Theme: Internationalisation at Home (IaH)

Through Internationalisation at Home (IaH), all students develop international competences without the need to go abroad. This is achieved by integrating international and intercultural elements into both your formal curriculum (students' study programme) and the informal curriculum, which includes extracurricular activities that complement the students’ education.

International variations on IaH

Globally, different terms are used for IaH. In the United States, terms such as internationalisation of the campus or comprehensive internationalisation are often used. In Australia, Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC) is common, following Betty Leask. Additionally, the term internationalisation of the home curriculum is frequently mentioned.

It’s important to note that the term Internationalisation at Home often holds little meaning for students – and that is perfectly fine, according to UUKi (Universities UK International).

Internationalisation at Home (IaH) enables students to acquire international competences, which can be categorized into three areas:

1. Intercultural competences: knowledge, attitudes, and skills essential for interacting with individuals from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Examples include general knowledge of communication styles, adopting different perspectives, and working collaborating in international teams.

2. International orientation: familiarity with global themes, institutions and perspectives. This includes understanding how a profession is practiced in other countries, as well as being aware of broader social issues and supranational organisations and goals, such as those of the United Nations.

3. Personal development: characteristics such as self-reflection, entrepreneurial skills, and flexibility, which are essential for and enhanced by intercultural and international experiences.

Want to learn more about international competences?

• Deardorff developed an Intercultural competences Model (2006);
• University of Leuven introduced the holistic ICOM framework (2014);
• OECD PISA created the Global Competence Framework (2018);
• Nuffic published various resources on international competences for students and teachers (in Dutch).

Internationalisation is often not an end goal. It serves as a means to prepare learners and students for life, as well as learning and working in an intercultural society and an internationally oriented labour market. According to Deardorff (2004), developing these competences is a process that involves an interplay between attitudes, knowledge and skills.

Students need international competences because:

1. It increases their chances in the (internationally oriented) labour market;
2. Students need these competences to live in a multicultural society;
3. Global challenges require a multidisciplinary and international approach:

There are many misconceptions about Internationalisation at Home (IaH). Here are some of the most common ones (derived from, among others, our podcast on the added value of Internationalisation at Home (2022, Dutch only), a lecture on Internationalisation of the Curriculum by Jos Beelen (2014) and the book The Guide to COIL Virtual Exchange):

There are many ways to incorporate IaH within your institution. “Activities are most successful when they align with the subject area you teach and when they are structurally embedded into the curriculum,’ says Eveke de Louw, researcher Internationalisation at Home at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. “For structural integration, it is important to make a conscious choice for the activity in connection with, for example, the course content in other subjects and assessment methods.” This is also known as constructive alignment. What are your aims for the activity, and why? Which learning activities does this support, and how are they connected? And what form of assessment is appropriate? In the upcoming publication on the theme Internationalisation of the Curriculum (IoC), we will explore constructive alignment in more detail.

Inspiring examples of IaH activities:

• Comparing literature and case studies from different contexts
• Conducting international comparative research
• Comparing global and local perspectives
• Guest lectures by international and local speakers or partners
• Engagement with various local international and cultural organisations and groups
• Online collaboration with students through Collaborative Online International Learning Virtual Exchange (COIL VE)
• Facilitating collaboration with incoming international students
• Social projects with an international theme focused on your city or region

Additionally, we regularly publish articles on our news page sharing inspiring examples from higher education colleagues, for example:

• EAIE 2023: key insights for Internationalisation at Home
• EAIE 2024: takeaways for Internationalisation at Home
• “You don't have to go big right away”
• Internationalisation at home: ‘You don't have to do it all by yourself’
• Internationalisation at Home: how can you incorporate it into the curriculum?