prepare them for their educational journey and life in their new country. In addition to extending a warm welcome, orientation covers academic, social, cultural and well-being elements and so kick-starts students’ adjustment to the institution and their new environment. The international office and other student service teams, such as the academic skills centre, student advisers and health centre, can collaborate to create an effective arrival orientation programme. 

The programme starts with an orientation day, and a core tenet of an in-person orientation day is to foster a warm and welcoming atmosphere, allowing international students to connect and form relationships. Don’t overload students with information – they can receive useful information in subsequent sessions. Below is what we include in international orientation sessions at UC. In addition to these sessions, activities such as a city tour or a field trip can make the experience memorable and enriching.


	International welcome: meeting student service teams and other international students
	Living essentials session: banking, transportation, health, safety and shopping
	Local culture session: getting to know common expressions, local food and customs
	Student life session: exploring student clubs and mingling with other international students
	Academic success session: understanding the university system, learning techniques and time-management skills
	Well-being session: how to manage academic-related stress
	Advocacy and welfare session: understanding rights as international students and being aware of advocacy services on campus
	Work and career development session: career path planning, understanding the local job market and visa requirements related to employment.


Ongoing engagement to reinforce belonging

After the arrival orientation sessions, it is crucial to maintain regular engagement with international students. Weekly tea or coffee meet-ups, for example, provide an opportunity for international office staff to build rapport with students and gather feedback. These regular gatherings can follow diverse themes; for example, invite a local police officer to discuss safety topics with international students.

In addition to regular meet-ups, the international office can also support and promote student club events that facilitate connections among international students, domestic students and the local community. Consider activities that promote cross-cultural awareness, such as an international food festival or fashion show. 

Volunteer opportunities for new international students can help them build a sense of belonging and meaningful connections beyond the campus. At UC, international students actively engage in volunteer work, including at retirement villages, national parks and local libraries.

The journey of international students is a blend of excitement and challenges. Common threads of academic adaptation, cultural adjustment and social integration highlight the need for support from host institutions. Comprehensive international student orientation programmes play a pivotal role in nurturing a sense of belonging and promoting success among international students throughout their academic and cross-cultural journey.

Mengping Cheng is&nbsp;international student experience coordinator in the International Relationships Office at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

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How should universities welcome international students? 

Orientation is an ongoing process for international students, so welcome programmes need to extend further than a single day. Here, Mengping Cheng explains how to support new arrivals throughout their adjustment

How to support international students’ smooth transition to a new country

Pre-sessional courses are typically short-term English programmes that students take in order to improve their language skills. They are designed to help students be better prepared for their programmes of study and potentially meet offer requirements if a particular level of proficiency is required. For example, at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, the institution provides both optional four-week courses for students who wish to refresh and hone their skills and mandatory eight-week courses for learners who need to meet the terms of conditional offers. 

Designing pre-sessional courses

In order to ensure that pre-sessional courses are as well designed as possible, it’s important that providers design courses that are student-centred. This means they help to develop and improve English language abilities, familiarise the students with the academic standards and study skills that will enable them to subsequently thrive at that institution and facilitate a growth mindset that promotes and develops academic independence. With these considerations in mind, providers and the teams responsible for course development constantly need to tap into institutional knowledge in the areas of curriculum and materials design, assessment practices and procedures, administration, and staff and student recruitment (among other areas), and then channel and direct this effort. This requires experienced and reflective leadership at all levels and in all areas. It also necessitates good collaborative, interpersonal and time-management skills. 


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Running pre-sessional courses

Beyond the initial set-up and delivery of a pre-sessional course or suite of courses there are a number of additional areas that, if we as educators get things right, will mean the end-point outcomes can be significantly enhanced, in both the immediate term and going forward.

1. Staffing is important. If you can draw on your own teachers, rather than outsourcing staffing, you have a teaching base that really understands the needs of the learners and the context in which they are going to be working. This might be achieved by managing workloads throughout the year, or time off, while keeping an acute eye on year-round availability.

2. Workload is a key feature. Educators who have been working all year round will have to give up parts of their summers to work on these programmes, so if staff are reasonably well remunerated, feel valued and appreciated (which costs nothing) and have a balanced workload, then their contributions in the classroom are likely to be enhanced because they feel fresher and more engaged. This differs from professionalism, which teachers are expected to live up to regardless. 

3. Relationship management is another key area. If the aim of the experience is to provide the paying customer with an end product that prepares them as well as possible for what is to follow, then input from academic departments, schools or academies is important because it can enhance the authenticity of the learning. It is also essential to provide pastoral support to these students, because initiation into a new learning environment can be challenging and well-being is paramount. This necessitates building and maintaining positive working relationships with all stakeholders, a lot of which can be achieved through social channels, such as institutional activities and events. 

4. The student and staff voices are essential. Listening to key stakeholders, taking their views seriously and letting them know that these are valued cannot be underestimated. Just as we would collect feedback from staff teaching on a course or programme in order to enhance the delivery of it, so too is the voice of the learners of paramount importance. Not only do we demonstrate a willingness to engage and learn, but we also highlight the type of community that the students are now becoming a part of. To achieve this, multiple informal and formal feedback channels can be used. 

5. Finally, having some external voices to provide us with impartial feedback is vitally important. This enables us to take a step back and hear an objective evaluation of the work being done – and not an emotive and/or invested one. External examiners and accrediting bodies can provide valuable contributions in order to achieve best practice, while listening to staff not working on the course can also be insightful. 

Shayna Kozuch is the deputy head of the Centre for English Language Education at University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), where she manages external programmes and pathways including commercial programmes, summer programmes, teacher training and outreach.

Dawn Buckley is a module convenor on the eight-week pre-sessional programme and an English for academic purposes tutor at UNNC. She has taught on pre-sessional courses in China and the UK, and worked on a range of programmes in Ireland, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Turkey and Spain.

Michaela Seserman is a module convenor on the eight-week pre-sessional programme and an English for academic purposes tutor at UNNC. She has taught in India, Turkey, the UK and China.

Geoffrey Gao is the manager of pre-sessional and in-sessional support at UNNC’s Centre for English Language Education. He is a trained educator who also supports the writing lab at the university.

Gareth Morris is senior tutor in English for academic purposes at the Centre for English Language Education at UNNC.

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How to create and run pre-sessional courses

A team from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China outline the starting points for providing short-term English proficiency courses for non-native speakers

How to create and run pre-sessional courses to enhance future success

A student-centric university culture is fundamental to preparing students for lifelong learning. By encouraging students to control their individual drivers and direction through a degree programme, we empower them to engage a mindset for personalised education throughout their lives. It is through our co-creation and collaboration with students that universities have a substantive role in cultivating a lifelong-learning mentality. 

But what if international students are not as fluent in or comfortable with this form of university engagement? Then we have work to do to prepare them for lifelong learning so they are not left behind.

Lifelong learning is transforming education landscapes across the globe, with microcredentials, blended learning and more continuous professional development requirements in the workplace just the beginning of sector-wide change. It is what individuals need more than ever before to thrive throughout dynamic and changeable careers. 


	Spotlight:&nbsp;Lifelong learning that will last
	Five tips for helping international students settle in their new surroundings
	Don’t forget that international students need careers support too


Universities have rapidly mobilised to become providers of lifelong learning to those who are ready for it. We build short courses, Moocs, chunked lectures, flipped classrooms, skill-based assessment and edtech that claims to deliver anything to anyone, anywhere, any time. But none of this prepares students – domestic or international – for lifelong learning. Are we missing the critical step of equipping learners with the mindset for the lifelong learning we are busily preparing to deliver?

What motivates lifelong learning?

We understand many of the motivations that build a mindset for lifelong learning. Perhaps a little cynically, workplace dissatisfaction scores high on that list. Other factors include personal growth, curiosity, networking, individual fulfilment, well-being and career advancement. 

Many international students already have this mindset. Consider the motivation it takes to leave your country, to invest massively or take on enormous debt to pursue international education, to remove yourself from family, friends and culture, and to possibly build a new life in a new country with a new career, wherever that might take you. This is a self-driven, transformative mentality. As a pioneering international PhD student in regional Australia during the dying days of the White Australia policy, my Sri Lankan father-in-law transformed the trajectory of his family. This type of experience is common among our international students at the University of Canterbury&nbsp;| Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha (UC). With their commitment to personal growth through learning, it could be argued that international students might be eminently prepared for a lifelong-learning journey.

However, spending thousands of hours answering student enquiries in recruitment halls around the world can be enlightening. International students often push back against modern Western approaches to academic co-design, which consider students and universities to be partners in a collaborative learning journey, where students have significant freedom to choose their own adventures. Many international students from our largest markets look to us as experts with the specialised knowledge and the responsibility to direct them towards the outcomes they need. Concepts of partnership risk the perception that we do not take that responsibility seriously. Anecdotal evidence and empirical research suggest that international students from our largest markets need time to acclimatise to Western teaching styles, to accept teachers as guides rather than enforcers, to feel comfortable making personal contributions to group tasks, and to be self-directed in a flipped-classroom learning environment. 

I used to question university marketing rhetoric such as “We are a student-centred university”. Haven’t we always been focused on students? But look how far we have grown from traditional, one-size-fits-all degree programmes to programme designs that give control of the learning journey to the personal drivers of each individual student. Based on the desire for personal growth, students can co-create with universities customised education from a plethora of options, including workplace engagement, international mobility, remote attendance, a choice of electives, majors and minors, engagement with research, dual or conjoint degrees, and greater personal expression through skills-based assessment.

Welcoming international students through intercultural orientation

UC prepares international students for this engaged learning environment through an intercultural approach to first-year orientation and transition that leans heavily on the Māori concept of Manaakitanga. We offer Manaakitanga to international students: to care about their well-being and sense of belonging through hospitality and protection; to uplift and support them with humility, compassion and empathy; and to respect their individual backgrounds, mindsets and needs, which might be foreign to us. The UC orientation and transition programme delivers ongoing support not only to orientate international students within the university, but also to transition them to the mindset needed to engage fully with student-centred learning, and ultimately with the concept of lifelong learning.

The concept of ongoing transition rather than orientation in week one has rapidly gained acceptance. However, there is value in examining the intercultural competency of our orientation and transition programmes. A 2013 Unesco conceptual and operational framework for intercultural competencies broadly states that intercultural competences aim to free people from their own logic and cultural idioms. Surely that should be the aspiration of an interculturally competent orientation and transition programme: to free our students from cultural, historic or other preconceptions about higher education and prepare them to embrace a student-centred approach to learning. 

UC’s orientation and transition programme, particularly as delivered through the UC Business School, has been co-designed with the Māori iwi of our region, drawing on an indigenous worldview to help overcome our own cultural preconceptions and reach out to our international students with greater cultural fluency, learning from them as they learn from us. In doing so, we stand the best chance of preparing our students for lifelong-learning journeys, irrespective of their origins and the types of teaching that they are used to.

International students have specific learning needs and are at risk of being left behind. I believe preparing international students for lifelong learning is so important that to fail this responsibility would be to neglect our overarching pastoral care obligations.

Graham Wise is the director of international development at the University of Canterbury&nbsp;| Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand.

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International students might not be comfortable with the student-centred mindset that underpins continuous, self-directed learning. We must prepare them for lifelong learning so they are not left behind, argues Graham Wise

What about lifelong learning for international students?

Teaching in higher education institutions too often presumes that students in a class have similar backgrounds and aspirations. Be it knowledge of fundamental concepts in the subject, language and vocabulary or even plans for the future, there are bound to be significant variations among students, particularly in international classrooms. Different groups of students might be taking your class for different reasons – to satisfy core requirements, because it was the only one for which they met the prerequisites, or out of deep interest and passion for the subject. Particularly in classes where the student population is culturally diverse, all these factors and more lead to the fact that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to teaching often does a big disservice. 


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International, diverse classrooms with students learning and performing at a very high level are not a new phenomenon. However, it is always worth examining the effectiveness of our teaching techniques and acknowledging the changes we need to make for an inclusive classroom. Here are five important measures you should be thinking about in your international class design.

Begin at the beginning 

It seems obvious that a course should start with an introduction, maybe a bit of motivation and a perspective on how the field has evolved. However, instructors frequently make assumptions about what students know and, as early as week one, they stand to lose a number of students. It is useful to take a few hours in class to judge the level of the students, learn what they don’t know (and why they took this particular course) and welcome them gently into what is bound to be a hectic term. 

Keep it simple 

Complex marking schemes, sliding deadlines, unclear demarcation between recommended and suggested readings, dynamic lecture schedules and flowery or vague language are recipes for disaster. Keep the course clear, well articulated and simple. Publish a class and homework schedule right at the beginning, announce exam dates and prescribe readings specifically. 

Assign additional reading or resources

As the course progresses, you will be able to clearly identify students who are floundering and those who are not being challenged enough. You could assign additional reading on foundational aspects for those who lack conceptual clarity or state-of-the-art journal articles for the students who are ahead of the curve. Note that this is best done as suggestions given in one-on-one meetings with the students. Sometimes they don’t have the motivation, bandwidth or time to do anything beyond the classroom – and it is also important that we accept this. My top recommendation is to design a few interactive games that provide students with a failsafe means for learning new concepts or brushing up on prior knowledge. Plus, via timed play, this means they can compete with themselves and one another in a healthy way. 

Check that evaluation pattern

Even the best efforts at inclusivity in the classroom can be smashed when instructors design exams. Even more than lectures, evaluations need to account for differences in background knowledge, training and future aspirations of the students in a class. Moreover, it is always better to reward both effort and performance, particularly in an international classroom. And remember that breakout-room activities needn’t be limited to online classes – use them for group activities and award points for participation, ingenuity, clarity of thought and so on. Traditional pen-and-paper, closed-book timed exams do have their role to play, but so do other, more innovative means of evaluating students. Instructors would do well to include several modes in the design of the class to accommodate various types of learner. 

Engage better

Everyone faces this at some point in their teaching careers – students being too shy, intimidated or uncaring about answering questions (or asking their own). These feelings, and the chasm between teacher and student, can be further exacerbated by differences in accents, vocabulary, fluency in English and so on. Some students might have come from very rigid educational backgrounds where asking questions in the class was not encouraged. Acknowledging these differences, being mindful about not crossing hidden cultural barriers and accommodating diverse viewpoints about classroom etiquette, while difficult, are important. Instructors would do well to adapt their methods for student engagement depending on the people in the class in front of them. 

Many of us have had long teaching careers. We may well establish ourselves as a particular kind of teacher and a caricature of us trickles down to student populations over generations. But every class is different and, as we embrace the power of diversity and inclusivity, it is good for us to learn and grow alongside our students. In doing so, we stand to expand our own perspectives, efficiently improve classroom engagement and train robust new cohorts of students capable of contributing more in the supersonic, ever-changing world of today.

Preeti Aghalayam is director-in-charge of the Zanzibar campus, IIT Madras.&nbsp;

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Preeti Aghalayam explains why it’s worth examining the effectiveness of your teaching, acknowledging the changes needed for an inclusive classroom and how to do it

Five useful measures for welcoming students to international classrooms

While still at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Jairis Alvarez Trujillo helped to design a solar-powered house and set out how it could be transported sustainably to Dubai as part of the 2020 Solar Decathlon Middle East competition. 

A learning experience like this can really set university students apart once they start to compete with others to clinch a sought-after internship or early career opportunity anywhere in the world. 

So how can the UK’s higher education sector open up more opportunities for students to learn and develop new skills overseas?

Worldwide higher education 

It’s not unusual for UK-based universities to also have campuses located in different regions across the world. However, each international campus typically welcomes its own cohort of students who tend to remain in one location for the duration of their course. 

At Heriot-Watt, where I work, all students, just like Jairis, can choose to transfer between our three campuses in the UK, one in Dubai and one in Malaysia if their courses are taught there.


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Every academic year, our Go Global programme sees hundreds of students experience the best of both worlds by taking up the opportunity to come to the UK from our campuses in Dubai and Malaysia, or vice versa, for a semester, a year or even longer. The opportunities enrich the higher education experience for all students in so many ways. 

By immersing students in new cultures overseas, they not only expand their networks and make lifelong friends but also gain valuable life skills, including independence and resilience. This exposure enhances their understanding of international issues and equips them for early career success in an increasingly competitive job market. 

But before diving in, institutions wishing to explore the possibility of running similar programmes should carefully consider a few key factors to ensure students make the most of this potentially transformative experience and prepare for a journey that maximises learning, growth and unforgettable memories.

Smooth the way

Students might not instantly settle into university life in a different country, particularly if everything on their new campus is completely different from what they’ve experienced before. A little familiarity can help to smooth the transition.

One way to provide this is to deliver the same course content in common subjects across all campuses. This means students can arrive in their destination countries and continue their studies without worrying about being at different stages from their peers or having to catch up once they get back. 

At Heriot-Watt, we try to ensure students’ learning experiences are as close as they can be to identical no matter where in the world a student is studying. Enabling our teaching staff to transfer between campuses also helps ensure teaching in all subject areas is of a similar standard, too. 

It’s equally essential to provide support for a student through each stage of their move. Sending regular reminders about application deadlines, for example, and running cultural awareness sessions can help ensure students know exactly what to expect when they arrive in a new destination. Cohorts of students heading to the same campus at the same time should be given plenty of opportunities to get to know each other before they leave, too, which will help make them feel part of their global learning community.

Of course, it’s not always possible for students to transfer their studies abroad. With this in mind, we have developed cross-campus projects to allow those who can’t physically move to still gain that invaluable international experience. A recent project involved students taking beach samples in Dubai, Malaysia and Scotland.

Minimise the impact on staff workloads

Go Global is no small undertaking, so it’s crucial to reduce the administrative impact on staff workloads as much as possible. One of the most effective ways to do this is to standardise workflows and processes across the institution.

For example, we have a single information management system from Ellucian, which is used across all our campuses. This means student movements are consistently tracked and data on courses and student progress can be updated easily, so there’s no need for it to be requested or shared manually between our UK and overseas campuses. Staff can simply update and view the data they are authorised to see, whether they are based in the UK or internationally. 

Staff get automatic alerts and reminders to help them manage each stage of a transfer, too, which can save hours of time and reduces the risk of anything being missed. We make sure students studying internationally sit the same assessments and exams at the same time within their subject areas, too, which makes the whole process of managing assessments and monitoring progress much simpler.

Broadening horizons

As a sector, the UK’s higher education institutions have a significant role to play in broadening students’ horizons, helping them compete in the global workplace and shaping our future leaders. Giving students the opportunity to gain worldwide perspectives, learn new languages and experience different cultures as part of their university experiences enhances their academic and personal growth and better equips them to navigate our increasingly interconnected world. 

Chris Pirie is a student systems manager at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Chris Pirie offers advice on how to run a smooth international student exchange programme

Help students make the most of studying overseas at branch campuses and beyond

UK universities are currently riding high on the international recruitment wave. Student demand has snapped back and we’ve smashed international student targets a decade before deadline. 

Yet Universities UK is cautioning against complacency in the face of fierce and rising overseas competition, which threatens the UK’s ranking as the world’s second most popular study destination. Its&nbsp;second report into international student recruitment, published last year, warns against dismissing the pre-pandemic pattern of the UK’s declining market share. As global competition intensifies it will be essential for institutions to have the right levers and mechanisms in place to attract and meet both student and education agents’ needs and expectations. 

Applying to university is a big decision for anyone, but for international students it can be even more daunting. They are making a significant emotional, social and financial investment, while navigating visa and entry requirements and preparing to move to a new country. 


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At Aston University the number of international students has tripled in the four years since 2019 and we’ve experienced the pressure meeting the rise in enrolments can bring. Here I offer some valuable lessons in how to successfully manage the flow of international student applications.

Creating an effective application and enrolment process

Provide real-time information: Giving prospective students up-to-date information on the status of their applications can help to minimise their anxiety and streamline the process on both sides. Not being kept informed about the progress of an application can lead some students to jump ship to other institutions. 

We provide all overseas students with access to an online portal to track and manage their applications digitally, every step of the way. Universities could opt to build their own in-house portals, if they have the expertise and capacity, but there are also plenty of third-party providers including our own, Enroly, as well as Salesforce, Workday and Ellucian.

Students should be automatically prompted to upload the relevant documents, such as passports, qualifications and bank statements. They should be able to log in and see how their applications are progressing whenever they wish and access any required additional documentation specific to their own situations. This minimises the risk of visa refusal due to incorrect or insufficient documentation, which ultimately has a direct impact on the university’s visa sponsor licence.

If students have all the information they need in front of them, they feel more supported throughout the application process. This is borne out in the 62 per cent reduction in incoming phone and email enquiries we’ve seen since giving students greater oversight of their applications.

Prioritise support efforts: Given the large applicant numbers, institutions must prioritise those candidates who need additional support. Some prospective students might want to know if they can access help finding accommodation or discuss whether they are going to fit in and feel at home in the UK. Others will want reassurance that someone is there to guide them through their university journey. 

The university team might need to speak to some applicants to ensure their choices of university and courses are the right ones: for example, to double-check the qualifications attained in their home countries are compatible with studying for their desired degrees, or to understand what their planned career paths are to give them the greatest chance of success.

Managing the application process is a balancing act because institutions want applicants to feel welcome and supported, but they must also take steps to verify the credibility of applications when necessary. The diversification of the international recruitment market brings big opportunities, but there are also clear risks. As Universities UK acknowledges, without good governance and effective risk management institutions are vulnerable to significant financial and reputational issues. 

Ensuring there are auditable and robust mechanisms in place to verify that applicants have sufficient funds, for example, is essential. Administrative teams should set their automated systems to flag applicants that require extra support or checks, based on the information provided. We’ve done this by automating bank statement checks so that those with errors, or which don’t comply, are flagged for staff to examine manually and check that there is sufficient availability of funds. 

Managing immigration issues: As internationalism becomes more important for universities, how to manage complex immigration issues more effectively should be a key consideration. Post Brexit, EU student applications between 2020 and 2022 fell to their lowest level since 1994, while applications from non-EU students increased to record levels in the same period, UK government figures show. 

To maintain credibility and safeguard their licence to sponsor migrant students, all institutions must take a rigorous approach to compliance and ensure offers are made only to students whose reasons to apply are genuine. But weeding out the bogus from the bone fide becomes more laborious as application volumes increase. 

Universities should use information in their applications systems to spot emerging patterns. We identified in recent years that many bank loan letters from Indian banks haven’t been meeting the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) requirements in terms of information and format. So we were able to provide targeted advice to specific students to avoid their visas being refused and protect our sponsor licence. This has encouraged many Indian banks to revise and adapt their information and is a positive move for the sector. 

For UK institutions to stay on top of the competition in international student recruitment, it is important to build in a high level of customer service to ensure an excellent student experience from the start, through the entire student journey to graduation, and beyond.

Christina Matthews is director of student experience at Aston University.

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UK universities can increase their appeal for international students with better transparency and support through the application and enrolment process, Christina Matthews explains

How to support more international student applications 

University internationalisation efforts typically include student exchange programmes (inbound and outbound), site visits, cultural tours and other activities. However, during the Covid-19 disruption, nearly all exchange programmes were suspended because of travel restrictions and quarantine measures. As a result, some students have been deprived of an opportunity to study at a foreign institution and need to find alternative ways to acquire leadership skills, appreciate transcultural knowledge and gain insights into globalisation.

During the Covid-19 disruption, many institutions switched to offering classes online or in a hybrid delivery mode. For nearly all universities operating online classes, all participants were, as might be expected, students enrolled there. In other words, technology was bridging the distance and timing divides of participants (teachers and students) from the same institution.

&nbsp;


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However, with just a simple twist to this concept, technology can also bridge the distance and timing divides between students and teachers from multiple institutions. This gave birth to the notion of “global classrooms”, a type of internationalisation-at-home effort.

The global classroom

At the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), we have been piloting the use of the global classroom (GC) since 2017, well before Covid-19. The GC, a kind of collaborative online international learning (Coil), is defined as a learning space that fosters co-learning, collaboration, sharing and co-creation of deliverables among its participants.

Both synchronous and asynchronous activities can be included in a GC. Examples of synchronous activities are live/joint lectures, role plays, group discussions and Q&amp;A panel sessions. Asynchronous activities may include using a common online discussion forum, reflections on recorded content and co-creation of project deliverables by a joint project team (where members are drawn from multiple institutions).

Benefits of a GC

The GC has turned out to be a refreshing new pedagogy, thanks to the advancement of technologies and increasingly connected societies. More than typical internationalisation efforts, a GC enables all students in a subject to benefit, not just the handful of students who were approved for an exchange programme. Furthermore, the GC is very scalable; it does not require any additional investment in infrastructure or technology. 

It can also help students acquire much-needed skills that they might need as knowledge workers in the 21st century. For example, through carefully designed joint activities, students can enhance their communication, critical thinking, collaboration and presentation skills. 

In our own experience of the GC, feedback and reflections from teachers and students from participating institutions have all been very positive; they all reported that the GC offers a refreshing and impactful learning experience for all participants. Meanwhile, students participating in the GC as their graduate intake programmes during Covid-19 also relayed to us that their GC experience was highly valued by corporate interviewers. Many parties have agreed to continue hosting the GC and are permeating this pedagogy into routine operations in programme delivery.

GC challenges 

Behind the successes, of course, there are also major challenges in planning and hosting a GC. These are summarised alongside recommended solutions below:

Locating an overseas collaborator: Pursuing both official (the university’s international office) and personal channels (collaborators, former colleagues, people met at conferences) brings the best chance of success and also leverages existing relationships.

Long lead time: Start planning early, at least six to eight months ahead.

Finding a common time slot for synchronous collaboration: Ideally approach institutions that are within +/- four hours from the time zone of the home institution, as this offers a better chance of a window for a common time slot. Also, consider pursuing asynchronous collaboration, as GC does not necessarily need to be synchronous. Consider using only a portion of the class time for a GC. Pre-record a lecture for students to replay if a common time slot cannot be found.

Collecting feedback: Be aware of the policies and regulations of the overseas institutions and government before distributing surveys or approaching foreign students for interviews.

Measuring outcome and impact: This needs careful planning and alignment with the subject’s learning outcomes. In the past, PolyU subjects have used pre- and post-study surveys, feedback and interviews with students and teachers for this purpose.

Further GC value adds

After five years of operating the GC, we discovered another significant gain: enabling students to appreciate and accrue intercultural knowledge. This is commonly rated as a key factor for success in organisational decision-making as well as for global knowledge workers to excel. As such, we have been collaborating with US, European and South African universities to raise awareness and foster a deeper appreciation of the East-West cultural divide for students from different continents. The GC is a great pedagogy to operationalise this initiative. 

Culture is a topic that is discussed in almost all subjects (including the language, business, engineering, design, tourism and healthcare disciplines). Hence, offering a GC on culture is immediately welcome and also significantly expands the flexibility in hosting a GC (for example, it is no longer necessary to pair students from the same discipline and the same level).

Conclusion

The GC is a highly useful pedagogy and should be folded into the delivery of academic programmes worldwide. Universities developing a more flexible timetabling system to accommodate this pedagogy, along with the staging of intercultural lectures, add significant value to the many benefits already offered by the global classroom.

Eric Tsui is senior educational development officer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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Eric Tsui explains how to intensify internationalisation-at-home efforts, bringing many benefits to students and institutions alike, such as the sharing of transcultural knowledge

An introduction to the global classroom: benefits, challenges and value added

As scholars we all belong to that global tribe known as the “international academic community”, and once in a while there may arrive a rare opportunity to accept a visiting position at an institution overseas. As someone who has worked in several countries in Europe, South-east Asia and East Asia, my advice is simple: if and when such an opportunity appears, take it. Having a string of stints abroad adds to your CV and profile in myriad ways and, on top of that, gives you ample opportunity to network with like-minded scholars and institutions, potentially finding academic companions for life. 

Having said that, I would also make it clear that accepting a visiting position overseas is not as easy as it sounds. This is particularly true for those of us who happen to live and work in the developing Global South, for the sad reality is that we live in an unequal world and not all passports are created equal. To make things easier if and when the time does come, though, here are some things to look out for:

First, you should always begin by doing serious research into the institution that is inviting you, as well as&nbsp;into the host country. While some universities have embraced internationalisation with relish, their respective countries may not. You will need to carry this research out yourself – even if it is only for a short stint of a semester or half a year. 


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One factor to consider is whether the institution inviting you has a dedicated department or unit that deals with overseas academics and students. Here at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, where I am based, the university’s welcome centre played a pivotal role in my decision to accept the offer of a visiting professorship. The centre was set up specifically to help academics and students from abroad find their way to Germany, helping them fulfil all the requirements of German immigration. For those whose command of the German language is weak (and mine is truly basic), this was a great help indeed. Not all universities have these centres and, in such cases, the visiting academic would have to figure everything out for herself/himself, which can be a nightmare for many. So, step one would be to check if the host university has people there who can help as you prepare for the trip. Never be shy when it comes to asking for help in this regard. 

The second thing to ask yourself is whether you’re willing and able to go alone or if you would need to bring your family with you. In my case I made it clear to the host institution that I would not be willing to come without my wife, and my advice is to be frank with your host institution from the beginning. Travelling with my wife meant that a second set of documents had to be prepared so she could join me on a spousal visa. Again, this requires prior research, as different countries have different rules and regulations when it comes to the issuing of spousal visas or family visas for children. For those with kids in tow, a host of other considerations arise: are there going to be local schools that cater to foreign children? Can your kids simply enrol into the local schools, or would they need an international school to cater to their needs? All this will add to the overall cost of your stint abroad.

Which brings me to the practical question of salaries and costs. Some visiting positions may offer a return ticket as part of the contract, while some do not. At present, the cost of long-distance travel in the post-Covid era is prohibitively expensive for many, and for those with families coming along, it might be so high as to render the venture futile. Always check with your friends and colleagues who work at the inviting institution about daily living costs – never rely on those generic charts and tables you find on the internet. 

It would also be wise to get an understanding of the work culture at your host institution. Again, one should always be honest from the outset. The host institution may be an old one, where a certain work culture has developed over decades, and the visiting academic needs to understand the basic protocols of daily work: are you expected to attend every single meeting or departmental dinner? Are you allowed to rely on the secretaries or student assistants to help you with things such as photocopying or scanning documents? These may seem like mundane matters, but different places may have different rules regarding office work, and it would be wise to know them lest one end up stepping on the toes of others by accident. 

In the final analysis, we need to ask ourselves why we would accept a visiting position abroad in the first place? For younger academics whose careers are just beginning, a stint abroad may add a tinge of prestige to their budding academic profiles, showing they are well regarded&nbsp; by international institutions. But always remember that you are going overseas for work; this is not meant to be a holiday. Teaching and research await, but also the opportunities for collaboration, project designing and the possibility of collaborative work on a bigger scale later. As an academic who has always believed in, and pushed for, international cooperation, I can only state again: if the opportunity arises, do take it. But please do so with your eyes wide open.

Farish A. Noor is presently visiting professor at the standards of decision-making across cultures (SDAC) programme at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter. 

Having worked in numerous countries across different continents, Farish A. Noor gives advice on what to look out for when potentially moving overseas

Lots to unpack: tips for those considering visiting positions abroad

When choosing where to go to university, many students opt to study abroad. Sometimes they are attracted by the personal development opportunities it offers through cultural exchange and the experience of living in a new country. Others might wish to improve their language skills or attend a particular institution.

For colleges and universities, international students are a valuable part of the student body and a great source of income. Most importantly, having global ambassadors for your university is a key driver for future enrolments and can encourage more students from all over the world to study at your institution. 

Recruitment of international students is becoming more competitive. To stand out, universities must prioritise digital marketing strategies, using a targeted approach. There are a few simple steps that universities can take to ensure marketing efforts are reaching international students. 


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Specify your target audience

First, universities must specify who their target audience is. For example, if students from certain parts of the world prioritise studying STEM fields, universities should develop marketing strategies focused on STEM programmes to target these students. As such, conducting market research is essential if you are to understand the unique preferences and needs of any demographic. This could be done by analysing enrolment data, conducting surveys or focus groups and engaging with alumni from different international student groups. 

With an understanding of the target demographics, universities can tailor marketing content. For example, past studies have shown reputation to be the most critical factor for Chinese students when choosing a university to study abroad, with a focus on high-quality teaching and their chosen subject. Thus, a university wishing to attract Chinese students should highlight its accreditation and rankings, faculty credentials and accomplishments, as well as partnerships with other universities, research institutions and industry partners. 

Leverage social media 

Social media is now ubiquitous so it cannot be ignored. Universities should start by understanding which platforms are popular with their target students and where they are most engaged. For example, research by Statista from 2020 showed that US teens were most likely to use YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter, in that order. This is constantly changing, so universities should look for up-to-the-minute data and prioritise platforms accordingly.

Sharing user-generated content is a great way to engage prospective students. This includes testimonials by existing students about the university and snapshots of campus life. Videos are a great way for students to share their personal experiences of the university. This offers a more authentic account of the student experiences than promotional or advertising content.&nbsp; 

Changes in the way that people consume information, from smaller portable screens to apps, has led to a growing preference for interactive and visual content over text-based static media, recent reports show. So institutions should prioritise videos and pictures that showcase the campus, city and locality to familiarise students with university life. 

Optimise your website

Universities must not forget their websites. Students looking to study abroad are not only seeking the right colleges and quality of education, but also universities that provide support during their transition. Devote attention to the “international students” section of the website, detailing what you offer international students and what support you provide. This could be information about the cost of living, accommodation, orientation sessions to familiarise students with the city and opportunities to connect them with international student alumni who can share their own experiences and answer questions. 

University websites should provide a smooth user experience with clear navigation and easily accessible information. Content and design should be optimised to appear at the top of relevant Google searches. This is where search engine marketing (SEM) should be considered. SEM uses paid advertising to increase visibility in search engine results thereby driving traffic to the university’s website.

Consider the bigger picture

Attracting international students is about more than the quality of your education. Marketing efforts should look to familiarise prospective students with the university, the city and the country to show how they could be a great fit for them. 

Many students develop strong connections to their study destinations and end up relocating, so universities should demonstrate future opportunities and career pathways. Some universities have dedicated alumni services offices and specialised job search portals to guide students in their journeys after graduation. Such services can be marketed by asking alumni to attend events and speak about their careers and how the university supported them in finding jobs. Clips from these events can be shared via social media. 

By understanding the needs and expectations of international students, institutions can shape compelling digital marketing content to position themselves as leaders in the global education market.

Claire Roper-Browning is regional director of marketing, recruitment, admissions, and communications (MRAC) at Heriot-Watt University Dubai.

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Advice for university marcomms teams on shaping digital marketing efforts to reach and appeal to international students

Digital marketing as a route to reaching international students

Students in my first-year writing courses come from all over the world. They know how to navigate the internet and Blackboard accounts, register for classes, and find the course materials. What they are missing are the unspoken assumptions, expectations, implications and “rules” of US academia. 

Taking writing conventions as an example, we need to clearly communicate the rules, which differ across cultures. International students do not necessarily understand what is meant by “paraphrasing”, or the mechanics of how to translate things into their own words. Is using a translating application, like Google Translate, permissible? Is it desirable? Why or why not? What about Grammarly or automatic citation generators? 

When I was asked by my international students to explain my own experience with hidden cultural assumptions, I looked back to my experience as a study-abroad junior undergraduate in Seville, Spain. 

I had enrolled in a Spanish linguistics course with all native Spanish speakers, except myself. On the first day of class I received an extensive book list and visited every bookstore in the city but could not find one book on the list. Nearly in tears, I went to my professor’s office and told him the problem. The professor explained that the 60-plus students in the class all shared the books and passed them on to one another from one year to the next. And the custom in Spain was for the students to have self-formed study groups, in which I was not included. 


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He lent me copies of the four or five relevant books I would need in the class. He then told me that I would not be able to discern which parts of the books were crucial to read and understand for the exam, because the ability to derive this implicit knowledge from his lectures required a sophistication of language that only a native Spanish speaker would have. So, he told me explicitly what to read and to study and met with me weekly in office hours to discuss the material so that I could participate on an equal footing in the class. 

No doubt this professor went above and beyond many others, but we can at least attempt to emulate this process in our own classes. 

Going above and beyond for students

Offer to meet and even ask to meet with students who struggle in your classroom, lending books and materials to them when needed. By going the extra mile for all students, we help them build rapport with us, the instructors, and the entire class. Modelling how to establish a relationship with one professor helps students advocate for themselves in other classes. 

Help your international students to find research or internship opportunities. Foreign and first-generation students without college-educated parents or mentors may not know how to navigate the higher education system to engage in these practices. For example, career services offices at most universities can provide individualised help. You could request a career services representative to come to one of your classes. 

Practices such as first-year seminars, writing intensive courses, collaborative assignments, undergraduate research and experiential learning in the community help level the playing field for historically underserved students and increase the chances that any student will achieve their educational and personal goals, according to George D. Kuh in his 2008 book on the subject, High-Impact Educational Practices.

Remember that issues not mentioned in the course textbook or syllabus nonetheless influence how well students learn. For example, students can and should connect their classroom learning to their own lives as well as the lives and experiences of people different from them. Educators might address anti-racism, white supremacy, colonisation, and how to critically assess media, while prioritising curiosity towards and empathy for the lived worlds of others.

Impostor syndrome and the notion that the students have to prove they are the “best and the brightest” weigh heavily on many students. There can be pressure to succeed from students’ parents, families or sponsors. The difficulties of navigating being away from home apply to all students but more so for those studying overseas or learning in a second language. 

There are cultural differences in the expectations for teacher and student roles. In many cultures, it is common to see teacher-centred classrooms emphasising passive learning, explicit instruction and indirect communication. Students are not used to being asked for their opinion and feel uncomfortable saying anything that contradicts their teacher.&nbsp;Bear in mind that students may also shy away from being critical of the country they are studying in or of their home country. In some cases, criticising their own country could be dangerous or students may perceive that expressing their opinions could be dangerous. Stay sensitive to the possibility that students are sometimes unable or unwilling to discuss or write on a particular topic and allow students the leeway to negotiate their ideas. 

Writing in familiar language

Nearly all students – multilingual and first generation especially – struggle to do what David Bartholomae calls “inventing the university”, by which he means understanding and inhabiting the academic community and discourse conventions of the university. When a writer’s syntax falls apart, Bartholomae says, it is likely because the writer is challenging themselves to capture a complex idea, one that goes beyond the students’ normal speech or writing. 

In the case of multilingual students writing in English, attempts at academic prose may be only partially formed. They may be taken directly from Google Translate, and not English at all. To combat this, suggest that students write in language that they have heard or spoken or seen before, and that they write for a realistic and specific audience such as a graduate programme, professor or even their parents or a friend. 

Asking students, of any background, to write in a new discourse as if they were a member of an academic community (an economist, engineer, psychologist, etc) takes time. 

“The writer must get inside a discourse he can only partially imagine,” Bartholomae writes. The conventions of writing include knowing the audience’s assumptions, what is taken as “commonplace”, along with the use of persuasive examples and evidence for that audience. 

These conventions are rarely explicit, and so we need to help students understand these tacit conventions – the hidden curriculum that underlies the more visible acquisition of content knowledge.

A bit of empathy goes a long way. By finding ways to know international students and their preferred learning styles, whether through individual appointments, office hours or reflective student writing, faculty will discover new insights into their lives and cultures.

There is a high value in having multilingual students in our classes – a richness of perspective that benefits all students.

Andrea Feldman is a teaching professor of distinction and coordinator for international student services at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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How educators can help international students navigate the unspoken assumptions, expectations and norms of US higher education

Unearthing the hidden curriculum in international classrooms

The Russell Group’s recent report stating that by 2025, some universities could face a deficit of £4,000 for every UK student taught will make difficult reading for a sector still recovering financially from the pandemic. 

Continuing political uncertainty over whether or not there will be a curb on the number of international students permitted to remain in the UK after graduation could have additional financial implications – particularly if overseas students are put off choosing a UK university as a result.

The world-class higher education on offer in the UK has typically been a major draw for many students who choose to experience university life beyond their home shores. 


	Is your university worth the investment for international students?
	The hows and whys of improved interactions with international students
	How to champion the international student experience from admission to graduation


But with growing competition from ever-expanding global markets, it remains to be seen if the assurance of a quality education will be enough for the UK to remain an attractive destination for overseas students. 

There are, however, four key strategies that can help institutions mitigate the risk of overseas student numbers falling: 

1. Diversify target markets 

The recent surge in students coming from China and India may have made it easier for institutions to meet their international student recruitment targets. But too much emphasis on attracting students from one or two regions puts the sector at risk if markets dry up unexpectedly. 

Expansion into new areas means fewer eggs in one basket and Nigeria, Pakistan and the US have all been recently highlighted as key emerging markets by the Higher Education Statistics Agency.&nbsp;

Universities can physically put boots on the ground, sending staff to new areas to recruit students directly. There is also a wide selection of outreach programmes, such as those run by the British Council, which institutions can tap into to boost their presence in different markets. 

Expanding an institution’s network of student recruitment agencies can also extend its reach. A trusted agent has the local knowledge and experience to help universities attract students and strengthen the message that the UK continues to be a top destination for higher education. 

2. Ensure a frictionless student experience

Students are much more likely to choose a university that has a reputation for efficiently managing visas and documentation, such as the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies. A smooth-running recruitment and admissions process also ensures the university can stay one step ahead of the competition in responding to enquiries and making offers.

Carry out a robust analysis of the end-to-end international student recruitment process. It might be that incoming calls from agents and students take a minute longer to answer in the run up to the September and January intakes, risking callers giving up. Knowing small details such as this means additional staff can be deployed at these times to eliminate hold-ups. 

Many elements of the admissions process can be automated, too, saving time for international student recruitment teams and speeding up the whole process to improve the student experience.

3. Offer students more than academic qualifications 

A recent report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute revealed that only 52 per cent of international students studying in the UK thought their institution was doing well at satisfying their needs in terms of career support. So, this is another area where an institution could add great value and, at the same time, boost the UK’s reputation for delivering a much richer HE experience than a student might get elsewhere in the world. 

Most institutions already provide some form of career development support for students, from CV writing and managing interviews to presentation skills, language and communication. But putting the advancement of students’ career prospects at the very heart of what they do could be another competitive edge. 

This wouldn’t necessarily require huge changes overnight. Training and support on using platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn for career development is a relatively simple example. Not just what to post but really detailed, up-to-date information such as the best times to post, which industry hashtags and types of content do well on which platforms, and how to approach potential employers or research partners online to increase the chances of success. 

Students who have acquired the digital skills to promote themselves and extend their professional reach online almost inevitably boost the reputation of their alma mater too. This shines a bright light on a university as an attractive option for other students deciding where in the world they would like to study. 

4. Enhance the curriculum

Activities that promote a university as a key destination for international students could provide valuable learning opportunities, too. Perhaps, for example, a group of marketing students could be set an assignment to design a digital ad campaign that promotes the top-class education being provided by their institution. By launching and running the campaign, the students gain critical workplace skills that they can draw on in their early careers, such as navigating social media metrics and learning how to adjust the language and messaging used in digital advertising so it resonates with potential students in different geographic regions and industry sectors. And an added benefit is a boost to their university’s profile internationally. 

Changing times 

There was a time when it made sense, economically and academically, for overseas students to choose a UK university over other destinations such as Australia or America. But times have changed.

With university budgets under growing pressure, the time is right for the sector to extend its global reach and offer overseas students more real-world career development opportunities. This will attract students into our universities and encourage them to share their positive experiences of studying in the UK long after they graduate.

Iain Sloan has worked in the HE sector for more than 17 years, with 15 of them at Oxford Brookes University, where he held a variety of roles across the admissions team and was head of UK recruitment and partnerships. He is now senior solutions consultant at Ellucian.

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Iain Sloan explores four key strategies universities can introduce to help them continue to attract overseas students in challenging times

How to build a stronger pipeline for international student recruitment 

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on the number of international students attending British universities, with record deferrals and sharp declines in applications plaguing UK institutions since 2020. The phenomenon is not limited to the UK, though. The share of US institutions reporting increasing internationalisation – including international learners, study-abroad programmes and other global engagement efforts – fell from 72 per cent in 2016 to 21 per cent by 2021. Meanwhile, the number of international students studying in Australia fell by half during the pandemic.

As travel restrictions and other Covid protocols continue to loosen around the world, international student enrolment is, at last, starting to show signs of recovery. But the market has drastically changed in the intervening years. Students have grown far more concerned about the return on investment (ROI) of their education, and they are starting to look beyond traditionally popular destinations and well-known universities as a result.&nbsp;


	The hows and whys of improved interactions with international students
	Five tips for helping international students settle in their new surroundings
	How to champion the international student experience from admission to graduation


Since 2012, Turkey has increased its number of international students from 25,000 to 250,000. In the Netherlands, the number of international students has risen so sharply in recent years that the country is facing a shortage of student housing. Germany is attracting record numbers of international learners, and Malaysia is having immense success recruiting students with programmes that have other global connection points. The sector has rarely been this competitive, crowded or unpredictable, meaning colleges and universities worldwide must work harder than ever to prove to learners that the experience of learning in their country is still worth a student’s and their family’s time and money.&nbsp;

International students have made it clear that the pandemic has not extinguished dreams of pursuing their education abroad. They have, however, experienced a major shift in what they consider to be most important when making decisions about their educational journey.&nbsp;

Affordability is increasingly a top concern for students. According to research by&nbsp;International Consultants for Education and Fairs&nbsp;(ICEF), the cost of studying and living now ranks as the most important factor for students when deciding where to study internationally, coming in above even immigration and work opportunities. With tuition rising in historically in-demand study-abroad destinations such as the UK, Australia and the US, students are turning to more affordable countries including Japan and Italy.&nbsp;

Countries and their higher education institutions (HEIs) must not only find ways to reduce the cost of tuition and other educational expenses but also ways to mitigate the cost of living for international learners. More, for instance, are allowing students to work while studying. The UK government is considering increasing the hours international students can work during their studies, which will make it more feasible for students to attend one of their HEIs. Other institutions are exploring new financing options as ways to reduce the cost for learners.&nbsp;

While the cultural and societal benefits that come with studying abroad are priceless, students and families are increasingly asking colleges and universities to quantify their ROI of attending an institution. Affordability is important, but today’s international students are particularly keen on leveraging their education and the experience of international study to jump-start high-paying, rewarding careers. How institutions help students find placement and how many of their students benefit from career services are questions that HEIs should be prepared to answer.

A survey released last year by the UK’s Higher Education Policy Institute found that while 82 per cent of respondents said career support was an important factor in choosing a university to attend, just half believed their institution met the career needs of international students. Programmes of study must be tied more closely to in-demand fields and industries, providing students with relevant skills that qualify them for internships which will propel them on their career path. Career services must increase their global reach to better serve all students at all stages of the college experience at their institution, but in particular as students search for how to turn their education into gainful, rewarding employment upon graduation.

Flexibility is also key. From offering more online courses to providing dual-degree programmes that enable students to master multiple fields of study at once, institutions should aim to grant learners the flexibility they need to better tailor their international learning experience. This includes providing more flexible payment plans for students financing their education.&nbsp;

Finally, institutions would be wise to double down on retention efforts. While most international students intend to remain and work in their host country after graduation, comparatively few do. In Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, for example, just a quarter of international graduates stay in their host countries long term. Countries and institutions looking to remain competitive in an increasingly crowded global marketplace must work to not only give their international students a reason to stick around after graduation but the means to do so. They should provide clearer pathways to citizenship, prepare students for and offer more work experience opportunities, and seek to ensure international students feel welcome and at home on campus and in their communities. Recently published Apply Board insights predict that those countries with the most attractive post-graduation work offerings will draw more international students.&nbsp;

Following the global upheaval of the pandemic, students across the globe are rightly asking important questions about the value and worth of a degree – at home and abroad. Institutions must work harder than ever to ensure they are providing the best benefit and path forward for international learners if they are to secure their place on the world stage of higher education. 

Cagri Bagcioglu is head of eastern Europe and central Asia at Cintana Education.

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International student concerns have changed in recent years, and traditional study-abroad destinations need to keep up

Is your university worth the investment for international students? 

In essence, online and face-to-face conferences are the same: both need speakers and attendees, engaging content and a space to stage the event. Both need to be promoted and presented professionally and delivered on time. And both need to provide value for money. The only real difference is that online conferences are easier to run because all this happens in cyber space. 

Yeah, right.

As much as we might want to believe that conferences are all about professional development, that in-person events usually involve travel and the prospect of a few days’ vacation tacked on is a major attraction, online the only travel you get is to the kitchen for a cuppa between sessions. 


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So how do you get people to pay to attend your conference from their home or office? How do you ensure people know about it? And how will you make sure the event runs smoothly? Here are key considerations when organising an online academic conference.

Where’s the value in online events?

Your conference has to be unique. It might not be a place geographically, but it must be a destination in terms of content. What’s your point of difference? Is anyone else offering the same? Are they doing it better? Are they doing it first? In our case, the International Block and Intensive Learning and Teaching Association (IBILTA) conference was the only international block teaching conference in the world, so we knew we had that space to ourselves.

Your conference has to be unique in terms of content and speakers, too. Who do your audience want to hear from and on what topics? Be clear about the value you are offering and to whom.

OK, so you’re showcasing great content and good speakers; you’ve piqued my interest. Where’s my souvenir bookmark, my show bag? Where’s my morning tea and muffin? My conference dinner? And, again, why should I be paying to join a bunch of Zooms from my lounge?

Good questions all. No, you can’t offer much in terms of concrete add-ons, but think about other perks. Could conference registration include membership of your association and whatever benefits that confers? Your overheads should be low, so why not pass on the savings?

Call in the professionals

Speaking of overheads, having event-management expertise on board is crucial. We didn’t know what we didn’t know, so we wasted time, money and effort going round and round in unproductive circles until we called in the professionals. Employing a media professional to set up our conference registration sites and our landing and programme pages was similarly – and extraordinarily – beneficial. Make use of institutional expertise (we reached out to colleagues at Victoria University in these fields) to minimise costs. 

If you don’t have that expertise in house, consider buying it in via sponsorship or in-kind trades. We ended up with a conference that looked great and ran without a hitch – I shudder to think what would have happened had we decided to do it all ourselves. 

Promote your event widely and clearly

As with all conferences, spreading the word is vital. Use all the usual communication channels: professional and private networks, social media, mainstream media placement, conference listing sites and institutional communications. Clarity of message, especially in terms of value and uniqueness, is crucial.&nbsp;Simple, consistent imagery that is easily shared on social media helps create a brand image and reduces the need for exposition. The text that goes with this image should stress the benefits of registration, in both fiscal and academic terms.&nbsp; 

Start planning yesterday

Time: there is never enough. Start your planning as early as possible. A year ahead is good. We had eight months – we’re giving ourselves 14 months of lead time to our next conference, which will be face to face. Set the date and work backwards in terms of planning. 

An international conference will run across time-zone issues. The more continents are involved, the more complicated it is. We had presenters and attendees from Australia, Europe, North America and Asia, so we ran our conference in two four-hour sessions with a three-hour break between, which allowed us to schedule sessions at reasonable times for (almost) all attendees and presenters. Despite this, we had one person presenting at 2am her time. We’re still apologising for that.

Recording all presentations and hosting these on a dedicated YouTube channel (another chance for your media guru to help you shine) is one way to ensure everyone has access to all sessions.

When things go wrong

Internet connections can go down. PowerPoint presentations can freeze. People will get sick. Plan for this and set up contingencies as necessary. Perhaps you, as the conference committee, have stand-by presentations you can drop into the schedule and deliver yourselves to fill any holes. Think about asking presenters to send you their slides ahead of time or save them as both PowerPoint presentations and PDFs in case one format fails.

Select your conference committee with care

Choose your committee members wisely – you will spend a lot of time with them. Look for colleagues with a diverse skill set, the ability to think around corners and, perhaps most importantly, those who are reliable and consistent. 

Be prepared to work long hours, repeatedly ensuring everyone has the right link, to the right session, at the right time-zone time. You need to stay in closer contact with your attendees and presenters than you would for a face-to-face conference, too, to maintain their commitment. It’s much easier to pull out of an online conference than one you’ve committed big travel dollars to. It’s your job as a committee to ensure that doesn’t happen.

This is far from being an exhaustive list, but it does give you some idea of the key boxes you’ll need to tick when organising your first online conference.

John Weldon is associate professor and&nbsp;head of curriculum, Loretta Konjarski is associate dean of learning and teaching, and Bert Oraison is a senior lecturer and deputy associate dean,&nbsp;all of&nbsp;First Year College at Victoria University, Australia.

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How hard can it be to stage an online conference? Don’t you just book a whole bunch of Zooms and send out invites? Well, yes and no. Here are five key takeaways from our experience as rookies to conference organisation

So you want to host an international online conference?

The number of international students in the UK continues to grow. This is especially true for non-European Union countries, with China (99,160 students enrolled in 2021/22), India (53,015 students) and Nigeria (14,270 students) leading the statistics.&nbsp; &nbsp;



  
      
  
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Figure 1: Historical numbers of international students in the UK. Data source: Higher Education Statistics Authority, 2022.



&nbsp;

A 14.5 per cent annual growth in non-EU postgraduate student numbers in the UK between 2020/21 and 2021/22 meant they represented 54 per cent of non-EU international students enrolled in UK institutions in 2021/22, according to the Higher Education Statistics Authority.

Due to cultural differences, studying at a foreign university can be emotionally, socially and academically challenging. There is no doubt that emotional and social experiences are critical; however, this piece focuses on the academic aspect, more specifically on international students’ interactions with academics.


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One reason for this focus is that academic-student interactions impact the social and emotional well-being of both. Uncovering cross-cultural differences could improve the understanding of students’ and academics’ pedagogical expectations. Another reason is my unique position as a former international student and now an early career academic in the UK. I draw on my personal and professional reflections from transitioning between these roles.

Participation and engagement: ‘I need to have the right answer’ v ‘I’d like to see you engaged’

Some of the most visible differences observed between international and UK-based students is their level of engagement in lectures and supervisions. While international students arrive at every lecture, they have the tendency to be the quieter group. To overcome their reluctance to participate, you can:


	Encourage students’ participation by openly stating that there are no right or wrong answers. 
	Explicitly invite students to contradict the presented ideas. Explain that questioning what they learn shows their engagement with the topic.
	Calling out students personally could help but academics should be confident that the selected student does not have language barriers. Otherwise, a student may lose face and the effect will be the opposite.


Bloom’s taxonomy partially explains differences in participation and engagement expectations. The taxonomy outlines learning objectives in the shape of pyramid. The bottom layer represents “remembering” or knowledge recall. Learning objectives move up the pyramid through the stages of understanding or explaining concepts, applying knowledge in new situations, analysing ideas, evaluating concepts, up to finally creating new knowledge. In many Eastern cultures, the bottom level of reproducing knowledge is the educational aim, with academics being the “knowledge providers” and students “knowledge receivers”. In the West, education emphasises higher taxonomy levels such as deeper understanding and students’ self-discovery of knowledge, their own skills and potential. Since many international students have not experienced Western education prior to arriving in the UK, they may not realise their participation is expected or know how to actively engage.

Instructional language: ‘Tell me what to do exactly’ v ‘Think independently and be creative’

For students coming from more directive cultures, vague language of instruction and assignment format can catch them by surprise. Being used to knowledge assessment, writing essays to demonstrate their learning is unfamiliar to many international students. Choosing their own project topics and taking responsibility for their own learning contradicts with the culture of strong uncertainty avoidance that has strict rules and expectations. To help them tackle novel situations and undefined tasks:


	Explain learning objectives and assignments early to avoid potential frustrations from unmet expectations. 
	Pay extra attention to clarifying ambiguous instructions such as “demonstrate understanding”, “show originality” etc. 
	Proactively encourage students to ask clarifying questions and normalise this as OK to do. It saves students from guessing and academics from marking poor-quality work.
	Remind students they are responsible for their own learning and projects. 


Mapping cultural differences to Bloom’s taxonomy learning objectives demonstrates the variance in instructional language. By targeting lower levels of the taxonomy of knowledge recall, less democratic countries seek to raise conformed individuals able to follow prescribed tasks and suppress the creativity and innovation that are valued in UK universities. Western higher education encourages students to master the art of scientific enquiry and self-manage their own learning, which are both very unstructured learning goals. Therefore, students’ and academics’ pedagogical expectations of instructional language differ. 

Assessment feedback: ‘I did what you asked for, why don’t I get 100 per cent?’

In many Eastern countries, once a student delivers what’s expected, their marks are in the 90 to 100 per cent range. Therefore, it can be a shock to many when they get 60 to 70 per cent with a written commentary along the lines of, “Good job, you answered the question well”. Therefore, some students approach academics for an explanation of their marks. There are many who may not get in touch because of the power distance, but equally wonder why this is.


	Ask students how they feel about their mark and feedback. What do they think they did well and why?
	Explain that getting 60 to 70 is considered a success in the UK and that only a few students score above 80 or even 90.
	Check if they understand the feedback comments. Is there anything to clarify?
	How will they go about getting a better mark next time?


First, these differences in expectations are closely linked to the issue of uncertainty avoidance, which, ideally, should be addressed when providing the assignment brief and instructions. This is why explaining marking criteria in detail, with specific examples, is crucial.

Second, a feminine and masculine dimension to cultural differences applies. Feminine cultures value solidarity and social adaptation. Lower academic performance is not a big deal; an average student is the norm. Masculine societies seek brilliance, and academic failure can destroy students’ self-image, potentially leading to suicide in extreme cases. Masculine cultures prize competitiveness and the best students are considered the norm. Interestingly, the UK, China and India lean toward the masculine dimension, with students from these countries seeking feedback clarification with the view to perform better. Therefore students across the board tend to be motivated to achieve high; however, international students are used to getting much higher marks when performing well. Explaining the marking standards in the UK will help students understand their performance in context. 

Disclaimer: The author wishes to acknowledge individual differences that exist within cultures. Although cultural differences are central to the piece, they do not reflect the unique characteristic of every individual. Thus the above may not apply to everyone in every situation.

Lenka Janik Blaskova is a lecturer in the psychology of education at the University of Exeter.

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Strategies for overcoming potential cultural differences and supporting better academic-international student relationships

The hows and whys of improved interactions with international students

Moving to a new environment to live and study can be very difficult for first-year international students. Most students report that family, friends and the social environment in their home town are the main stabilising factors for them, so coming to a new country for education will almost certainly affect overseas arrivals. They will need a new set of harmonising factors to help establish stability in their new life. 

The following strategies can help first-year international students adapt; they are based on our experiences and observations as advisers to international students and on students’ answers to questions they were asked in different tasks. Some of these recommendations can be implemented by the university in general and some can be implemented at the faculty level. 

Provide a welcoming ‘family’ environment

As advisers to international students, we frequently collaborate with faculty to arrange meetings and gatherings for the newcomers at the beginning of the academic year. We organise inductions for our new students to introduce them to faculty members one by one, and they have stated that such meetings made them feel valued and welcomed. Students feeling that they matter in their new environment is crucial to a smooth adaptation period, particularly when they are in a different country, where the local language is foreign and culture and traditions are different.


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Following individual introductions to academic and administrative staff come gatherings. The aim is to allow international and local students to meet each other and interact. Hopefully, all our events help bring international students closer to both the academic staff and their classmates, as this helps increase their sense of belonging in their new environment. Our interactions with them during these meetings position us not just as lecturers or advisers but also we aim to become part of their “new family”.

Peers can offer useful support

A peer-support programme matching international students with their local classmates can be hugely helpful. Local students experience fewer adaptation challenges and do not have a language barrier to negotiate. One way to help such a support programme to work is to place it within the weekly course schedule at an allocated time, so it becomes part of the core offering rather than an optional extra. 

Students who are familiar with the culture, who know the local language or who’ve been at the university for a while are called on to volunteer. Each week volunteer students meet with the international students who need support with their studies or life on or outside the campus in general. This type of peer-mentorship programme has many benefits in terms of supporting students psychologically, emotionally and academically. It also allows them to build healthy relationships and overcome academic difficulties. 

Removing the language barrier

Most of our newcomer international students are willing to learn the local language, which at our institution is Turkish. And we’ve observed that adaptation becomes much easier for students who show interest in learning the local language. But is it difficult to learn a new language when you’ve just started studying towards a degree? Absolutely not. 

The curriculum of every faculty at our university offers beginner-level Turkish language courses for international students during the first and second semesters in their first year. These courses provide them with basic language skills, which are helpful for them in their social interactions in the local community. Extracurricular activities with local students also provide international students with the skills and ability to have more social contact. 

The power of food

Most of our overseas students emphasise that a key sensitivity is their cultural traditions, including their foods and special day celebrations. For example, some of our Nigerian students stated in an assignment that they wanted to find some of their native soups on or around campus. Of course, most of them want to experience the new tastes they find here in Cyprus as well, but it is also a fact that there is a huge longing for the tastes of home. 

At present, a new shopping facility is being built on campus, where international students will soon have easy access to familiar ingredients in order to make the foods they miss. This is exciting not only because they will be able to make themselves culturally important food; it will also allow them to share this aspect of their culture with their classmates and people they socialise with. Never underestimate the ways in which gatherings around food can help conversations flow more easily and increase the amount people share about themselves, allowing for stronger friendships to develop. 

Season’s greetings

Christmas is the ultimate time for feeling homesick for many students. Although Christmas is not celebrated by the local community here in Cyprus, we try to ensure that international students do not feel the absence of the festive season. Streets, houses and cars are often decorated for the new year, which helps add&nbsp;greatly to the feeling of Christmas. Moreover, for international students’ degree programmes, the academic calendar is designed to include Christmas Day as a holiday. 

Student clubs and groups organise Christmas meals and parties every year. Given that term starts in early October, by December local and international students with similar interests – whether they share cultural and religious festivals or not – have had the opportunity to mix and mingle, so Christmas meals and new year celebrations come at the perfect time to seal the deal for first-year international students’ adaptation to higher education in a new country. 

Ganna Pola is coordinator of international nursing students at Near East University, Nicosia, North Cyprus.

Önay Aktunç is adviser of first-year international nursing students at Near East University, Nicosia, North Cyprus.

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Ganna Pola and Önay Aktunç offer advice based on their experience as advisers to international students in North Cyprus

Five tips for helping international students settle in their new surroundings

Increasing diversity in student cohorts is very much on the agenda for many higher education institutions. International students are common on the campuses of most top-ranked universities and colleges, participating in both short-term exchanges and full-time degree programmes. While the challenges for institutions are many, students themselves often struggle with procedural aspects related to visa documentation, fee payments and inclusion into the campus community. 

During initial forays into internationalisation, some elements of best practice are important to keep in mind for institutions. In this article, I will discuss specific measures international offices can take to engender a great student experience, allowing students to focus on academic excellence. 

Touch base before they arrive on campus

Once an applicant has been admitted into a programme at your institution, typically, they receive a number of standard communications from administration about fee payment, dates and procedures for joining and so on. But a couple of personalised emails from international office staff with practical tips on navigating the arrival on campus can go a long way in making students feel comfortable. Moreover, an online “ask me anything” (AMA) session is extremely handy, as it not only gives incoming international students a local contact but also helps efficiently answer their queries. 


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Make their first day pleasantly memorable

First impressions last. Arranging an informal event on day one and providing a well-written brochure on local mores, campus slang/language, nearby attractions and a detailed map of the campus are critical. Contact information including emergency and medical services, visa and other administrative procedures should also be prominently displayed. Of course, institution-branded merchandise is hugely popular, and T-shirts in the school colours, along with pens, key holders or other small items tend to make freshers happy and help engender a sense of belonging.

Conduct periodic pulse checks

After the first few weeks of euphoria, international students can start to feel a sort of mid-term blues or disconnect. It is important that the communication channels are kept open, perhaps via an open-office session one evening every month. It is best to identify students with academic issues right at the start and provide them support (via tutors, for example). Typically, the challenges stem from a lack of understanding of the expectations of instructors, particularly in exams. Regular pulse checks help diagnose and solve problems effectively. 

Foster cultural immersion activities

A local flavour – be it food, music or theatre, is an imperative component of education. Apart from academics, students need exposure to the best that new cities or countries have to offer to them, and cultural immersion activities are important as we encourage students to become global citizens. A sampling of interesting foods, a participatory experience of dance/theatre or sports activities of various sorts can be leveraged to enrich student experience overall. 

Create networking opportunities 

While the degree that students earn at the end of their tenure has great value, the learning and education they receive at any higher education institution goes well beyond that. Peer-to-peer networks, particularly at residential campuses, are formed easily, whereas opportunities to spend time outside the classroom with senior students, alumni or even potential future employers are few and far between. Creating conferences, workshops or fairs to facilitate such interactions is an important way to enhance the quality of student experience. 

Give them a chance to contribute

Students are almost always keen to give back to the institution and community. As alumni, they are the best ambassadors for your institution’s brand. But even during their tenure as students, they can participate as tutors and mentors to those who may need such assistance. Furthermore, international students are also good resources for institutions to learn more about the education systems in their home countries and how to fine-tune the university’s marketing strategy and admission processes. Try to ensure that students have opportunities to participate in the activities of the international office in small yet effective ways. 

Final thoughts

It is a welcome development that some students are able to access various academic programmes and exchange opportunities at universities abroad. Diverse cohorts enrich learning all round, and institutions can provide great opportunities that fit student interests, harness institutional expertise and create a global workforce of the highest quality. 

In selecting where they choose to study, academically inclined and high-performing students typically look for high standards of education, competitive tuition fees and scholarships and a convenient location. However, even institutions that can provide all these have to work hard at ensuring productive student experiences, where challenges are embraced and excellent performance is a byword. 

Particularly for those institutions taking the first steps into internationalisation, several important processes and practices should be in place. A caring and well-intentioned international office handling students all the way from admission to graduation serves an important need of the international student community. 

Preeti Aghalayam is professor in chemical engineering at IIT Madras in India. She leads efforts in curated postgraduate academic programmes for international students at the university’s Office of Global Engagement. 

If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;THE Campus&nbsp;newsletter. 

An international student’s experience at your institution can be very positive with mindful handling every step of the way, says Preeti Aghalayam

How to champion the international student experience from admission to graduation

Indonesia has an intriguing naming system. Indonesian students can have one, two, three or four words in their names, but none have surnames. The last word in an Indonesian name is not necessarily the surname. Neither does an Indonesian passport specify one’s first, middle and last name. 

Indonesian students are frequently puzzled when they must fill in the application and enrolment forms with their names in the first-and-last-name format. University staff are also puzzled when they try to recognise Indonesian students’ family connections (such as father and son or siblings) in the student profiles through their non-existent surnames.

It is natural for Indonesians not to have surnames 

Indonesia has the world’s fourth-largest population, made up of more than 1,300 ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its own naming customs. Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, is Javanese. His birth name contains only one name, “Jokowi”, because it is a Javanese tradition to use only one name. When Jokowi was 12, his parents changed his name to “Joko Widodo” to pray for his health. Widodo means “healthy” in Javanese. Jokowi’s father is Widjiatno Notomiharjo, which implies that Jokowi did not inherit a “family name” from his father. The three children of Jokowi are Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Kahiyang Ayu and Kaesang Pangarep. They do not share a family name.


	Resource collection:&nbsp;What’s in a name? The importance of getting students’ names right
	Pronouncing students’ names correctly: the whys and hows
	Breaking language barriers: supporting non-native English-speaking students


Hidden ethnic information in Indonesian names

There are distinct traces in Indonesian-Chinese names. Suharto, the second president of Indonesia, is also Javanese and has only one name. During his reign, in the 1960s, the Indonesian-Chinese were under tremendous pressure to prove their Indonesian identity. Most of them were forced to drop or alter their Chinese surnames. 

Some Indonesian-Chinese created Indonesianised “surnames” to hide their Chinese origin. I know an Indonesian student whose last word in her name is “Tjung”. In the time of Suharto’s New Order in the 1960s, her father added a “T” to his Chinese surname “Jung” to make it sound Indonesian.

Instead of playing hide-and-seek with their Chinese surnames, some Indonesian-Chinese added an Indonesian name next to their Chinese surname. Take “Nicholas Wong Susanto”, for example. The last word, “Susanto”, is a typical Indonesian name. “Wong” refers to the Chinese surname “Wang” in Hakka or Cantonese dialect. “Wong” is kept in the name to hint at Nicholas’ ethnic origin, but it has lost its original function as a surname.

How an Indonesian-Chinese spells his Chinese “surname” suggests his family roots in China. For example, “Ang” and “Liem” are Indonesianised Chinese surnames. In Hokkien or Chaozhou dialect, the Chinese surname “Hong” becomes “Ang”, and the Chinese surname “Lin” becomes “Liem”. These names suggest that the ancestors of these families are from Fujian or Guangdong province in southern China. Indonesian students with such surnames often still have relatives living in these areas. I find it very interesting that these students may be able to speak the local Chinese dialects, usually not Mandarin Chinese, which they often use at home in Indonesia to communicate with older family members.

In 2000, Abdurrahman Wahid, the fourth president of Indonesia, lifted the ban on communism and Chinese culture. Many Indonesian-Chinese families have plucked up the courage to revive their original Chinese surnames. If you see an Indonesian student’s name ending in a Chinese surname, there is a large chance that the student was born after 2000.

Respecting the uniqueness of Indonesian names

As an institution that welcomes Indonesian students every year, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen has improved the 2023/24 online application system by making surname optional under “personal information”. This allows Indonesian applicants to fill in their names as shown on their passports without struggling to define non-existent surnames.

How to address an Indonesian student

Always ask Indonesian students how to address them. If a student has two words in her name, for example, “Nina Wiguna”, addressing her by the first word, “Nina”, is a good guess. If there are three words, such as “Jason Anthonio Utomo”, addressing him by the first word is not always the correct guess. He may want to be called “Anthonio”.

If you want to address an Indonesian student’s parents, since they do not have surnames, it is polite to attach Mr or Mrs to the first word of the parents’ names, for example, Mrs April or Mr Edward.

Indonesians like going by short nicknames. For example, my Indonesian friend Soerachmad likes being called “Rachmad”. When Indonesian friends call me, they like shortening my first name, “Rosemary”, to “Rose” in Indonesian fashion.

A name reflects a heritage a person inherits from his family and culture. Understanding a name is the first step to understanding a person. I am curious to see if Indonesia,&nbsp;as a rapidly rising economy, will adopt the global norm in naming, and if Indonesians will have a surname in the future. Whether this happens or not, we should respect their chosen naming system and traditions.

Rosemary Bai is marketing coordinator for international undergraduate admissions at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

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Rosemary Bai shares knowledge about the Indonesian naming system, encouraging higher education institutions and staff to be aware of its uniqueness and handle Indonesian names with respect 

Hidden stories in Indonesian names: you do not have a surname?

At English-medium universities, there are clear behavioural differences between students who are native and non-native English speakers. For example, non-native speakers tend to participate less in academic activities and social events compared with their peers. 

One reason is that these students are working outside their linguistic and social-cultural context. Compared with their peers who learn in a familiar environment, many non-native English-speakers need to observe and learn quietly before taking part in various activities. 

To better understand the academic and social experiences of these students, our research compared more than 4,000 native and non-native English-speaking undergraduates from 46 four-year universities in the US. It revealed that non-native speakers experienced greater social-emotional dissatisfaction than their peers. In particular, these students:


	reported significantly poorer relationships with faculty; 
	had less satisfying relationships with peers; 
	and perceived more difficulties in making friends.


Since social-emotional dissatisfaction can lead to low motivation, which affects academic achievement, we further examined students’ bachelor’s degree completion, university grades, and graduate degree plans. Surprisingly, our study found that, despite the challenges non-native speakers encounter in terms of language, acculturation, socialisation and work responsibilities, they can still obtain degrees and achieve satisfactory performance as their peers do. Specifically, compared with their peers, these students:


	obtained slightly higher GPA (grade point average) than their peers;
	had similar likelihood to obtain a bachelor’s degree in four years; and 
	had similar likelihood to plan for a graduate degree. 


This suggests that students from different linguistic backgrounds are as determined and motivated to achieve satisfactory academic outcomes as their peers. However, this does not mean these students do not need resources and support. In fact, overcoming social, linguistic and cultural obstacles can require much more than determination and motivation. Here are a few suggestions we offer to better support non-native English-speakers:

Facilitate social inclusion

Instructors should create opportunities to interact with non-native speakers. Due to language barriers, these students may shy away from talking to instructors. However, this does not mean they don’t want to communicate or build a good relationship with their teachers. Instructors should try to better understand these students and help them feel comfortable with relationship-building conversations. To do so, faculty can initiate organised efforts to gather non-native English-speakers, listen to their needs, and discuss ways that the programmes and departments can do better at facilitating social inclusion. In academic activities, instructors can create incentives to encourage all students’ participation, especially those from different linguistic backgrounds. Through this process it is also important that instructors focus on building students’ academic strengths rather than merely on their academic deficiencies.

Incorporate multicultural perspectives

Universities should incorporate multicultural perspectives when designing campus activities. This promotes understanding of students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and helps them interact and build relationships with their native English-speaking peers. When designing teaching and learning activities, instructors should make an effort to incorporate multicultural perspectives by introducing diverse sources of learning materials and varied types of assessment. For example, a poster presentation with visual graphics or video journal can be adopted to avoid heavy use of text in English. 

Provide more structural support 

Deans, policymakers and institutional leaders should design policies and organisational structure to legitimately offer support to non-native English-speaking students. For example, student services and counselling centres should be provided and fully utilised to offer social-emotional support. Academic programmes should specifically target students’ cultural and social backgrounds when incorporating supplementary support such as academic advising, social activities and networking events. 

Build an inclusive and diverse environment

Universities can create official channels of communication for university leaders to speak to students who are non-native English speakers on a regular, scheduled basis. This can increase campus awareness and these students’ visibility. Institutions can also designate personnel to support non-native speakers and liaise with other students on campus to join events. 

The success of non-native English-speaking students is dependent on institutions appreciating diversity and meeting their needs. As the world becomes more culturally and linguistically diverse, universities need to remain committed to supporting students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. 

This advice is drawn from the findings of the study Reproduction of Educational Disadvantage? Examining the Bachelor’s Degree Attainment, College GPA, and Graduate Degree Plan of Non-Native English-Speaking Students.

Jiajun Liu is assistant professor and deputy programme director of the Global Education Programme and Qian Wang is assistant professor and research director of the Academy of Future Education, both at Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University; Shuai Wang is associate professor and assistant dean of the School of Education, Shanghai Jiaotong University.

The authors would like to thank Jiaqi Fu and Ernest Pascarella for their contribution to the study on non-native English-speaking undergraduates. 

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Steps that tutors can take to better support students who are non-native speakers of English and ensure they feel included and able to play an active role in their university community

Breaking language barriers: supporting non-native English-speaking students

International collaborations addressing important societal needs support the sharing of practical and methodological expertise across higher educational settings, across disciplinary boundaries and limited resources. Collaborative working enhances the prioritisation, design, relevance, quality, scale and reporting of outputs. Sharing, implementing, and reusing data for secondary analyses also contributes to the reduction of research waste and maximises available funding. Many strategies for collaborative working have been described. Establishing an international collaboration may at first appear daunting. However, based on my experience of leading international collaborations, clear communication is the key to success.


	What does ‘strengthen research capacity’ actually mean, and how can we do it?
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Describe the vision

When establishing a collaboration, it is vital to share the vision, mission and objectives. Clearly describe how each individual or group might benefit from the collaboration. This may be different for different groups. Collaborations can start with just a few individuals. Support the collaboration’s growth and evolution overtime, staying true to its original vision.

Accessibility 

Communication is key to the success and growth of any collaboration. Technological advances mean that international travel, a challenge for many, may be less necessary these days. We embraced telephone and video conference technology, even prior to the pandemic, to increase the accessibility of working group, project, and conference events. Similarly, our website is the central point for open-access resources. Shared drives support our coordination of project and working group activities, resources and materials. Accessible communication approaches support members who cannot attend face-to-face meetings due to funding, health, family, or caring barriers to travel.

Establishing suitable meeting times, however, is a constant challenge. The more successful your collaboration is, the more difficult it becomes to find acceptable times for everyone. Online planning tools help coordinate across time zones, automatically adjusting for various daylight-saving times internationally. Some global organisations, such as the WHO, don’t try to find a time suitable for all. In the collaborations that I lead, we have tried different approaches:


	alternating meeting times so that different people can attend different meetings
	accepting comments and discussion points in advance of meetings
	recording meetings to share with people who cannot be present
	dual meetings at either end of the day to accommodate participation across time zones


No one solution works. Committees, project teams and working groups have chosen different approaches. Meeting times, dates and associated time zones should be clearly communicated to all participants.

Inclusive communication

English is generally considered the language of science but for most members of an international collaboration, English is their second language. Every effort should be made to make communications as accessible as possible. Share meeting agendas, minutes and papers well in advance of meetings to allow people time to review and ensure they understand the documents. The communication style across the collaboration should be short simple sentences. Avoid the use of jargon or abbreviations. Keep statements factual and direct. Metaphors do not necessarily translate to other cultural or language contexts! Use a range of communication formats including emails, newsletters and social media.

Listen and be responsive

Communication is a two-way process. Expertise based on your familiarity with the literature and research activities in your topic area will not necessarily accurately reflect the global academic community. Many people, projects, and institutions face significant barriers to academic contribution. Limited access to research equipment or resources will restrict activities. Language, travel restrictions or visa requirements may restrict participation in international conferences. Commercial considerations may influence publishers’ decisions, even for majority-world issues. For example, in one collaboration we sought to produce a consensus on shared research outcomes. By listening to the members, measurement tools were absent across several languages, even majority languages such as Spanish! Thus, our challenge became not just the co-ordination of measurements used, but how to increase the availability of multilingual measures globally.

Share resources, expertise and the future direction of travel

Where resources are constrained, collaborations have an important role in sharing expertise, coordinating efforts to address shared societal needs. Synergistic approaches, building upon each other’s activities, enhances progress. Similarly, where resources are constrained, data-sharing can maximise the use of pre-existing datasets to address new questions or inform the design of more efficient studies. Important synergistic gains can be made through sharing the planned direction of travel for individual project teams or working groups. This may be uncomfortable for some. Memorandums of understanding may offer reassurance and protect project plans.

Open communication 

Collaborations work best when conversations are open and growth is encouraged. Ambitious global projects delivering global impacts benefit from multidisciplinary cross-fertilisation of ideas and a cooperative approach to activities and dissemination. Not all those you approach to collaborate will engage, preferring instead to continue their own path. Some may view collaboration with caution or even suspicion. Academic pressures can sometimes manifest in self-limiting approaches; securing research grants and producing publications. In our experience, where international collaborations focus on a shared global vision, grant applications developed within a multidisciplinary context are highly competitive. Similarly, multidisciplinary international commentary enhances the quality, relevance and reach of manuscripts, resulting in highly cited papers in high-impact journals. Addressing societal needs through a coordinated international collaborative approach simultaneously contributes to traditional higher education institution research metrics through global recognition, funding, citations, expressions of esteem and greater societal impacts.

Leading international collaborations has resulted in a seismic shift towards a global perspective that has enhanced my academic activities and the work of those I collaborate with.

Marian Brady is professor of stroke care and rehabilitation at Glasgow Caledonian University.

She is part of a multi-institutional team, involving academics from Glasgow Caledonian University, City, University of London, NUI Galway, Trinity College Dublin and UCL, which has been shortlisted for International Collaboration of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2022. A full list of shortlisted candidates can be found here.


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The success of international research collaborations rests upon clear communication, writes Marian Brady as she offers advice on what this involves in practice

Clear communication as the key to international collaboration

Institutional global outlook for collaboration 

Global connections and international research collaborations are fundamental to Imperial College London. The online Global Fellows Programme (GFP), a collaboration with Technical University Munich (TUM) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), provided doctoral students with the opportunity to collaborate with their peers in the UK, Europe and Asia when travel was restricted due to the pandemic. During the programme, students worked in multidisciplinary and multicultural groups to complete project-based activities, culminating in the development of “accelerator project proposals” for research addressing the theme “health, data and technology for society”. Some students extended connections made during the programme by undertaking research visits to the partner organisations.

Based on our experience delivering the online programme, this article sets out practical tips for supporting international links and collaborations between doctoral students.


	Resource collection:&nbsp;New approaches to the internationalisation of higher education
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	Strangers in a strange land: how supervisors can support international research students


Connection to wider partnerships agenda

The GFP was funded by a grant designed to further research and education partnerships between the three participating institutions. The grant funding helped secure buy-in from researchers, because it encouraged them to participate as speakers and their students to take part. 

An important part of building connections during the programme was for students to share their expertise in a “talent bank” and to explain how they would use their expertise to develop the “accelerator project proposal” and ideas for future research within the GFP theme. 

Managing time zone differences 

To account for time zone differences, synchronous activities took place in the morning for TUM and Imperial and in the afternoon for NTU, while asynchronous activities were managed independently by students.

Encouraging students’ connection and engagement throughout

Activities were interconnected through asynchronous and synchronous components. For example, to support the use of non-technical competencies, such as creativity, students were asked to develop a “prototype” of a culture chamber to support organisms in microgravity conditions based on a real project during asynchronous group work. They then presented the prototypes during the synchronous session. Within a group, each student worked on a specific task with the final product obtained by combining all the students’ work on different tasks. This allocation made students feel responsible for both their task and for the whole group. 

These group activities ensured students stayed engaged and connected throughout the programme and continued working together. It created a sense of curiosity between groups who could only see solutions developed by other groups during the synchronous sessions.

Designing pre-course activities to build trust and early connections

Prior to synchronous meetups, channels were set up to enable students to build early connections:&nbsp; participants introduced themselves and shared their technical and non-technical expertise in the “talent bank” mentioned earlier. 

These early communications built trust among students and tutors so that when the whole group was brought together live, students already knew each other and were ready to collaborate. 

Setting clear expectations for team working

The GFP team defined clear expectations for how participants would interact in an online environment, and identified the potential for miscommunication in an online environment due to language and cultural factors. To address this, as a preparatory activity before the GFP, students were asked to watch videos about intercultural awareness and communication and to share their own experience of researching in an international context. 

As a follow up, in the first activity each group developed a complementary set of expectations that included their reflections on the videos. Those expectations were used to facilitate the debrief sessions that followed each activity in the programme.

Creating a virtual space to connect students

Using Microsoft Teams, we created a dedicated Teams Class, where each channel supported an aspect of the programme. So, one channel contained the preparatory activities and each day of the five-day programme was hosted in its own channel. 

This system allowed us to organise and manage resources, meetings and asynchronous and synchronous activities, and represented a safe virtual environment in which students could meet, network and discuss their collaborations.

Recruiting students with shared passions to address the global challenge

When advertised to students, the programme’s purpose was made clear: to develop an accelerator research project under the topic, “health data and technology for society.”&nbsp; When selecting students, the programme team identified those who felt passionately about this global challenge and who could contribute technical and non-technical competencies. This shared vision and individual passion facilitated group connections.

Lessons learned 

When developing an online programme, it is important to design suitable activities and approaches with a balance of synchronous and asynchronous learning.&nbsp; Although the programme team was initially concerned about whether students would respond to an online programme, we were surprised by students’ willingness to engage with an online community of practice.&nbsp;&nbsp; 

Our experience has demonstrated that such programmes can lead to research collaborations and strengthen international partnerships and connections among doctoral students and their institutions. These recommendations aim to provide general guidance to support collaborations and networking in any subject or context; we hope they are useful to you.

Elena Forasacco is senior teaching fellow and director of the Global Fellows Programme in the Graduate School; Laura Bulmer is senior international relations officer, education and mobility; and Laura Lane is head of strategy and operations in the Graduate School, all at Imperial College London.

They have been shortlisted for International Collaboration of the Year in the Times Higher Education&nbsp;Awards 2022. A full list of shortlisted candidates can be&nbsp;found here.


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PhD students’ learning and research can be greatly enhanced through international collaboration. A team from Imperial College London shares practical tips for supporting these cross-border links between doctoral students 

Helping doctoral students build international connections

In an increasingly competitive market, with fewer European Union students applying to UK higher education institutions, British universities must continue to focus on global outreach and maintaining and expanding their international networks. 

Innovation is key to this. Pandemic travel restrictions – while challenging – presented universities with the opportunity to adapt their pedagogy and deliver new, student-centred international experiences online. These opportunities not only support internationalisation but help increase students’ confidence and enthusiasm for turning virtual mobility into reality.


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Coventry University is preparing to run the fourth iteration of its Virtual World Tour in January 2023. More than 1,500 participants joined the first tour, with students and staff from about 40 overseas higher education partners coming together during the pandemic to create an inclusive and immersive global experience. 

Participants on the tour had access to live sessions and workshops, as well as on-demand activities, recordings and resources offering virtual travel experiences to 25 countries. These included live language and culture sessions, and leadership seminars focused on transferable skills. The scheme also gave students from all over the world a means to network and build connections that could themselves lead to future global mobility opportunities.

With more than 90 per cent of participants on this first tour reporting that it improved their understanding of new cultures and increased their confidence in travel to new destinations, virtual mobility projects can clearly have a positive impact on universities’ internationalisation objectives.

Here are five considerations to bear in mind when creating a virtual mobility project:

Be inclusive

Consider your target audience: ensure your programme is inclusive both for students from your institution and those from the partners you wish to engage with. Be mindful of time differences and language barriers for online sessions, and work with your partners to ensure the learning materials that students can access are interactive and interesting. If the students participating are from multiple disciplines, consider online sessions that are diverse in their appeal.

Consider the learning environment

One of the most difficult aspects of delivering a successful virtual mobility project is managing the shared learning environment. Other institutions may operate with different learning platforms from the one you want to use, and participants may be apprehensive in learning environments they are unfamiliar with.

Provide clear enrolment instructions and ensure participants can access materials in the easiest way possible. Ideally, the learning environment should have a shared space for participants to engage in discussion, be monitored frequently, and provide updates on events linked to the project.

Facilitate networking and collaboration

A good virtual mobility scheme will provide opportunities for students to collaborate and build their networks. This could be as simple as encouraging participants to share their learning experiences or cultures with others. Consider using online forums or other networking tools that will help enhance the student experience. 

Review and reward

Collecting participant feedback is vital when undertaking a virtual mobility project for the first time, because it will enable improvement to be made to future iterations. Ensure channels are provided to capture this. 

Mobility projects are an effective way for students to build transitional skills – such as communication and reflection – so consider rewarding those who develop and evidence these skills with digital badges or certification. It is also worth considering if student mobility projects can be embedded directly into curriculum learning for credit. 

Take the next STEP

Working closely with partners on virtual mobility projects is likely to strengthen existing relationships and create future mobility opportunities. For example, Coventry University has developed Short Turing Experience Placements (STEP) as part of the UK’s Turing Scheme for studying and working overseas. These allow students to engage with exclusive partnership institutions and join programmes that build on the cultural understanding and networks developed from the Virtual World Tour – assisting in enhancing their future employability.

As well as providing better outcomes for students, higher education institutions stand to benefit in many ways from globally minded graduates. Having alumni with the confidence to work in new countries and who are willing to engage in future international projects may create avenues for income generation as institutions identify new opportunities and markets to explore. With mentoring programmes showing considerable growth in universities, the chance to produce global graduates who can participate offers an exciting prospect to improve the experience of current students.

Alex Regan is a global mobility and development consultant at Coventry University. 

Coventry University’s Virtual World Tour has been shortlisted for Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year in the&nbsp;Times Higher Education&nbsp;Awards&nbsp;2022. A full list of shortlisted candidates can be&nbsp;found here.

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If universities are serious about creating global graduates, they must explore virtual opportunities to build confidence and enthusiasm for international travel, says Alex Regan

Virtual mobility: a first step to creating global graduates

Seven years ago, I left my home country. First, I went to a major research centre in Berlin. Then, in Kazakhstan, I helped develop the curriculum and policies of a recently established university. My new position in the USA affords me different possibilities. Moving internationally gave me opportunities I might not have gotten at home in the UK.&nbsp;

You could say I left for these opportunities, but I also left because of the academic job market. Simply put, I had little choice if I wanted to stay in academia. I have been on the job market almost continuously for the past 11 years. I am constantly having to choose between keeping my career or going home. I may never be able to do both. For now, at least, I have chosen my career. But that comes with its own stressors.

How do you fly around a war zone with a cat?

A single international move can easily cost thousands of dollars, and most universities are not going to cover all of that – if they cover any of it at all. To get from Central Asia to Middle America – almost halfway around the world – I had to pay for flights and a shipping company, book short-term and then long-term accommodation, and find furniture. And this before being paid a single dollar. 


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Then there is the mental cost. Any move like this comes with a huge amount of decision fatigue, along with the regular fatigue. How do you fly from Kazakhstan to Indiana during a pandemic around a war zone with a cat? What health paperwork do I need? What does my cat need? Which shipping company is best or cheapest? Which of my possessions am I sufficiently invested in to take with me, and which should I purchase again once I arrive? Which bank should I use, which supermarket and where should I live? How in the hell does anyone navigate the US visa process? It’s a constant deluge of choices to make: from things that could derail the entire process to simply how to find a sandwich.

Many people do all this without a support network. When I moved to Kazakhstan, I had never been to the country before and knew one person, who left six months after I arrived. I know precisely no one in the entire state of Indiana. My nearest friends live 1,100 kilometres from here. And knowing that invokes something like claustrophobia or vertigo, a sudden breathless feeling of isolation as you are reminded that there is no one, no one at all, who you know.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

You meet people locally, but it’s never the same. You can’t laugh with them about that former flatmate you both had and their weird opinions on sofas. You introduce yourself to new colleagues, over and again. At best, it’s academic-friend speed-dating; at worst, a months-long addendum to the interview – a feeling of pressure to be bright and shiny for your bosses when you may feel anything but.

Colleagues might be sympathetic, but universities as institutions are often as uninterested in the stress and expense of moving as they usually are about faculty well-being. If we are teaching our classes, we must be fine. Institutions, we’ve been warned before, will never love us back.

Constant dislocation and Zoom overload

I am so tired. More than anything, I am tired of the constant dislocation of it all. I want to be able to text an old friend and meet them in the pub that same evening. I want to have a real conversation – not just a “Hi, how are you?” – with someone I don’t work with. I am sick of cross-time-zone WhatsApp conversations that are like telegrams, sent out in one person’s daylight and replied in another’s. I am jaded by the close yet impersonal nature of social media. And I am absolutely fucking sick of Zoom.

I remember meeting an older colleague who had just retired from the university that hired them straight out of grad school. They never worked anywhere else in their whole career. Technically, that can still happen. There are unicorns in the world. But for most of us who decide to stay in academia, we’ll go through multiple institutions before being offered a job that could perhaps be permanent.&nbsp;

For the rest of us, we are a generation of academics shuttled from contract to contract, institution to institution, country to country, never quite able to build up a local support network, put down roots and make a real home. And when we retire (if any of us will be able to afford to retire), where will we go? Back to a place we haven’t lived in decades, to find a town where, once again, we won’t know a soul? 

How scholars can cope with an international move

So, here are my thoughts on coping, from long experience:


	Social media and phones are good, actually. Mental health experts love to tell us to put away our phones and log off Twitter, but if you know no one for miles around, that’s not practical and it’s not helpful. Text your friends. Connect with communities on message boards. Put cute pictures on Instagram. Use our substantial technologies of communication to communicate.
	Find local community. And, no, not just with work people. Hopefully, you will have cool and lovely colleagues, but you need other people to interact with. Seek out websites, Instagram accounts, Facebook pages maintained by running groups, knitting circles, religious institutions, rock-climbing groups. Use the online to find the offline.
	Love where you are. Everywhere in the world has something good, maybe even something great, about it. Maybe you’re near a beautiful forest. Perhaps there are excellent restaurants in town or cool street art. Find the local thing that brings you joy and enjoy it whenever you can.
	Make a home, whatever that means for you. Love cooking? Buy one great pan and invite people for dinner. Book lover? Decorate your place with your favourite books, lined up in full view of the sofa. Colours make you happy? Get neon gel pens or removable wallpaper or a beautiful plant. Make the place you’re in feel good to be in right now, even if it’s not where you want to be forever.


Clare Griffin is a mental health advocate, fiction writer, historian and assistant professor for Russian history at Indiana University Bloomington.&nbsp;Her latest book is&nbsp;Mixing Medicines: The Global Drug Trade and Early Modern Russia (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022).

This article was originally published in July 2022 on Voices of Academia as “The eternal dislocation of academic living”.

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For many scholars, a sustainable career means moving countries to follow jobs and opportunities. Here, Clare Griffin talks about the financial, mental and social costs of relocation and offers practical tips for coping 

Zoom fatigue and other exhaustions of international academic life

I would like to provide 10 tips for anyone interested in doing academic work in the Netherlands to help them make a smooth transition. I recently finished a postdoctoral fellowship at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. While this was a hugely enriching experience, I believe my three-year stay would have been more enjoyable had I known more about the Netherlands when I arrived. Although I used the internet to learn about Dutch culture before moving, I lacked some crucial information. For this reason, I will share what I wish I had known when I came to the Netherlands. 


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But first I will explain why I found doing academic work in the Netherlands enriching.


	I learned a tremendous amount by being exposed to a very different culture. I became more aware of my assumptions, taken-for-granted beliefs,&nbsp;and ways of communicating. I found that my experience in the Netherlands broadened my mind. Not only did the Dutch people have a different outlook, but they also had a completely different way of communicating.
	I grew as a professional and as a person. I liked Dutch academia because there were ample opportunities to engage in professional and personal development. Training programmes are available even when they are costly for the university. There is conference funding for postdoctoral fellows. I could travel to conferences easily in the Netherlands because it is not a big country. Many Dutch cities are within easy travelling distance of one another.
	Another bonus is the generous holiday leave of 40 days. I did not use all my days off so I could use this funding to pay for additional professional development training. Since PhD students are employees in Dutch universities, they receive various benefits. In general, the universities pay academic staff good salaries. I would recommend spending time in the Netherlands because it is a beautiful country with a rich cultural life.


I experienced challenges and a great deal of misunderstanding (on both sides) while in the Netherlands. I want to share information that could hopefully make the transition smoother for those who choose to work there. 

Finding a place to live

1. I moved from Tilburg to live in The Hague. Many of my international colleagues lived outside Tilburg, too. It is easier for foreigners to settle in cities with expats and a multicultural population, such as Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Utrecht. In my case, the commute was only one hour on a comfortable train.

2. After a time-consuming and fruitless search for an apartment to rent, I paid a real estate agent to help me. There is a shortage of rental housing in the Netherlands. Landlords conduct interviews and choose a tenant based on their preferences. While hiring an agent can initially seem more expensive, it can save you time and money by speeding up the process. I found myself in a lovely apartment on the first day of viewings when I used an agent.

Establishing relationships

1. A Dutch person and an expat told me that Dutch people might be reluctant to be friends with foreigners because they see relationships as an investment. They may be less willing to make friends with someone they think is in the Netherlands temporarily. If you want to make Dutch friends, then learning some Dutch will help immensely. It signals your commitment to and interest in the Netherlands. 

2. I was lucky to meet several Dutch people who were very helpful. I was told that Dutch people might be less helpful towards those who do not speak Dutch or if they do not have a close personal relationship with someone. They may not provide all the information you require, for example. If you have problems with your internet or another matter, it may be worth asking a Dutch person to call on your behalf. 

3. The Netherlands is a small country. People can be connected to each other in unexpected ways. They can put these relationships first, especially if you are not a permanent staff member. Although this will not be the case for everyone, it is likely to have an impact in various situations. Therefore, if you cannot resolve an issue directly with a person, be careful, tactful and diplomatic when you bring up the matter with someone else. 

4. While you can tell the Dutch people what you appreciate about their country, I would suggest being brief and not being surprised by the lack of shared enthusiasm. I remember talking excitedly about the tulip farms and how beautiful the fields looked. My Dutch listener explained that she viewed tulips as ordinary because she had been around them all her life. Other Dutch people explained that they saw waffles, Delft blue porcelain and other items for which the Netherlands is famous as tourist gimmicks.

Communicating effectively

1. I frequently got caught in misunderstandings because Dutch communication is very direct. There are no multiple meanings of words and sentences. There is no word play. There is no rich underlying context behind communication. If you tell students that they might want to read a book, do not be surprised if they do not do the reading. It is better to tell students that you would like them to read a specific book. Be clear and specific when you disagree. If you adopt an indirect approach to communication to avoid confrontation, the Dutch person may assume that you agree.&nbsp;

2. Dutch directness means that Dutch people may not realise when they appear rude. Three individuals from European countries and one Dutch expat living in the UK told me that they sometimes experience Dutch communication as rude. You need to make a judgement call on when to point out the rudeness to the Dutch person and when to accept it as a cultural by-product. In general, the direct nature of communication in the Netherlands makes it hard for the Dutch to understand the concept of microaggression. A more productive approach is to explain to the person how you feel and how your cultural background shapes your perception of the situation.&nbsp;

3. There is no word for racism in the Netherlands. The Dutch promote a culture of colour-blindness. If you use the word racism, you may encounter a blank stare. For this reason, I recommend that you learn about the history and culture of the Netherlands so you can communicate with the Dutch in a relatable way. For example, initially, you could refer to equality, fairness and the value of making everyone feel welcome instead of using terms such as racism. Once you see a glimpse of understanding in the eyes of a Dutch person, you can start providing information on what racism is and what aspects of a situation implicate racism.&nbsp;

4. I found my efforts to contribute to positive change much more fruitful after I joined grassroots advocacy groups. I would initially avoid creating any perceived sense of division in the group, so you do not appear to be criticising. Everyone has insecurities and a desire for a sense of safety. You can use language that communicates that you are all participating in a communal effort to improve something. I appreciate the advice I received that I should first build positive relationships with colleagues before venturing into conversations on sensitive topics with them.&nbsp;

Do you like to plan for the long term? Someone who has lived in the Netherlands for many years told me that even those who learn Dutch, have a Dutch partner and have lived in the Netherlands for a long time still feel like foreigners. The divide is problematic. Nevertheless, it is possible to enjoy the country and its people. It is for you to decide whether you can be happy in such circumstances. The way I see it, any place has its own set of challenges, and it takes skill to be successful in each setting. For those of you who wish to explore academic work in the Netherlands, you can find vacancies at&nbsp;Academic Transfer. I wish you much luck, success and enjoyment in your stay.

Tetyana (Tanya) Krupiy is a lecturer in digital law, policy and society at Newcastle University.

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Ten tips for academics interested in relocating to work at a university in the Netherlands, by Tetyana Krupiy, who spent three years carrying out research in Tilburg 

Advice for academics interested in working in the Netherlands

International universities are, by their very definition, multilingual – although you might not know it if you actually set foot in one. That’s because, worldwide, as universities further internationalisation ambitions, most classes are delivered in English. Such implementation of English-medium instruction (EMI) courses can lay the foundation for an oppressive pedagogy because there is an assumption that all students within these classrooms share the same level of English proficiency, which may not be the case for international students located in English-first-language countries or for home students in English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) countries. 

To promote social justice and create more equity in such learning environments, future policies should be more inclusive of students’ multilingualism. One key way to do so in EMI settings is by making students aware that “translanguaging” is a credible learning tool for them to use. 

Translanguaging refers to a bilingual or multilingual’s use of their full “linguistic repertoire” to bring about a learning outcome. Examples could include drafting written work in their first language initially, because this can make for deeper and more nuanced work, before translating to English later, or reading relevant books in their first language. Essentially, translanguaging can encompass any activity that empowers students to choose which language they use.


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By making students aware that translanguaging is an inclusive part of the learning process, they will recognise that their first language has a “space” in this dynamic, which helps promote greater equality and inclusivity. Denying opportunities for students to use their first language would be like asking them to close one of their eyes permanently, forcing upon them a lack of clear perspective when it comes to their learning. 

Giving more recognition to students’ multilingualism does not necessarily mean that instructors need to be multilingual. After all, it may be the case that in most EMI settings the only common language instructors and students share is English. And for this reason, students’ final work will be submitted in English. However, by giving recognition to students’ multilingualism, they are able to arrive at this final work using whichever language/s they choose. If for some reason instructors wish to cross-check non-English resources used by students in producing their work, this may be possible with the aid of translation software along with possible follow-up discussions with students to check on the accuracy of the translation.&nbsp;

A good way to start promoting students’ multilingualism is by conducting a needs analysis, which simply involves asking students questions to discover the linguistic challenges they encounter. For example, asking them to gauge the percentage of content they retain when English is the sole medium of instruction, or asking them for suggestions of how use of their first language could help their learning experiences. 

The outcomes of this analysis could then involve instructors being more critically aware of how they need to adjust their pedagogy to accommodate the language needs of the EAL students in the intercultural classroom. They may, for instance, wish to use a student-centred learning approach, such as enquiry-based learning, which would provide room for students to bring their linguistic repertoires or heritage cultures as resources into the learning process. &nbsp;

There may also be an assumption by international students studying at universities in English-first-language countries that they are required to conduct their research in the English language. This assumption may be made because they are taught in English by a monolingual instructor, and the student therefore assumes that the examiners of their work may also be monolingual. In order for universities to become multilingual, spaces need to be provided for students to conduct research multilingually and they must be made aware of this possibility. 

Expecting students to conduct research in English will lead to indigenous languages being further marginalised and to bodies of knowledge connected &nbsp;to these languages being overlooked. To overcome these likelihoods, students should be encouraged to access content knowledge from sources published in their original languages, which may well not be English. 

The content knowledge contained within these other languages may often be rooted in the culture or nuance of the original language and not have an adequate English translation. By using and citing content from these sources, students may feel more included because their bilingual identities are being given more recognition. Students also need to be made aware that citing non-English written sources is a credible academic practice. EAL students should also be encouraged to publish in academic journals in their home countries in their native languages to help contribute to bodies of knowledge in their native cultures and thus help reduce the continued hegemonisation of the publishing industry. Instructors may wish to encourage this by making students aware of the potential to reach a different audience, not only linguistically but also in terms of nuance. &nbsp;

Promoting social justice in HE is not only a case of recognising multilingualism as a legitimate policy; it is also about allowing students the opportunity to question the status quo. In other words, students need to be given opportunities to critique the social structures that are often taken for granted. 

Specifically, they need to be encouraged to question dominant global social narratives. For instance, in the case of a language course focusing on globalisation – and the ongoing need for the world to speak English – students should be encouraged to understand how this can be seen as a remnant of imperialism, how it results in local languages being marginalised and how that leads to bodies of knowledge rooted in those languages being overlooked and in some cases lost. Students should discuss possible alternative views so that they can draw their own conclusions – in turn, this will enable them to contribute to the decolonising agenda.

In sum, universities worldwide need to ask what the social justice goal of higher education is. An oft-heard answer to this is “to make students global citizens” – without any thought being given to the fact that this outcome often involves students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds being dominated by global, English-language social narratives. Contrary to what so many universities currently practise, to truly pursue internationalisation they need to give their students’ diversity more prominence, particularly on the global stage. A first step towards this would be to embrace multilingualism as a legitimate policy for learning.&nbsp; 

Dylan Williams is a teaching professor at Seoul National University, South Korea.

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If universities are serious about internationalisation, they must confront the hegemony of English-medium instruction – here’s how, says Dylan Williams

Introducing ‘translanguaging’ – and other ways to promote multilingualism

When we think of universities, the high value of their brands doesn’t usually spring to mind, nor does how different some universities are from others. Sure, there are those in the Ivy League (US), the Russell Group (UK), C-9 League (China) or Group of 8 (Australia), but these represent a tiny fraction of the 30,000 or so universities in existence globally, and even they are fairly similar to each other. So, how does a university stand out when they all provide the same full-service offering? 

Universities could learn from commerce. Old examples of commercial brands include Cola-Cola, Hoover and Xerox, or a more contemporary ubiquitous brand would be Google. Folklore has it that McDonald’s “golden arches” symbol is more recognised worldwide than the Christian cross symbol. But how do commercial brands reach such giddy heights of recognition and what can universities learn from them? 


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Sometimes it’s simply a case of spending more than 100 years on prime-time advertising (Coca-Cola); other times it’s being the only serious operator in a niche category (Google, and Hoover for a long time). Sometimes it’s being the inventor of a new category like Apple was with iPods and iPads. For universities, heritage has a lot of impact on a university brand. For example, Oxford was founded in 1096, Harvard in 1636 and Peking in 1898 – and all are in the top 20 of the THE&nbsp;World University Rankings. But age is not enough. Many other old universities are less prestigious. Being massive doesn’t cut it either. Indira Gandhi National Open University serves about 4 million students, the world’s largest student base, but it doesn’t make the top 500 in THE’s rankings.

Since the 1990s, there has been increasing recognition that a firm’s overall value resides not in its physical infrastructure, nor even within its intellectual property, but within its brand. In 2022, Kantar – a marketing firm – valued Apple, the world’s most valuable brand, at a whopping £947 billion. That means if you were to buy Apple, you would pay £947 billion just for the brand, without having bought a single phone, factory or blueprint. Brand values are calculated in different ways, but one way is to estimate what current and future revenues will accrue to the organisation with the current time value of money.

That begs the question as to what universities’ brands are worth. We don’t know because no one like Kantar, Brand Finance or Interbrand has measured them collectively and compared them. If they did, what would such a ranking tell us? It might confirm the status of the “super brand” six, namely that the top dogs are Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley. 

Given that brand values integrate the expectation of future cash flows, it would have to recognise the importance of the following: winning (very) large research grants in the medical and physical sciences; recruiting large numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students, particularly in business, law, engineering, medical and health sciences, politics and international relations; and that only a small number of universities capitalise on their intellectual property to spin off and spin out many commercially profitable companies. 

A brand ranking would also illustrate that some universities are markedly better than others at recruiting overseas students or building successful overseas campuses, that some are better than others at developing licensing and sponsorship deals, plus which universities are more (or less) capable of attracting high-value philanthropic donations of the transformational kind.

With all that in mind, how should universities seek to differentiate their brands? For starters, some universities still need to embrace a more commercial culture. Many fail to capitalise on the opportunities available to them because they don’t recognise them as opportunities in the first place, or they don’t have the confidence to strike out and try. This means developing a robust commercialisation process to diversify their revenues beyond undergraduate and postgraduate students and research council income. It also means bringing in staff who understand how to plan for, bid for, train staff for and deliver commercial opportunities. 

Each university must stand for something unique that others don’t stand for in order to differentiate themselves. Too often, and I take the UK as the prime case, universities want to offer all levels of teaching provision from undergraduate through postgraduate, doctoral to post-experience, in all subjects, including science, arts, social sciences, medical sciences and engineering, and for a majority of their staff to be research-active and publishing in world-class journals accordingly. Now the UK government has encouraged universities to positively impact on their regions, they want to offer that too. All of them.

The glaring problem is that most universities cannot do everything well. They must make much harder choices about what programmes they want to offer, what funding to chase and be more selective about what they offer, including at what level, preferably because they are good at it. Not all universities have to be research-intensive; more could offer sector-specific provision. Why do we not have specialised defence, telecommunications, human health, climate change or energy-focused universities? That would mean universities working to solve the world’s most serious challenges. 

Universities must audit carefully what they are good at, including assessing and identifying strengths in the region in which they reside and what the constituencies that they serve want, and build on those strengths. Universities need to transform to meet the world’s challenges. Those that rise to the challenge better than others will differentiate themselves and build their brand value.

Paul Baines is professor of political marketing at the University of Leicester, UK. He is a co-author of Marketing (6th edition, Oxford University Press, 2022). 

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Universities need to better embrace commercial opportunities and stop trying to be all things to all people, says Paul Baines

Sea of sameness: why universities have trouble with branding

As we were preparing for the last day of a conference at the University of Stirling on 15 July, the Russian army shelled two universities in Mykolaiv. Listening to our colleagues’ presentations and sipping coffee during the break, we couldn’t help but think about this. Ukrainian-affiliated academics and students, both at home and in exile, need our help. And they need it now.The Russian invasion of Ukraine has resulted in the deaths and displacement of Ukrainian citizens, as well as destruction of homes, industry and infrastructure. Among the affected are our academic colleagues and students. As the Russian war has unfolded,&nbsp;classes have moved online or underground, and professors joined the army. V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University was heavily shelled early in March. Despite these adversities, many academics continue their work remotely or on site with wood-covered windows and minimal natural light. Some, understandably, have chosen to move to safer places outside Ukraine.#ScienceForUkraine’s mission and activitiesIndividuals from around the world have been trying to help academics and students from Ukraine, with assistance ranging from remote access to library resources to specialised funding and visa support. Working groups have been developed to assist in this endeavour, including Ukraine Hub UK, Ukrainian Global University and Science For Ukraine.Spotlight:&nbsp;What universities can do to assist refugeesIt is time to bring back peace studiesThe US should admit Ukrainian medical students to help them rebuild their countryWe are both members of Science for Ukraine, a global network of volunteers from more than 30 countries. It was founded on 26 February by a group of European researchers to collect and disseminate opportunities for scholars affected by the Russian invasion. The Science For Ukraine support page and Google calendar pull together current events. Since its inception, the organisation’s scope and mission have broadened significantly.In June, Science for Ukraine published a report outlining its work since it was formed. The organisation has also organised a joint conference and engaged with major publishing houses, such as Nature and Science, to call for more opportunities for Ukrainian scholars. The Science for Ukraine database has listed more than 2,600 offers of support and shared these adverts across all major social networks. This has drastically streamlined the process for those seeking employment or other support in host countries, helping ensure that Ukrainian academic engagement and contributions to research can continue.The UK working group for Science for Ukraine provides guidance on how UK academics can help, aims to keep track of research and student funding opportunities, and runs a mentoring scheme. The mentoring scheme aims to provide individualised, subject-specific support to help researchers navigate UK academia at any career stage. It covers collaboration, career-planning, preparing CVs and job applications, academic writing, how to secure research funding, and professional conduct. In doing so, the scheme better prepares Ukrainian researchers for working in the UK academic environment or applying for funding.Crucially, the scheme is also available to academics remaining in Ukraine and wishing to stay there. The mentoring can then take the form of collaborative work, joint publishing or broadening one’s professional networks.Although we do not keep official track of outcomes, informally we are aware that contacts facilitated by the mentoring scheme have helped Ukrainian-affiliated academics find hosts for temporary fellowship applications in the UK. Both mentees and mentors have told us that participation has been a rewarding and useful experience.How can you help?There is still more to be done in the UK, however. The visa application process has been more challenging than for many other countries, and funding opportunities for researchers and students often require a right to remain in the UK prior to application. Raising awareness of the issues faced by individuals from Ukraine is key, and Science for Ukraine UK is looking for volunteers to help us keep supporting the Ukrainian academic community. Even one hour per week could help, and there are plenty of opportunities to support us regardless of your skill set. For example, you could monitor and disseminate funding programmes, update offers on the Science for Ukraine website, share our success stories on blogs or social media, develop support opportunities at your own institution, or contribute to our mentoring scheme.You can contact us by emailing&nbsp;uk@scienceforukraine.eu.Arran Reader is a lecturer in psychology and Anna Bobak is a Leverhulme early career fellow, both are at the University of Stirling.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Academics and students from Ukraine at home and in exile need help. Here are ways to support the Ukrainian academic community

Supporting Ukrainian scholars: what’s next for #ScienceForUkraine?

Much has been written about international branch campuses, both in academic literature and university media. Some authors have breathlessly forecast the inexorable rise of international branch campuses to meet the growing demand for higher education from students unable or unwilling to travel abroad. With only 2 percent of the world’s tertiary students enrolled outside their home country, there is clearly much greater scope for universities to expand student numbers by serving the 98 percent in their own countries than competing for the tiny minority of students who are internationally mobile.

Other authors have gloomily predicted the demise of the international branch campus, arguing that the phenomenon is transitory. Just as booming demand for higher education coupled with sluggish domestic supply creates conditions for international branch campuses to flourish, so sustained economic development and rising tertiary participation gradually squeeze out international branch campuses. Malaysia is an example of a country that imported international branch campuses in the 2000s to meet excess demand for university places but has now developed a strong higher education system, becoming a major education exporter in its own right.


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The truth, as ever, is somewhere in the middle. C-BERT, the US research centre that tracks international branch campuses, reports slow growth, with 305 recognised international branch campuses in its latest census. This shows that the number of new international branch campuses born each year is weighed against the premature deaths of almost as many.&nbsp; So, what determines whether an international branch campus survives to maturity or dies in childhood?

There are clearly many ways to answer this question. One is to follow the approach of two US management scientists, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, who 40 years ago published the influential book, In Search of Excellence. They studied a group of demonstrably successful US corporations to identify the eight shared characteristics of each – a bias for action; staying close to the customer; autonomy and entrepreneurship; productivity through people; hands-on, value-driven approaches; stick to the knitting (ie, doing what they know best); simple form and lean staff; and simultaneous loose-tight properties (ie, a dedication to core values among diverse staff).

In the same way, by studying the characteristics of international branch campuses that have been successful over an extended time period – such as Monash University Malaysia, the University of Nottingham Malaysia and China, and Heriot-Watt University Dubai – we can deduce the key factors that have contributed to their success.&nbsp; 

Equally, looking at the common features of international branch campuses that did not last, such as UNSW Asia and George Mason University Ras al-Khaimah, can offer clues as to what led to their demise. Here are the most striking findings.

An honest and critical business case

Establishing an international branch campus is often the ambition of a visionary vice-chancellor or president and, for those charged with bringing the vision to reality, it is often hard to “speak truth to power”. As a result, business cases are frequently sexed up, with start-up costs underestimated and forecast enrolments wildly exaggerated. Reading University Malaysia had a bumpy ride in its early years because of overly optimistic planning assumptions, while UNSW Asia crashed and burned after one semester amid disappointing enrolments.&nbsp; Those universities that have subjected their business cases to rigorous external scrutiny, typically by audit firms, have been able to enter foreign markets with a much better understanding of the likely returns and the risks to be mitigated.

Long-term commitment to the enterprise

In most countries, after the church, universities are the longest-established institutions.&nbsp; Think the universities of Bologna (1088) or Oxford (1096).&nbsp; It takes time to build a university and, while international branch campuses are sometimes derided as “McDonald’s” franchises, in reality these institutions have their own organisational culture and brand identity which takes time to develop. Successful international branch campuses have management teams at the home campus that think in terms of decades, not years.

Broad-based stakeholder support

An international branch campus needs support from a wide range of internal and external stakeholders – the university’s council, management team and staff at the home campus, the host government, the local joint venture partner, students and employers in the host country. Unless this support is sustained across the board, the campus is likely to fail. One of the biggest sources of risk for an international branch campus with narrowly based support is a change of vice-chancellor or president. Without a wide coalition of supporters to defend the international branch campus, a sceptical incoming leader can easily disavow the decisions of predecessors and close down the venture. Such was the fate of UNSW Asia on the arrival of a new vice-chancellor in 2006.

Alignment with the core objectives of the university

The core business of a university is research (the creation of new knowledge) and teaching (the transmission of existing knowledge). Most international branch campuses begin as commercial ventures to export teaching and generate tuition revenues. However, unless the campus begins to develop its own research capacity and capability, it will never shake off the perception – by internal and external stakeholders – that it is a commercial, slightly disreputable outpost of the home university. The University of Nottingham has been notably successful in creating centres of research excellence at its Malaysian and Chinese campuses that have attracted funding from host governments.

In summary, after 30 years, we are now at a point where we can – following the example of Peters and Waterman – look back at the world’s 300-odd international branch campuses and begin to draw conclusions about the characteristics of success. In short, international branch campuses are not a route to quick, easy riches, as many universities have learned to their cost.

Nigel Healey is professor of international higher education and vice-president for global and community engagement at the University of Limerick.

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What do successful international branch campuses have in common? Nigel Healey outlines the key characteristics that institutions wishing to extend their presence overseas should take heed of

What determines the success of an international branch campus?

As the world marks the 77th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August, the risk of renewed nuclear attack has perhaps never been as real in the eight decades since as it is today, leading to renewed calls from governments and citizens around the world for the abolition of nuclear weapons. But in Nagasaki, the anniversary will be marked with an even broader and more ambitious call: a call for the world to recommit to peace. What role can universities and academics play?

“Teach Peace” is a slogan from another era. To many today, peace is the stuff of hippy idealism belonging to a simpler time. The peaceful resolution of conflict seems like too distant a goal in the context of a raging war in Europe, threats to territorial sovereignty in Asia and mass killings in the streets of the United States.&nbsp;

Yet the nuclear survivors and their children in Nagasaki are adamant: the root cause of nuclear proliferation is not the weapons, but a lack of commitment at all levels of society to taking action for peace. A commitment to ensuring there are “No More Nagasakis” demands a deeper understanding of, and commitment to, the daily practice of peacemaking.&nbsp;


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If the abolition of nuclear weapons is largely a matter of national government policy, peace-making is as much a local as a global responsibility. Programmes in citizen diplomacy such as sister-city relationships and academic and artistic exchanges have long recognised that the fabric of peace has many more threads than government-to-government ties. 

It is also a matter of individual commitment and action. Over the last 75 years, the world has narrowly escaped nuclear attack through the heroic actions of little-known individuals who defied protocols and, in some cases, direct orders. In 1983, Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer working at a nuclear early warning system, refused to alert his superiors to what the computers showed as US nuclear strikes, and were later determined to be a system malfunction. If Petrov had strictly followed instructions and sounded the alert, ensuing nuclear strikes could have wiped out large swathes of the Soviet Union and NATO countries’ populations. Similarly, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, a Soviet submarine with authority to launch a 10 kiloton nuclear torpedo didn’t end up doing so after one officer, Vasili Arkhipov, refused. He thereby foiled the consensus protocol needed by all officers on board before launch, averting unspeakable levels of destruction.

This begs the question: how do we update our understanding of the pragmatics of peace-making for a violent and divided world, and equip future leaders to take effective and courageous action towards peaceful outcomes? It is time for universities to step up to the challenge.

So, what should universities do?

First, universities can commit to peace in their teaching, research and engagement activities. For example, the presidents of the U7+ Alliance of World Universities will convene at Keio University in Japan next year, ahead of the 2023 G7 Summit in Hiroshima set to centre on global peace and security. Under the theme of “The Pen is Mightier than the Sword”, the presidents will discuss how to enhance student access to courses on peace and security, they will review data on university involvement in weapons research and find ways to align research with international obligations, highlighting especially policy-relevant initiatives that include non-Western perspectives.

Second, mapping courses to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) –&nbsp;as we did recently at Northwestern University&nbsp;– can broaden students’ perspectives and help them build individualised paths of study around UN SDG 16, to promote peace, justice and strong institutions.

Peace-making is a skillset critical to leadership in today’s global environment. It requires listening, empathy&nbsp;and&nbsp;analysis skills, as well as deep comparative knowledge of the history of conflicts, their resolutions and&nbsp;their deeper causes. Universities can expand opportunities for experiential learning in conflict resolution through field research projects, internship programmes and conflict management discussions or simulations with practitioners, to name a few strategies.

Rejuvenating peace studies for the 21st century

Two generations ago, after the detonation of the first nuclear bombs, scientists founded peace studies programmes at universities to surface novel approaches to ending conflicts, using methods from a diverse spectrum of fields including political science, sociology, psychology, history, religion and more. Global funding for peace studies peaked in the 1980s but started to taper off in the 1990s following the end of the Cold War and continued trending downward in the 2000s, with programmes shuttering at UC Berkley, the University of Kansas, Tel Aviv University and the University of Sydney. 

With the collapse of the post-war Pax Americana, it is time for universities around the world to step up and collaborate across national borders to invest in research and education devoted to a sophisticated understanding of the parameters and pathways of peace. This means incorporating traditional research in international law and institutions, nuclear non-proliferation and national security, but also widening the lens to consider new actors such as global social media and global and regional citizen movements and networks and updating traditional methods of nonviolence with new technologies such as artificial intelligence. 

Crucially, it means leveraging transnational university networks to ensure that differing national perspectives and concerns are reflected in theories and methods rather than taking one national perspective as universal as prior generations did.&nbsp;

Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, for example, allows students to tailor their PhD programme to their unique academic backgrounds. The institute allows students to incorporate traditional disciplines in the humanities (anthropology, history, political science, psychology, sociology or theology) to create an interdisciplinary academic position from which they can contribute unique perspectives to the development of international peace-building laws and institutions.

Princeton University has a science and global security programme where research on nuclear weapons and arms control supports the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Researchers use sophisticated methods drawn from both computer science and social scientific research to model the possible causes of a nuclear war and to track linkages between past nuclear testing and current medical and environmental impacts on communities.

Likewise, Northwestern’s Security and AI Lab is using sophisticated AI techniques to predict and deter terrorist and cyber-attacks, achieve better outcomes in diplomatic negotiations and support social movements’ participation in peace-building.

Universities have always been the location in society where we identify and address root causes, and where we pursue the “basic science” research that leads to lasting future innovation. Nowhere is this spirit more needed than in the cause of creating the next generation of global peacekeepers.

Annelise Riles is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and will be appointed Nagasaki Peace Correspondent on 10 August. At Northwestern University, she is professor of law, associate provost for global affairs, and the executive director of the Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.

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Recent world events point towards the need for a commitment to peace at every level of society, writes Annelise Riles, as she explains how universities can promote peace-making and related skills through teaching, research and collaboration

It is time to bring back peace studies

The Russian Federation’s precipitous alienation from the international academic community is both a direct result of the invasion of Ukraine and the culmination of a much longer process that began with Vladimir Putin’s ascent to the presidency in 2000. 

Yet this process need not disrupt the international networks that have developed over the past 30 years among scholars and institutions of the broader, post-Soviet space. From the tragedy of Russia’s self-imposed isolation, there emerges the opportunity to expand and diversify academic networks to build new avenues of intellectual exchange, particularly in Central Asia.

My personal engagement with the former Soviet Union began in August 2001, when I moved to Moscow to teach English with the US Peace Corps. Less than a month after my group’s arrival, our shock at witnessing the 9/11 terrorist attacks from abroad was mitigated by an outpouring of sympathy from the Russian people. The US embassy in Moscow was covered in flowers, and people regularly approached us in the street to express their condolences. 


	What can universities do to improve routes into HE for displaced academics?
	Western universities need to look further afield or risk alienation
	How to stop unconsciously discriminating against international students


A decade after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russian relations with the US and Europe remained open. Scholars and journalists had enjoyed unprecedented access to archives, libraries and peoples throughout the former USSR. New Russian universities, such as the European University at St Petersburg and the Higher School of Economics, had been founded in the 1990s and recruited foreign professors. Unbeknown to us, this period of open exchange was about to begin its steady decline. 

Visa requirements for foreign researchers became increasingly onerous and confusing. By 2015, numerous historians had been detained, fined and deported for accessing archival documents without the proper visa. Government hostility toward independent academic inquiry was directed at domestic scholars as well. Research institutions that received funding from abroad to investigate sensitive topics, such as the human rights abuses of the Stalin regime, were labelled “foreign agents” and closed down. The government began installing loyalists in leadership positions in Russia’s universities, while ousting or arresting academic administrators deemed politically unreliable. Students and faculty who expressed political dissent faced harassment and dismissal. On the eve of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it was generally recognised that academic freedom in Russia was in steep decline.

For the academic community, the greatest loss resulting from the war in Ukraine has been the bombing of dozens of Ukrainian universities and displacement of hundreds of thousands of students and faculty. Another casualty of this conflict has been the academic networks established with Russian scholars over the past three decades. In response to Russia’s aggression, many foreign research institutions, such as the Max Planck Society, have ceased all collaboration with Russian academia. Far from seeking to mitigate this trend, the Russian government is also taking measures to decouple its system of higher education from the West.&nbsp; 

On 24 May, the minister of science and higher education announced Russia’s withdrawal from the Bologna system of education, which will make it difficult for students to transfer to universities outside the country or obtain recognition of their Russian diplomas abroad. On 28 May, the government officially cancelled the memorandum of understanding with the US on principles of cooperation in culture, humanities, education and media. The Russian Federation is rapidly approaching the state of strict censorship and intellectual isolation that characterised the Soviet era, but with two important differences. Firstly, unlike citizens of the former Soviet Union, Russian citizens are free to leave the country, which they have been doing in large numbers. Secondly, the current dictatorship encompasses only Russia and Belarus, while most other post-Soviet republics remain open to intellectual exchange with the outside world. 

Academic engagement with Central Asia is much more recent than with Russia, but interest in this region grew significantly after five newly independent republics emerged from the Soviet collapse. It was my own fascination with this region that drew me to my current position at Nazarbayev University (NU) in Kazakhstan. Since its establishment in 2010, NU has accumulated a unique concentration of expertise on Central Asia and the former Soviet Union in such fields as history, political science, anthropology, sociology, linguistics and archaeology. 

Major universities in this region, such as Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, also in Kazakhstan, and the University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, are now uniquely positioned to build new international partnerships with academic institutions that have lost access to Russia. 

To seize the opportunity to expand global academic networks in Central Asia, institutions of higher education in this region should move in the opposite direction from their Russian counterparts by asserting their academic freedom. Academic freedom can be demonstrated by faculty members discussing sensitive political issues and producing criticism of their local government, for example as we do of the government of Kazakhstan. By building upon this environment of intellectual freedom, Central Asian universities are more likely to attract students, research partners and funding from abroad.

For these potential partners, this region offers access to the Russian language, the Soviet past and the post-Soviet world. Scholars and institutions interested in discussing collaboration with Central Asian universities should contact the institution’s office of global relations. While the Central Asian republics have been engaged in efforts to revive their national languages, universities in this region can also offer instruction and immersion in Russian for language programmes that are now leaving Russia. For research programmes in the social sciences and humanities, Central Asia can also offer a wealth of underexplored archives, the opportunity to learn local languages and access to materials beyond those only in Russian.

International STEM networks that are now in danger of cancellation as a result of the withdrawal of funding from Russian partner institutions should approach Central Asian universities to fill those gaps. For international academic networks, the formation of new partnerships in Central Asia will not only serve to maintain their global reach but also build mutual understanding in a region of great geopolitical significance. 

Daniel Scarborough is a&nbsp;PhD holder in Russian history and assistant professor at Nazarbayev University School of Sciences and Humanities. 

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Major universities in this region are now uniquely positioned to build new international partnerships with academic institutions that have lost access to Russia

Russia’s intellectual isolation presents opportunities for Central Asian HE 

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UK higher education responded with a range of initiatives to support the Ukrainian academic community – from fellowship programmes to student bursaries, fee waivers to twinning initiatives, collection drives to government advocacy. These efforts have arguably been more extensive, with more high-level institutional support, than those following any previous geopolitical crisis, including Syria and Afghanistan, exposing the sector to possibly justified criticism. 

Ukraine has a comparatively large higher education sector with multiple, often smaller institutions and significant pre-existing links. The scale of the population movement, including displaced academics, has dwarfed most others in Europe since the Second World War. Based on this recent experience, we can identify good practice on how individual institutions can improve pathways into UK higher education for displaced academics to be applicable in a range of scenarios.


	Education for humanity: designing learner-centric solutions for refugee students
	Increasing access to higher education for refugees through digital learning
	Practical ways to develop a comprehensive university ‘sanctuary’ programme


Institutional governance

Combining clear leadership with a truly cross-institutional approach can make all the difference. A nominated individual from senior management can lead a small group of staff drawn from relevant offices – global engagement, HR, fundraising, admissions, student services, widening access. These staff own different work streams, leveraging operational know-how and delivery expertise. This way, an ad hoc crisis response can turn into agile crisis governance. This is particularly the case if the institution can draw on an already established crisis management protocol, located in an identified institutional unit. Knowing who to turn to and how to manage workflow reduces turnaround time, which is crucially important to those whom universities seek to help. Above all, it means we can rely on and optimise our efforts based on the lessons learned the hard way in the past, including some very recent ones, such as during the pandemic.

The university community

In addition, it is vital to bind in the wider university community. First and foremost, ensuring academic buy-in is essential. At UCL, we were fortunate to be able to rely on an advisory “huddle” of academics with outstanding expertise on the region, authoritarianism and political violence. They explained, informed, assessed, critiqued, pointed out pitfalls and helped with scenario planning. Unsurprisingly, many of our scholars maintain close links to the region. They also lead on collaborative teaching or student mobility schemes with partner institutions there. They are thus critical to surfacing important concerns. In this crisis, certainly, the institutional disposition itself was important, with academics and enabler roles alike feeling enfranchised to act outside of their normal roles and take on additional responsibilities.

Similarly, integrating the skill sets, inside knowledge, connections and networks of students empowers inclusive and effective decision-making. Staff gain significant insights consulting with student groups to identify and then address immediate concerns of students from the region currently with us. Fluid communication channels allow staff to share important information with students in a timely and often proactive fashion. 

Working together, we can give more targeted support to displaced students still outside the UK, whose university studies are disrupted. But students are important actors in their own right. Students at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), for instance, conducted a collection drive over three months, mobilising and delivering essential supplies for Ukraine. From packing and moving boxes to leveraging personal and SSEES networks, organising logistics and supplies and promoting the drive: students were in the driving seat, but practically and morally supported by staff. In the best-case scenario, the combination of cooperation and care fosters a community among students and staff.

External partners

Yet universities do not operate in a vacuum. We need to engage not only our internal, but our external communities – and none more than the specialised sector organisations. The Council of At-Risk Academics (CARA) is UK higher education’s go-to partner to help deliver fellowship programmes and offer displaced scholars new (academic) lifelines. But community organisations and local government are also key to delivering “wraparound” services, from finding accommodation and school places to advising on access to the health system, and other practical help and assistance. Universities do not usually have the resources or expertise internally to provide such care.

Sector-wide cooperation

It is fair to say that an optimised higher education response in the UK will always require sector-wide coordination, underpinned by a governmental response. Indeed, many obstacles, such as narrow criteria for visa routes and university fee regimes, can only be surmounted by government action. In what is often a fast-moving environment with many interrelated parts, cross-sector exchange and coordination allow institutions to identify best practice, pool knowledge and resources and avoid duplication. Platforms and networks, such as the Ukraine Hub UK’s HEI Sector Task Force, have been an outstanding example. Such consortia also stand a better chance of surfacing and addressing key issues, from visas and immigration to tuition fees, with government. 

Individual care

Displaced academics are, above all, individual scholars starting, at least temporarily, a new professional and personal life under the hardest of circumstances. This places a duty of care on universities to create an environment in which the scholars can thrive. Non-academic mentors are indispensable to help with the practicalities – ideally as a full team, such as conceptualised by the King’s College London’s HEI Homes for Ukraine scheme. But it is equally important to create the structures for nurturing displaced academics at university academically. Matching scholars with academic mentors in host departments who can offer intellectual environments and opportunities for their academic development is possibly the single most important factor. Identifying thematic clusters and supporting disciplinary or topic-based networks can further the scholar’s career and truly integrate them into the host institution. Last but very much not least, supporting and enabling connections with other displaced scholars and home institutions – in order to maintain fractured Ukrainian intellectual communities and support the desire to eventually return home. 

Uta Staiger is an associate professor of European Studies, executive director of the UCL European Institute, and pro-vice-provost (Europe) at University College London.

Freya Proudman is a postgraduate student in Russian politics at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London. She is a UK Young European Ambassador for EU Neighbours East, who successfully organised aid deliveries.

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Efforts to support Ukrainian academics offer lessons in how individual institutions can improve pathways into UK higher education for displaced scholars now and in the future, write Uta Staiger and Freya Proudman

What can universities do to improve routes into HE for displaced academics?

In May, for the first time ever, the world hit a harrowing record of 100&nbsp;million people forcibly displaced around the world. At least 30&nbsp;million of those displaced are refugees, a majority of whom experience protracted displacement, residing in a country of asylum for five years or longer.

With generations of youth having spent their entire lives in refugee communities, education is often heralded as the optimal route for youth seeking pathways to economic independence. However, myriad barriers such as infrastructure limitations, restriction of movement and/or education, and large opportunity costs exist for refugee learners, resulting in only 5&nbsp;per cent of refugees participating in higher education.


	Increasing access to higher education for refugees through digital learning
	Helping refugees get their qualifications recognised
	‘Making it’ in the US: education and employment for Afghan refugees


As models of high-quality online and digital learning evolve around the globe, colleges and universities should be asking themselves how they can leverage lessons learned during the pandemic to further extend access to hard-to-reach populations such as refugees in camps, settlements and urban areas around the world.

Below are a few critical reflections for higher education institutions (HEIs) to bear in mind when developing digital resources for refugee learners.

Take stock of university capacity and leverage institutional strengths

Are there existing digital assets at your university that require little to no content revision, are contextually relevant and can be quickly delivered with a new learner population? If so, consider piloting these assets with the target population and use what you learn to iterate on the existing course and inform new curricular developments. Note that not all content can be repurposed for a new population – there are language and cultural specificities to consider – but you may find that there are existing courses that require minimal tweaking and thus can be prioritised.

Consult stakeholders

Maintain regular dialogue with learners, partners and peers to identify existing gaps and opportunities in the provision of higher education for refugees. Travel to programme areas to better understand the conditions in which your courses are being delivered. Face-to-face conversations with partners build trust, while speaking directly to learners gives a first-hand account of their goals and interests. By asking learners about their long-term goals, your programme team can design course sequences and pathways that facilitate those goals.

Engage in conversations with peer institutions regularly to 1)&nbsp;stay abreast of important developments in the field of higher education for refugees; 2)&nbsp;share lessons learned; and 3)&nbsp;collaborate to enhance the number and quality of higher education opportunities. This United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) website maintains a database of current university scholarships and programmes for refugees, updated regularly as new opportunities emerge. The Connected Learning in Crisis Consortium (CLCC) website is another resource for practitioners with clear guidelines for providing high-quality blended/connected HE programmes for refugees around the world.

After consulting stakeholders, you should be able to answer the following questions: 1)&nbsp;What do learners want? 2)&nbsp;Are potential courses relevant to the context and local workforce? 3)&nbsp;What skills and credentials will students have after completing the course of study? 4)&nbsp;What are the next steps for students after completion of the course or pathway?

Integrate technology appropriately

Ensure that you have a good grasp of the technical specifications of your digital assets and whether they are compatible with the technical capacity of your partner organisations and future students. This means knowing how learners will engage the digital or online material – will learners be travelling to computer labs to take classes? What are the specifications of the computers in that lab? Is software up to date, enabling your online content to run seamlessly? Is the internet able to accommodate the type of digital assets you have incorporated into the courses? Are there third-party integrations that might fail if a certain bandwidth threshold is not met?

The answers to these questions have a colossal impact on digital course design. If there is a shortage of laptops or computers, consider the impact of device-sharing on student performance. You might embed cheating safeguards into the course design, for example. If most of your learners are using a mobile device to access content, instructional designers might incorporate more interactive knowledge checks rather than writing assignments. In this way, the delivery of content complements the mode of learning.

Cultivate a continuous feedback loop

Provide ways for learners to share honest feedback on the digital resource. Most learning management systems (LMSs) offer multiple ways to facilitate this feedback. Consider building pre-course surveys that capture student expectations, motivation and confidence levels as they embark on a learning journey through your course. Post-course surveys can collect specific feedback on the design, execution, strengths and weaknesses of the digital content, and whether students’ expectations were met. This is also an opportunity to capture suggestions that would improve the overall course experience and contextual relevance of content to various student populations. Provide systems for gathering feedback from other relevant collaborators as well.

Partner with other universities or organisations to fill content gaps

While higher education for refugees takes many forms and is pursued for myriad reasons, the majority of digital higher education opportunities currently available to refugee youth are short courses or individual courses that do&nbsp;not necessarily culminate in a university degree. While a certificate, badge or other credential can confer immediate benefits to the student, particularly among employers, digital higher education resources should be created with an eye towards awarding degrees.

It can be challenging for any one university to accommodate the design and delivery of a degree pathway bespoke for refugees, therefore it may behove higher education institutions serving refugees to architect new degree pathways more quickly by combining the digital assets of several universities in a sequence that satisfies accreditation requirements in a given field. A strong programme might be modular and stackable – with students advancing skills and learning new competencies with every course completion, and the possibility of earning a degree should the academic requirements be fulfilled.

Cross-sector collaboration is key

Underpinning this set of recommendations is the humble acknowledgement that, despite universities having an abundance of technical capacity and expertise, the extension of these tools in refugee-hosting settings requires a&nbsp;nuanced approach. In learning from and leaning on the multitude of cross-sectoral actors in this space, each university has a valuable role to play in our common goal of helping refugee students reach their educational ambitions.

Nicholas Sabato is senior director and Joanna Zimmerman is associate director, Education for Humanity at Arizona State University.

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Key tenets to successfully, and sustainably, designing university initiatives that support refugee learners around the globe using digital resources, based on five years of running the Education for Humanity initiative at Arizona State University

Education for humanity: designing learner-centric solutions for refugee students

With only 5 per cent of 15- to 24-year-old refugees enrolled in tertiary education globally compared with 37 per cent of non-refugee young people, UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) has set a goal “to achieve enrolment of 15 per cent of college-eligible refugees in tertiary or connected higher education” by 2030. This 5 per cent is reflected among refugee students in Lebanon, with persistent barriers including, but not limited to: 


	financial destitution
	legal status
	curriculum discrepancies
	lack of psychosocial support and career guidance
	discrimination
	inadequate learning environment. 


The rights of refugees to engage in wage-earning employment and labour market integration under the Lebanese law are limited to low-skilled jobs in construction, agriculture and cleaning services. More than 60 per cent of refugee youth are unemployed, according to the latest figures. Their&nbsp;barriers to securing dignified jobs include skills mismatch, lack of documentation, lack of knowledge of social and legal protections, and xenophobic sentiment of host communities. Between 2016 and 2021, the American University of Beirut (AUB)’s Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service collaborated with King’s College London to design and implement a college-readiness programme&nbsp;PADILEIA (Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access) to increase the pipeline of refugees towards tertiary education and provide transferable skills for employment. 


	Practical ways to develop a comprehensive university ‘sanctuary’ programme
	How universities can support refugee students and academics
	Displaced workers deserve more than short-termism from universities


Despite the complex challenges facing Syrian refugees in Lebanon, 20 per cent of PADILEIA graduates transitioned into higher education. So, achieving 15 per cent of enrolment for refugees globally in tertiary education could be aided enormously by applying the lessons from PADILIEA more widely. 

How PADILIEA works

PADILIEA was built around five structural strands:&nbsp; 

1. Outreach and recruitment: 

Over two months, information about the programme was disseminated using: the UNHCR database; referrals by NGOs, surrounding municipalities and school principals; announcements on social media; and by engaging selected alumni as admissions officers. Eligibility criteria included valid registration with UNHCR, financial need and a threshold of educational attainment. Shortlisted applicants were invited to the PADILEIA campus for placement exams in English and mathematics and assessed for their commitment to the eight-month programme, and a cohort of 60 were selected for the foundation programme each year. Outreach for the Moocs (massive open online courses) took four weeks, and 30 learners, with active email addresses and access to mobile devices, registered for each of the eight courses offered. 

2. PADILEIA portable campus: 

Classroom units were assembled by refugees themselves close to where they were staying. The structures are based on AUB’s Ghata model (using the Arabic word for shelter) that has been inspired by refugees’ shelter-building practices. Each unit is 20 square metres, scalable, cost-effective, ecologically responsive and structurally secure, and each one takes two refugees six hours to assemble and three hours to disassemble for relocation. The PADILEIA campus composed of two classrooms, made up of tripled&nbsp;Ghatas of 60 square metres each, an administration unit from a single Ghata, semi-dry sanitation cubicles and an outdoor space. 

3. The foundation programme: 

Running over two terms and lasting 32 weeks in total, this programme comprises five academic courses: English for academic purposes, digital skills, remedial maths, science, and humanities/social sciences. AUB professors developed the curriculum, revised it and updated it annually, and recruited local instructors and trained them to incorporate student-centred techniques in their teaching. Courses were offered four days per week and on a double-shift schedule (morning and afternoon) to maintain small class sizes that are conducive to project-based learning and which can accommodate students employed in part-time jobs.&nbsp; 

4. Facilitated Moocs: 

Designed by King’s College London, the online courses focused on topics that would increase student employability in fields in high demand on the local labour market, such as nursing, English language skills, programming, engineering construction and digital skills. Classrooms were equipped with computers and internet access, and two facilitators assisted learners to navigate the requirements of each topic, troubleshoot common issues with online courses, provide academic support and assess weekly progress. Each course averaged four to six weeks, with four to six hours of learning per week. 

5. Students support day: 

Delivered by career and major orientation advisers, the weekly group sessions addressed topics such as career planning, CV writing, interviewing techniques, and preparation for college and scholarship applications. Group sessions were also conducted by mental health experts who equipped participants with techniques to identify trauma-related disorders and handle mild to moderate referral cases under the supervision of an AUB faculty expert. Referral pathways were established for the diagnosis and treatment of severe cases. In close coordination with UNHCR, individual support was provided by legal experts on protection, documentation and resettlement. 

The significant success of this five-year pilot project makes the UNHCR’S bold goal achievable. The 15 per cent enrolment target is dependent upon scaling and contextualising PADILIEA’s five strands, while also developing more advanced programmes that widen the pipeline at secondary education levels.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 

Rabih Shibli is director of the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service (CCECS) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and primary investigator on the PADILEIA project.

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In Lebanon, a project designed to increase access to higher education for Syrian refugees through digital learning has been piloted with success. Rabih Shibli shares lessons from developing PADILEIA 

Increasing access to higher education for refugees through digital learning

Refugees’ qualifications: the challenges

Qualifications held by refugees and displaced persons – hereafter simply “refugees” – are no different from those of other people, in principle. There is, however, an important practical difference: education diplomas and degrees may not be the first thing people think of taking along when they have to flee their homes. Therefore, many refugees have qualifications they cannot document. This is when a second set of problems emerge: without qualifications, refugees’ options in their host societies are severely limited. They cannot easily get new documents from their home institution. Files may have been destroyed, communication is likely to be difficult, and the institutions and public authorities on which they depend may not be eager to help people they see as having failed their country by fleeing.


	Practical ways to develop a comprehensive university ‘sanctuary’ programme
	How universities can support refugee students and academics
	Spotlight:&nbsp;What universities can do to assist refugees


Identifying the qualifications refugees are likely to have

Therefore, higher education institutions and accreditation authorities need to reconstruct refugees’ qualifications. The European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR) has been developed by the Council of Europe to help with this process, through a project in which 16 countries as well as the UN&nbsp;High Commissioner for Refugees now participate.

The EQPR has two main aims:


	to provide a tested methodology for assessing refugees’ qualifications even in the absence of adequate documentation
	to describe the assessment in a format that makes it possible for refugees to use the assessment if they move to a new host country without having to undergo a new test.


First launched in 2017, the project demonstrates that both goals can be reached.

Interviews based on information

The EQPR relies on a double methodology. First, candidates complete a questionnaire and provide any documentation they have. Even if the refugees cannot present a diploma, they may have other documentation such as study plans or proof of admission. Through the questionnaire, the refugees are asked to detail the qualifications they claim.

If the questionnaire demonstrates that the refugees are likely to have these qualifications, they are interviewed by two experienced credentials evaluators from two different countries. At least one of them will have specialised knowledge of the education system of the country in which the qualifications were earned as well as of the language(s) of instruction. If the refugee claims qualifications from an Arabic-speaking institution, at least one of the interviewers will be proficient in Arabic. The interview lasts about 45&nbsp;minutes and reviews all aspects of the qualifications claimed.

After the interview, the evaluators compare notes and decide whether the refugees are likely to possess the qualifications they claim. As of 12&nbsp;June 2022, 795 candidates had been interviewed, of whom 664 received the EQPR. This high success rate is due both to the seriousness of the applicants and the possibility the questionnaire provides to identify non-serious applicants. The evaluators’ specialised knowledge is essential, as they are able to identify cases where the applicants have little knowledge of the country or institution from which they claim to have their qualifications.

How can higher education institutions support the EQPR?

The EQPR is not a recognition decision in a formal sense. It does, however, help refugees qualify for access to higher education as well as for work in areas of relevance to their qualifications. Therefore, institutions should signpost potential EQPR candidates to the necessary authorities to take them through the process. The universities can then admit EQPR holders to study programmes, giving them an opportunity to earn further higher education qualifications without having to repeat courses they have already undertaken. There is work to be done to ensure that more higher education professionals recognise the legitimacy of the EQPR and encourage its more widespread application.

Italy provides a good example: thanks to close cooperation with the Italian Rectors’ Conference, more than 50 EQPR holders interviewed in Italy have now been accepted at Italian universities. The current project phase, launched in 2022, includes a stronger focus on ensuring that the EQPR opens good opportunities for further study or for work.

The EQPR cannot replace a licence to exercise a regulated profession, typical examples of which are medicine, nursing, law and architecture. At the discretion of the competent national authorities, the EQPR may, however, facilitate access to the examinations required for regulated professions. Institutions that play a role in organising or deciding the content of examinations for regulated professions can help by ensuring that these are accessible to qualified EQPR holders. As seen during the pandemic, EQPR holders with qualifications in health-related disciplines helped out under the supervision of duly licensed professionals, as did advanced students in health disciplines.

How can refugees apply for an interview?

Refugees wishing to be assessed of the EQPR should contact the national information centre of their host country. By way of example, UK&nbsp;ENIC – the UK&nbsp;National Information Centre for the recognition and evaluation of international qualifications and skills – is located in Gloucester and operates on a mandate from the UK Department for Education. Refugees may also contact the Council of Europe or the UNHCR directly.

Why is the EQPR important?

The EQPR give refugees an opportunity to use qualifications they have but cannot document. This enables their host country – and universities – to draw on the knowledge and skills the refugees have, and it allows refugees to be, and to feel, of use to their host societies.

The EQPR can make the difference between a vicious and a virtuous circle. In the vicious circle, refugees are told that their qualifications are worth nothing, they are passivised and demotivated. They will ultimately lose the qualifications they once had because qualifications are more like a language than the ability to ride a bike or to ski: if you do not practise, you lose the ability.

In the virtuous circle, refugees are given an opportunity to use and improve on their qualifications. They are motivated, feel recognised, and not only keep their qualifications but develop them further. This helps refugees and their host societies. If&nbsp;and when refugees can return home, they do so with improved qualifications and experience that will help rebuild their home societies.

Sjur Bergan was head of the Council of Europe education department from 2011 to 2022.

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Tips for how higher education institutions and accreditation authorities can recognise refugees’ qualifications even when they cannot be fully documented

Helping refugees get their qualifications recognised

Trends in internationalisation in higher education: transnational education to student mobility, internationalising the curriculum and why crossing borders matters

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Trends in internationalisation in higher education: transnational education to student mobility, internationalising the curriculum and why crossing borders matters

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