Actitudes de estudiantes universitarios bilingües y de intercambio sobre la competencia global e intercultural

Gabriel Alfaro,Jesús Paz-Albo

doi:10.18239/ensayos.v36i2.2880

Abstract

This research investigates bilingual and study abroad college students’ intercultural attitudes on their understanding of global competence at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). To achieve this goal, an ad hoc questionnaire was developed based on the OECD framework for global competence. A total of 203 college students (157 females, 46 males) participated in this study. Results suggest that students seek to understand others and demonstrate interest in how people from various cultures see the world, and they are able to explain global issues such as climate change and pandemics. In addition, female college students show a greater predisposition to discuss issues such as gender equality. These results highlight the importance of international mobility programmes to prepare students for an increasingly multicultural, global and interconnected society.

Highlights

The number of international higher education students worldwide has increased in the past two decades from 2 million in 1999 to 5 million in 2016 (OECD, 2018)
Under the umbrella of the OECD framework, this study looks at the perceptions of students and finds that bilingual and Erasmus Mundus students exhibit more than a basic measure of global competency
Our study contributes to the literature that is based on new perspectives and understanding of these mobility students’ self-assessments on competence development, focusing on global and intercultural competence

Summary

Introduction

The number of international higher education students worldwide has increased in the past two decades from 2 million in 1999 to 5 million in 2016 (OECD, 2018). Studying abroad has become a unique experience for higher education students and has received more attention in recent years in which Europe has become a major region of origin of international students, second to Asia (OECD, 2018). Countries such as Spain has been a popular destination for Erasmus+ students ahead of Germany and the United Kingdom since 2001 (Perez-Encinas, Howard, Rumbley & de Wit, 2017). The world seeks to develop multilingual citizens and the Council of Europe language education policies aim to facilitate plurilingualism, linguistic diversity, mutual understanding, democratic citizenship and social cohesion (Council of Europe, 2006)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion