Building Intercultural Competence through Cross-Campus Collaboration

“We don’t have the infrastructure to develop intercultural competence.” This is a sentiment I hear often.

I think most colleges and universities do have the infrastructure—or at least the potential to cultivate the infrastructure—but not in one single office. It requires collaboration. This may seem like a hurdle, but it’s also an opportunity.

Why is it an opportunity? For starters, inter-departmental collaborations typically mean more resources and more buy-in. Furthermore, these types of initiatives also help move intercultural learning from the periphery of higher education, making it core to institutional excellence. If we want to integrate intercultural learning into campus culture, it cannot live in just one office.

I encourage educators and institutions to explore collaborations between multiple offices or departments, as many have a stake in developing intercultural competence, even if they’re not yet aware of it. The schools I’m working with that are getting the most traction are ones where two or more offices are working together.

While the departments that could collaborate to support this work will depend on your institution and its culture, below are a few types of offices I feel have an important stake in developing students’ intercultural competence. For each one, I’ve listed some relevant questions to consider.

Global Education Offices

Intercultural learning is often assumed to be the responsibility of global education offices. However, institutions must be careful not to equate international experience with intercultural competence.

Offices focused on study abroad can ask themselves:

• How can we get more intentional about integrating intercultural learning into our programs, before, during, and after students go abroad?
• How can we help ourselves—and others supporting study abroad—develop our intercultural competence so that we can more effectively and intentionally facilitate students’ intercultural learning?

International student and scholar services offices might consider:

• How can we better support our international students and scholars by developing their intercultural competence, as well as that of faculty and staff across campus?

 
DEI or Multicultural Affairs Offices

Many campuses have been scaling back their DEI or multicultural affairs offices due to the current political climate, which underscores the need for cross-campus collaborations.

Any offices or professionals in this area can benefit by considering:

• How could developing intercultural competence across campus better support our office in achieving its mission?

Centers for Teaching & Learning

Centers focused on teaching and learning tend to be more connected and respected among faculty than some of the others on this list.

These offices can consider:

• How might we help faculty understand what intercultural learning is and why it’s important?
• How can we help faculty develop their intercultural competence and their capacity to integrate intercultural learning into their courses?

Academic Departments

Some academic departments will see more direct connections between this field and intercultural competence than others. Those that do will lead the way in graduating students prepared to thrive in the complex world we live in.

Academic departments can consider:

• How will our graduates need to navigate human diversity in the field, and what are we doing to prepare them with the skills they need to do so?
• How does intercultural competence relate to our accreditation standards and/or departmental student learning objectives?
• How can we help our faculty develop their intercultural competence and their ability to integrate intercultural learning into their courses?

Career Development Offices

Employers are leading the way in recognizing the importance of intercultural competence and other global career competencies in the workforce. Career development offices are well-situated to convey this to students and others across campus, as well as help students reflect on and articulate the intercultural skills they’ve developed to potential employers.

Career development offices can explore:

• How can we support the campus community to help develop students’ intercultural competence, given its importance as a global career readiness skill?
• How can we help students recognize the importance of developing their intercultural competence, and articulate their relevant skills to employers when applying to internships and jobs?

People & Culture Offices

Schools are increasingly transitioning from the traditional Human Resources offices to People and Culture offices. The change appears to represent a move from seeing employees as resources to be managed to seeing them as people to be empowered. There’s also often more focus on employee retention, happiness, belonging, and inclusion, especially as offices explicitly dedicated to the latter are being reduced or eliminated at many institutions.

These offices can ask:

• How can developing the intercultural competence of our people help us build a thriving work and learning environment for all?

Offices of Research, Assessment, or Similar

Staff in student-facing roles might not view research and assessment colleagues as natural partners in intercultural learning, but they can be vital collaborators.

Offices focused on research and assessment can explore questions such as:

• What in our institution’s mission, vision, or strategic goals relates to intercultural learning or intercultural competence? How are we defining and assessing that?
• Are we doing so in ways that focus on learning outcomes, and not just data points such as campus demographics and study abroad participant numbers?

One challenge in fostering cross-campus collaborations is a lack of shared understanding of what developing intercultural competence entails. But this is also an opportunity.

To start or move forward your collaboration efforts, one idea is to invite interested colleagues to review our free online training, “Interculturally Competent U: The What, Why & How of Building Intercultural Competence in Higher Education,” and use the accompanying Discussion Guide to facilitate a discussion amongst yourselves. (If you do, please let me know how it goes!)

And if you start down the path of collaboration and feel things aren’t moving as quickly or as smoothly as you’d like, take heart from the proverb (of unknown origin): “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Photo credit: Margarida Afonso, Unsplash