Building Cross Cultural Competencies

The Building Cross Cultural Competencies project was developed with the aim of equipping undergraduate students at the University of York with skills to work in the globalised world, while at the same time assisting with the induction and orientation of international students, new to the institution and to study in the UK. The inspiration for the programme dates back to 2006, when one of the authors visited three Universities in New Zealand and Australia. These Universities were perceived to be further down the route to internationalisation (as defined by Knight 2003) than was the norm in the UK at the time. Innovations observed at Massey and Waikato Universities in New Zealand and the University of Sydney, Australia, were redesigned and redeveloped for use at the University of York, with the agreement of the staff involved at those institutions. In particular, a cross cultural communication module and two distinctive peer mentor schemes provided the nucleus of the idea for a new initiative at York that would span the employability and internationalisation agendas This paper identifies how the project redesigned and developed ideas taken from Australian and New Zealand Universities for use in a UK context. It makes links to the literature on student adjustment and institutional adaptation; peer teaching and cross cultural communication skills. It will also consider the problems and difficulties experienced as the project progressed.