Integrate international / intercultural competencies into your curriculum's skills framework - LEVEL 2

Category of recipe: Internationalisation through pedagogical activities and development of international skills (curriculum).

Objective: Developing global competence / employability skills; Improving academic quality / offer; Cultural exchange; Contributing to sustainable development; Ensure that programmes remain competitive and applicable.

Short description: This recipe shows you a possible way to integrate international/ intercultural competences in your curriculum’s skills framework. The aim is to give intercultural competences* a place in the learning outcomes of the typical graduate. In other words, having developed these skills or aptitudes will thus become a prerequisite for obtaining your diploma. In this Handbook, we offer you 2 levels of implementation to suit your current needs: Level 1: Improving your framework (small-scale adjustments to incorporate international/ intercultural elements)
Level 2: Restructuring the framework of the curriculum (more comprehensive changes to the degree programme’s structure)
This recipe addresses the Level 2. If you want to implement it at Level 2, the corresponding recipe is also available in this handbook.

Academic recognition: As the acquisition of the targeted competences (international and intercultural) is integrated into the curriculum’s skills framework, the assessment of these skills will be systematic.

Level of difficulty: Advanced

Calendar and time needed: Whenever you are able to modify the skills’ framework of your curriculum, and in any case before presenting to the students what’s expected from them at the end of the courses that are concerned by such changes.

Cost summary: No funds needed.

Language and level required: Not applicable.

Ingredients:
A degree programme already equipped with an existing skills framework.
A designated leader to coordinate the whole process of modifying the skills framework.
A team of professors who are:

Convinced about the benefits / added value of international & intercultural skills, for the benefits of students’ personal and professional development.
Ready to invest themselves in this process.
Willing to communicate on the benefits of international & intercultural skills to students.

Roles and Responsibilities:
The Head of degree programme must facilitate the whole process.
The designated leader of the process must coordinate the action of modifying the skills framework, and the relations between the pedagogical team and pedagogical engineers (if your university does have such a service).
Several members (ideally all members) of the pedagogical team must be involved in the skills’ framework modification process.
International relations’ officers (of your faculty, or at central level) must remain available to provide support (ex: logistical support to organise the meetings).
The Advisor in Internationalisation of your university must remain available to provide support at all the stages of the process. His role is to provide you with specific tools (designed for this purpose and to save time) and supportive resources (PPT presentations, scientific insight / recent bibliography to prove the benefits of international skills, benchmark of good practices at international level, arguments in favour of the approach, etc.).

Steps:
Step 1: Rally your teaching team around this goal

Identify as many colleagues as possible, who are willing to be involved in the internationalisation process of your degree programme, and in this specific case in modifying the skills framework, to add an international flavour to the curriculum.
Organise an information meeting with these colleagues, Instructional designers, international relations’ officers of your faculty, and the Advisor in Internationalisation of your university, to explain the approach, raise awareness on the concept and benefits of international & intercultural skills. The aim here is to make sure everyone is comfortable with the approach.

Step 2: Needs analysis and key considerations

Gather your pedagogical team (don't hesitate to ask Instructional designers for help at this stage) and designate a leader of the process.
Define the general profile of a graduate (skills and knowledge required).
Start by drawing up the general profile of the typical graduate student (if not existing yet). [At this stage, draw the ‘general profile’ of your graduate student, without integrating yet the international dimension. This will be the following step]. Agree on all the skills developed by the students at the end of the programme, what they need to know and be able to do, in relation to professional expectations, for example. Those learning outcomes¹ describe what students should be able to do by the end of the curriculum. Learning outcomes of a degree programme are cross-cutting objectives which are related to, but different from, teaching aims, which instead describe broadly what the session or course is about and its overall purpose.
Once you have finalised the general profile of the graduate student, identify where the international and intercultural dimension comes into play in the learning process, to draw-up an international sub-profile of the graduate student. Ask yourselves: what are the expectations of the pedagogical team regarding the capacity of students to work efficiently in an international and/or intercultural context. What should students learn from their international and/or intercultural experiences, in terms of the values and requirements of the degree programme, and the career opportunities associated with it? Ex: what would be the added value of an internship abroad compared to an internship at home? Make it consistent with the expectations of the semi-professional players.
Determine where international/intercultural aspects naturally fit into the curriculum.
Compare your graduate profile with existing international skills frameworks to find common ground: compare your “international graduate sub-profile” (see previous step) with international reference documents on international skills. There are 2 ways to proceed here:
- If your university has already adopted an international skills framework, directly take inspiration from it. You can also pick “ready-to-use” skills in there, to draw-up the international graduate sub-profile.
- If your institution hasn’t selected a specific existing framework, compare your “international graduate sub-profile” (see previous step) with any international skills framework that you feel is sufficiently robust to serve as a benchmark. See if there are affinities/possible connections to enrich your initial brainstorming. Below are a few examples of existing frameworks (see the Resources section).

Step 3: Modify your curriculum skills’ framework: If needed, reformulate these “international competencies” in a format that fits your curriculum’s needs:

Structure competencies into progressive levels (e.g. beginner, intermediate, advanced).
Associate each competency with measurable indicators of proficiency: think about how to observe & assess those international / intercultural skills, considering the size of your class group, administrative or logistical aspects, etc.
Integrate assessment methods such as project-based evaluations, certifications, and portfolios.
Integrate those changes at the right place in your curriculum skills framework.
Submit this work to instructional designers for possible adjustments.

Step 4: Validation by key stakeholders (NB: this is an optional step)

Consult academics, students, and international industry partners.
Benchmark against equivalent programmes abroad.
Refine the framework based on feedback and evolving industry needs.

Step 5: Implementation and continuous evaluation

Explain to students the international context (vision…) and communicate expectations of their degree programme, and how it works.
Organise teaching and evaluation, as usual.

A well-designed international competency framework should be dynamic, recognised, and practical, enhancing graduates' employability and mobility on a global scale.

Non-mandatory items:
• Name of the author of the recipe: Yannick Vidal and Ingrid Le Ru (USMB)
• Resource: International skills frameworks that can be consulted:

Central Connecticut State University: International/Intercultural Competencies for CCSU Students, developed by the Internationalization Laboratory - 2008 : Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills.
UNESCO Competency Framework, AKI Erasmus+, Global Steps competency framework, P21 Framework for 21st Century Learning, WEF 21st century skills, Erasmus skills framework (AKI), UNICEF skills framework, KeyStart2Work, or any other skills framework that seems relevant to your pedagogical team.

Tips and tricks:
• Person to contact for further information: Advisor in Internationalisation of your university.
• Ask your administrative colleagues to communicate on the recognition of these skills on the webpage dedicated to the online training offer. There is a real challenge in communicating this offer to attract more students to your courses.

¹ Core principles of learning outcomes: Learning outcomes should: avoid jargon; use action verbs to describe what it is that students should be able to do during and/or at the end of a session or course. One way to ensure this is by completing the sentence: ‘By the end of the session students will be able to …’ (see the ‘Learning outcome verbs’ table later in this guide); not be too numerous. This helps to avoid writing a list of ‘content to be covered’ and will also help you prioritise what students need to do; be specific. Writing learning outcomes can help you to plan your teaching, for example, by prioritising key learning points for the session or course and enabling you to plan your teaching across a session or course. You may also want to share learning outcomes with your students to help them to understand what they are meant to be learning.