The challenge of academic writing for Chinese students within ...

Approach
Activity
Competency
Ethos
Process
Description
Categories or types of activities used to describe internationalisation: such
as curriculum, student/faculty exchanges, technical assistance, international
students
Development of new skills, knowledge, attitudes and values in students,
faculty and staff. As the emphasis on outcomes of education grows there is
increasing interest in identifying and defining global/international
competencies
Emphasis is on creating a culture or climate on campus which promotes and
supports international/intercultural initiatives
Integration or infusion of an international or intercultural dimension into
teaching, research and service through a combination of a wide range of
activities, policies and procedures
Table 2.2: Approaches to internationalisation
These four approaches to internationalisation place emphasis on differing aspects of
internationalisation. They are different in orientation but complement each other as
Knight (1999) suggested. Defining internationalisation may vary with differing
orientations. Here the internationalisation of higher education is understood as a
process of integrating ‗an international dimension into the teaching, research and
service function of higher education‘ (Knight, 1994).
Knight (2003) has grouped internationalisation of HE into internationalization ‗at
home‘ and internationalisation ‗abroad‘. Internationalisation ‗at home‘ involves
internationalisation of curriculum, learning and teaching processes, extra-curricular
activities and liaison with local cultural/ethnic groups; internationalisation ‗abroad‘
includes movement of people, delivery of programmes, providers‘ mobility and
international projects. Table 2.3 details activities under each group.
The internationalisation of the curriculum and pedagogical approaches are of the
essence in the process of the internationalization of higher education. The problem
with the curriculum internationalisation in UK HEIs has been the sheer emphasis on
the incorporation of an international dimension into curricular content through the
infusion approach; the infusion approach to curriculum internationalisation is
regarded as inadequate, with its ‗ethnocentric western pedagogy and emphasis on
content-based knowledge‘ (De Vita & Case, 2003, p.394).
54