All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Steve Butts |
|---|---|
| Email: | sbutts@plymouth.ac.uk |
| Institution: | University of Plymouth |
The significance of international students to the financial stability of higher education in England has long acted as one of the drivers for many institutions to develop overseas links, partnerships, and marketing opportunities. Nevertheless, the increasingly mobile and diverse workforce within Europe necessitates providing the tools and understanding for our home students to have an awareness of the wider world, and the people within it with whom they will come in contact. This necessitates creating opportunities for students to gain international exposure/experience. Within higher education, internationalisation requires an institutional culture shift, yet large and complex institutions are difficult to transform. This paper discusses a project supported by The Higher Education Change Academy that has as its overall goal the internationalisation of the University of Plymouth, England. Underpinning the project are the three themes of ethics, experience, and employability—theme s that will ideally run through the curriculum/student experience to prepare all students, particularly those with little international exposure, for the complex world in which they will be working. The conception of the overall project will be presented, as will a dialogue into the less conventional tactics deployed to begin the process of an internationalisation culture shift of the university.