The internationalisation of UK higher education: from ‘technical observance’ to ‘relational participation’, the road to CAPRI …

Abstract

This article reflects on a review of the literature on the internationalisation of UK higher education (HE) commissioned by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in 2006. Recent progress on some of the key themes is considered and likely issues and possibilities for the future explored. Methodology is grounded in the author’s own experience in the context of research in the field and recent developments in assessment, learning and teaching policy and practice as they affect the internationalisation agenda. Emerging themes include global citizenship and graduate attributes at the institutional level and notions of critical thinking and phronesis as they relate to the internationalised curriculum. A key consideration is how academics may be supported in developing the internationalised curriculum. The author argues that a focus on generic graduate attributes for employability could unintentionally detract institutions from a much-needed reassessment of purposes, principles and practices required by diversity. Such reassessment implies the deconstruction of our understanding of concepts like critical thinking and critical literacy in pursuit of a curriculum that embraces multiple perspectives and provides the space to cross cultural boundaries through the deployment of threshold concepts in teaching and learning strategies. While acknowledging that facilitating border-crossing may seem quite alien to some teachers in HE, it is argued that the most effective way forward is via a research-informed and evidence-based approach to curriculum design rather than a ‘best-practice checklist’ approach.