Global graduate: Mobility and exchange

Sheffield Hallam University - Internationalisation Change Programme

Interest in student mobility and exchange projects developed for three reasons.

• A review of languages teaching in the University had brought together colleagues from two faculties with an interest in promoting language learning and student engagement in exchanges and mobility schemes. This had generated the idea of a ‘Global Graduate Award’ to encourage students to participate. Both these initiatives needed taking forward.
• Discussions at a national level about the low level of participation by UK students in such schemes led the PVC for Learning and Teaching at the University to commission an audit into levels of outward mobility among our students with a view to the development of curriculum changes that support intercultural engagement and language learning.
• The University was reviewing its employability strategy and it was clearly useful to connect with this agenda especially when employers continue to place such value on the intercultural experience of graduates.

The effectiveness of these initiatives and future action depended on improving collaboration between academics who support mobility within their courses and professional services staff administering Erasmus across a faculty or the institution.