The Universidade Católica Portuguesa hosted, in Porto, the annual meeting of the team of INSPIRE project (INternationalization as a Systemic Platform for Impact, Research and Evidence), an initiative that seeks to understand how internationalisation transforms students and how this knowledge can contribute to improving higher education institutions.
The project is coordinated by Patrícia Oliveira-Silva, lecturer at the Faculty of Education and Psychology of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (FEP-UCP) and Director of the Human Neurobehavioral Laboratory (HNL). To further explore the various strands of ongoing research, the meeting brought together Catherine Montgomery, from Durham University (United Kingdom) and project consultant, Vilma Zydziunaite, from Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), and Filomena Soares, from the University of Minho. A further 26 guests from higher education institutions in Portugal and six other countries also took part: Spain, Italy, Japan, the United States, Colombia and Australia.
From student experience to institutional transformation
INSPIRE is built around three central questions. How do students change when their university becomes more international? How can this transformation contribute to improving the institution? And how can the real impact of these changes be assessed?
The answer to these questions is developed through three complementary modules covering different levels of analysis. The first focuses on student experiences and educational practices. The second seeks to understand the impact of internationalisation on institutions and their organisational learning processes. The third examines how evidence can support university governance and institutions’ engagement with society.
By bringing together these three dimensions, the project aims to help higher education institutions understand the effects of their internationalisation strategies. It also seeks to promote more informed and evidence-based decision-making processes.
As Patrícia Oliveira-Silva highlights, “internationalisation transforms those who learn, but its greatest legacy is to transform the university where they learn as well”.
What data from European universities reveals
One of the research areas currently under development is IMPACT-iLab, a study funded through the “Seed Funding” programme of the “Transform4Europe” university alliance.
The team is analysing data collected by partner universities and the indicators used to assess internationalisation activities. The aim is to understand how this knowledge can support decisions related to international collaboration, teaching and learning. The study also seeks to identify common dimensions of impact and to understand how evidence produced by institutions can support decisions on international collaboration, teaching, learning and student development.
The findings are expected to result in practical guidelines to help universities better design, support and evaluate students’ international experiences.
In addition to IMPACT-iLab, INSPIRE also includes the iLab (Internationalization Laboratory), supported through internal funding from FEP-UCP. The project also benefits from support from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) for scientific mobility, which has enabled the project’s international collaboration to continue to develop.
SACRU seminar within the INSPIRE framework
The INSPIRE working week also included, on 15 and 16 October, a meeting of the Working Group 7 of SACRU (Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities), of which Patrícia Oliveira-Silva is a member. The group is dedicated to rethinking the internationalisation of higher education within the Catholic universities that form part of this alliance, promoting collective reflection and the sharing of practices among these institutions.
The meeting brought together researchers and university leaders from countries across four continents (Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania) to reflect on the contemporary challenges of higher education internationalisation and on how universities can promote models of international cooperation that are more inclusive, responsible and impact-oriented.
As part of the meeting, Patrícia Oliveira-Silva, Catherine Montgomery and Rita Locatelli presented a critical reflection on different approaches to higher education internationalisation in Europe, the United Kingdom and Italy.
The meeting helped strengthen international collaboration among INSPIRE partners and define the next steps of a research agenda that seeks to enhance knowledge of the impact of internationalisation on higher education institutions.
