Almost every university is now making internationalisation a priority for future development. It seems obvious that building international relationships must involve languages. But how many universities have recognised this? And how can language departments and language centres play a role? If we can support our university¹s efforts in this area, we not only contribute to carrying out the university strategy but also increase the perception of senior managers that languages matter.

This part of the Shaping the future toolkit is designed to offer some ideas that heads of department and directors of language centres may find useful in thinking about what they can do to support their university. The materials include short outlines of what internationalisation involves and how languages can contribute in various ways, including curriculum development, study and work abroad and intercultural communication.

Resources

Curriculum Development through International Collaboration

University schools of modern languages can take the lead in curriculum development through articulation agreements, Erasmus Mundus programmes and key partnerships with overseas universities.

A short guide to internationalisation

Languages play a central role in the development and implementation of international strategies at Higher Education institutions.

Global Perspectives and the role of Languages

This paper outlines the potential contribution of staff in Modern Languages and English Language Teaching to university internationalisation through the development of global perspectives across the disciplines.

Intercultural communication: an emerging discipline

This document analyses diversity in terms of four main areas of focus: linguistic interaction, cooperation, education for citizenship, and (inter)cultural studies.

Intercultural communication studies: the policy background

A powerpoint presentation outlining the main elements of intercultural communication studies and its history since the 1990s.

Position paper: study abroad post 2012

Document written by the key stakeholders of BUTEX in response to their concern at the potential impact of higher fees on study abroad.  Reproduced with permission.

Study/Work abroad and employability

Besides the generic links between language study and graduate employability, work and study abroad provide the skills and experience which employers look for, and which lead to satisfying international careers.

Erasmus students by Subject Area

An overview of Erasmus students grouped by Subject Area.

The role of languages in supporting the international student experience

The resources referenced here represent a small selection of those available for students and staff learning and teaching in an international context in the UK.

Working collaboratively with non-language departments

These documents provide, firstly, an indication of the broad range of collaboration typically found in HEIs, followed by two more detailed case studies of languages for the aviation industry and medicine, respectively.