The University hosted its third Internationalisation forum on Thursday 22nd January. Jointly organised by International Development and the three Faculties, the Forum provided an opportunity for each Faculty to showcase an internationalisation activity from within one of their schools. This year presentations came from the Schools of Arts, History and Architecture who showcased a very worthwhile joint venture undertaken in Oslo, which involved recruitment activities and supporting lectures and seminars.
Dr Dan Lloyd gave a very interesting presentation on Summer Schools which are an excellent way for students to get a taste for their subject area and to get a feel of Kent. Going forward, Kent will be offering more and more opportunities to take part in these types of initiatives.
We were delighted to welcome representatives from Ghent University. Frederik de Decker, Head of the International Relations Office, presented the concept of international/intercultural learning outcomes/competences: how can these be defined, how to measure these, and what is the impact on internationalisation.
Lisa Dickson, showcased how Kent Law School have taken internationalisation on board. Their processes are sometimes more complex due to accreditation issues, and so it was useful to see another way of breaking down some of these barriers in a very competitive and challenging market.
The new Internationalisation Award was announced, which recognises and rewards Schools that are actively engaged in, and have a demonstrable track record in strategic innovation in internationalisation. Details of this new initiative will be circulated shortly.
David Nightingale commented that the event was a success, well attended, and most interesting. He noted that while Kent has some really excellent examples of embracing internationalisation that further work is needed to embed this into everything Kent does. The recruitment is welcomed of the new Dean for Internationalisation, Dr Anthony Manning, who will be leading on writing the Internationalisation Strategy 2015 for the next phase in Kent’s growth.
Copies of the presentations can be found on the Internationalisation SharePoint site.