Practising cultures of learning in internationalising universities

Abstract

ABSTRACTInternationalising higher education (HE) shows tensions between recruiting international students as a means of securing income and meeting their particular educational needs towards practices of caring for their social, psychological, intercultural and educational well-being. This paper briefly outlines the extent of current HE internationalisation and collaboration networks worldwide. It presents an argument, evidenced with research data, for the need to include cultures of learning in policies and practises to sustain internationalisation in HE. Staff (academic, administrative and technical) and students (home and international) need to appreciate and practise a variety of cultural approaches and intercultural communication strategies to advance teaching and learning. Staff need to have this intercultural awareness for their professional development and to consider further how the curriculum and learning environments could provide more opportunities for (inter)national students to be productively engaged in academic learning in intercultural contexts and embrace more internationalised content and learning processes. Suggestions for such developments are proposed.