ESP, EMI and interculturality: How internationalised are university curricula in Catalonia?

This study analyses Internationalisation at Home (IaH) courses across a wide range of bachelor’s degrees, from humanities to hard sciences, in public universities in Catalonia, as an in-depth analysis of a South European context. IaH courses selected for analysis included courses (i) on international topics, (ii) taught in English and focusing on content (English-medium Instruction, EMI) and (iii) focusing on language, i.e. English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Results point to a high presence of international content courses, especially in humanities and social sciences, followed by EMI courses, although quantitatively scarce and mainly found in engineering. ESP courses are the least present despite their potential to prepare students for EMI. Reasons that may account for this IaH picture are presented. All in all, it seems that current policies leave language and intercultural competence in the hands of content lecturers, who may not have explicit language and intercultural learning outcomes in mind while it appears that the potential role of ESP as an internationalisation driver may be neglected. This paper thus argues for giving visibility to ESP courses and lecturers in their role for the promotion of curricular internationalisation.Postprint (published version

Report on the Implementation of Work Package 4 “Selection and Testing New ICT Tools” in the Framework of the IRNet Project

This article, prepared by an international team of authors – researchers from different scientific areas, connected with ICT, e-learning, pedagogy, and other related disciplines – focuses on the objectives and some results of the IRNet international project. In particular, this article describes the research tools, methods, and some procedures of the Work Package 4 (WP4) “Selection and Testing New ICT tools”: Objectives, Tasks, Deliverables, and implementation of research trips. Researchers from partner universities have analysed the results of WP4 in the context of the next stages and Work Packages of the IRNet project – International Research Network

Significance of Intercultural Interdisciplinary Projects for the Future Career of University Graduates

In the 21st century, interdisciplinary research has become a part of modern life. The world surrounding us is interdisciplinary in nature, so scientists have to use methods and insights of several established disciplines to broaden their research area and to find an answer to the problems posed for them. “Interdisciplinarity” is a good word to describe scholars and researchers’ combining efforts to solve problems in each separate independent academic field. This process involves University students and teachers, too. Students who are going to build their successful careers should know much more than their major. They have to make decisions and solve problems in their professional life, both of these skills demand knowledge of more than one or two single subjects. It can also be applied to complex subjects that can only be understood and investigated by combining the perspectives of two or more scientific disciplines. In professional education, in addition to core courses taught by educational studies faculty, interdisciplinary projects are offered in order to overcome the traditional barriers between sciences and to get practical results. Hence is the significance of interdisciplinary knowledge for the career of University graduates who are going to work in the 21st century

An interprofessional, intercultural, immersive short-term study abroad program: public health and service systems in rome

The purpose of this paper is to describe a short-term study abroad program that exposes engineering and nursing undergraduate students from the United States and Italy to an intercultural and interprofessional immersion experience. Faculty from Purdue University and Sapienza Università di Roma collaborated to design a technical program that demonstrates the complementary nature of engineering and public health in the service sector, with Rome as an integral component of the program. Specifically, the intersection of topics including systems, reliability, process flow, maintenance management, and public health are covered through online lectures, in-class activities and case study discussions, field experiences, and assessments. Herein, administrative issues such as student recruitment, selection, and preparation are elucidated. Additionally, the pedagogical approach used to ensure constructive alignment among the program goals, the intended learning outcomes, and the teaching and learning activities is described. Finally, examples of learning outcomes resulting from this alignment are provided

SOFT SKILLS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES FOR COMPUTER ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS DEVISED IN THE PROCESS OF LEARNING ENGLISH

The aim of the study was to devise soft skills development strategies for Computer Engineering and Information Technologies undergraduate students in the process of learning English. The research consisted of total 347 Computer Engineering and Information Technologies undergraduate students including 45 female students (13.00%) and 302 male students (87.00%) aged from 17 to 21. The research which was non-experimental in nature was conducted at four higher education institutions in Ukraine between October 2020 and November 2020. To reach the main aim of the study the team of researchers developed a web-based questionnaire containing open-ended and closed-ended questions. The use of the web-based questionnaire seemed to be quite logical for collecting the data necessary for devising soft skills development strategies for Computer Engineering and Information Technologies undergraduate students in the process of learning English taking into account the situation connected with the Covid-19 pandemic. The respondents who volunteered to take part in the survey were sent a link to the web-based questionnaire and guaranteed the complete anonymity. The data analysis covered processing of information collected from the anonymous web-based survey, displaying the data obtained in the form of tables and figures, devising soft skills development strategies based on research results and drawing general conclusions. The findings obtained enabled the authors to present six development strategies aimed at enhancing soft skills among Computer Engineering and Information Technology undergraduate students that could be applied in the process of learning English: a) combination of competence-based, action-oriented and blended-learning approaches in the English for Specific Purposes classroom, b) integration of formal, non-formal and informal learning, c) participation in specially focused network professional communities, d) use of open educational resources for learning English, e) use of open professionally-oriented educational resources, f) introduction of learning-style based activities in the English for Specific Purposes classroom for boosting students’ soft skills.