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Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

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Background of <strong>in</strong>ternational students <strong>in</strong> the geography course <strong>in</strong> UtrechtS<strong>in</strong>ce the start of the Erasmus programme <strong>in</strong> the second half of the 1980s, the departmentof Human <strong>Geography</strong> and Plann<strong>in</strong>g has participated <strong>in</strong> the exchange of students.Each year about 50 to 60 students visit our department for one or two semesters. Dur<strong>in</strong>gthe academic year 2004−2005, the Faculty of Geosciences hosted 74 <strong>in</strong>ternationalstudents, the majority of whom tak<strong>in</strong>g modules <strong>in</strong> Human <strong>Geography</strong> and/or Plann<strong>in</strong>g.Erasmus students come from all over Europe (numbers for 2004−2005): from SouthernEurope (15 from Spa<strong>in</strong>, 4 from Greece, 4 from Italy, 2 from Portugal), from North-Western Europe (5 from the UK, 6 from Denmark, 4 from Sweden, 3 from F<strong>in</strong>land,1 from Norway), from neighbour<strong>in</strong>g states (2 from Belgium, 4 from Germany) andalso <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly from Central Europe (5 from Poland, 2 from the Czech Republic).The number of students com<strong>in</strong>g from outside Europe, through various exchangeprogrammes, has been <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>in</strong> 2004−2005 4 students from the USA andCanada and 7 from Australia studied at our Faculty. Students from non-Western countriesuntil now only form a very small m<strong>in</strong>ority and rather an exception.The start of our Erasmus program <strong>in</strong> the 1980s led to the organisation of aseparate one-semester course <strong>in</strong> English. The programme was tailor-made forforeign students, with its own start<strong>in</strong>g moment <strong>in</strong> January and with modules suchas ‘<strong>Geography</strong> of the Netherlands’. A lot of students came to Utrecht to study GIS.The separate ‘<strong>in</strong>ternational programme’ was designed because there were too manyobstacles for <strong>in</strong>tegrat<strong>in</strong>g courses <strong>in</strong> English <strong>in</strong> the regular programme. Also not allthe teachers were prepared for teach<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> English. This <strong>in</strong>ternational programme hassuccessfully existed for about 15 years. The good reputation of the department andthe programme caused the relatively large number of guest students. Our Europeanstudents association (EGEA) played (and still does play) an important role <strong>in</strong> the<strong>in</strong>troduction period for foreign students. The students active <strong>in</strong> this association visitseveral <strong>in</strong>ternational meet<strong>in</strong>gs and are real ambassadors of our department.Some years ago the situation changed, more and more people were conv<strong>in</strong>ced thatwe could benefit from the <strong>in</strong>tegration of the <strong>in</strong>ternational students <strong>in</strong> our regular humangeography and plann<strong>in</strong>g course. It was felt that it would reduce the workload of theteachers and, moreover, Dutch and <strong>in</strong>ternational students would get a better opportunityto meet each other and study together. The transition to a new bachelor-master structurestart<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> 2002 facilitated the full <strong>in</strong>tegration of the regular and the <strong>in</strong>ternationalprogrammes. In the study year 2004−2005 <strong>in</strong>ternational students had a choice of 19modules <strong>in</strong> English (14 bachelor modules and 5 master modules). Students take part<strong>in</strong> four modules per semester and foreign bachelor students are allowed to choose onemaster module per semester as long as they meet the relevant entry requirements.The teachers’ perspectivesWhile prepar<strong>in</strong>g this paper, we organised an evaluation panel with six colleagues whohave been teach<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> courses with mult<strong>in</strong>ational and multicultural student groups.They were <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> four bachelor modules (Regions <strong>in</strong> Development; Cultural<strong>Geography</strong> of the Netherlands; European <strong>in</strong>tegration; Introduction to GeographicalInformation Systems) and two master modules (<strong>Geography</strong> and Citizenship;108

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