Multilinguismo, CLIL e innovazione didattica - Libera Università di ...

Edward Bressan
2. Internationalisation and Global Citizenship
The definition and institutional specifications of the term “internationalisation”
are highly contested in the research literature and have also been hotly
debated within the groves of Oxford Brookes. While the University’s internationalisation
strategy places commercial partnerships with overseas institutions,
recruitment of full-fee paying international students and commercial
knowledge transfer activity centre stage, there has also been a strong inclination
towards internationalising the entire student experience, including that of
home students. Central to this thrust is the growing realisation that the presence
of a mixed, multicultural student population on the same campus in
itself does not axiomatically ensure that students will exploit the opportunity
to interact (Arkoudis et al 2010).
In addition, defining internationalisation can generate deep feelings of unease
amongst teaching practitioners, because there is a view that universities are
chiefly concerned with the profit motive and that the additional fees that
international students bring into the university are redirected to other priority
areas (Appadurai, 2001 cited in Trevaskes: 2003). While Tange (2010) restricts
her definition to the effects of organisational change on the process, the
definition which sits most comfortably within the academic community at
Oxford Brookes is that of Knight (2004: p. 11)): “The process of integrating an
international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions or
delivery of post-secondary education”.
3. 3 Enhancing the Student Experience
3.1 Strategy for the Enhancement of the Student Experience
At the curriculum level, internationalisation has been given pride of place in
Oxford Brookes’ new Strategy for the Enhancement of the Student Experience
under the guise of the graduate attribute of Global Citizenship. Students will
develop “Knowledge of global perspectives on how disciplinary knowledge is
represented and understood within other cultures.” They will also develop
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