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of students, but academic co-ordinators and their teaching teams control the formal
curriculum within their disciplines and programs; they define it and manage it. This includes
selecting content as well as organising and assessing interactive group work. It is essential
that they are engaged in the process of internationalisation of the curriculum. The complexity
of the process and the challenges and frustrations associated with engaging academic staff
in it have been noted frequently in the literature (Stohl 2007; Knight 2006; Egron-Polak &
Hudson 2010; Leask & Beelen 2010; Childress 2010). Indeed it seems that “if we want to
internationalize the university, we have to internationalize the faculty” whilst recognising “the
differing cultures among different scholarly fields with respect to internationalisation” (Stohl
2007, p. 368). Yet many academic staff are either uncertain what internationalisation of the
curriculum means within their disciplinary and institutional contexts or do not think it has
anything to do with them (Knight 2006; Stohl 2007). Bartell (2003) found that “some
disciplines tend to perpetuate a relatively narrow focus impoverished by an absence of
intercultural and international perspectives, conceptualisations and data” precisely at a time
when the need for international and intercultural perspectives has become ”a generalised
necessity rather than an option” (p. 49). However, even academic staff who are interested in
engaging in the development and delivery of international education, will not necessarily
have the required skills, knowledge and attitudes to do so effectively (Childress 2010).
4. Internationalisation at Home
The term ‘Internationalisation at Home’ (IaH) has been increasingly associated with
internationalisation of the curriculum, although it has been interpreted in different ways in
different places and has thus developed as a concept and in practice. The term was first
used in 1999 at Malmö University. Bengt Nilsson, newly appointed Senior International
Manager, was faced with the fact that this newly established university did not have an
international network yet so that it could not offer its students the traditional study abroad
experience. Therefore opportunities had to be found ‘at home’ for students to gain these
experiences. The newly established university also had a social mission. The composition of
the student population had to reflect the diversity of the city and engage with the local
community. A characteristic element of the Malmö approach at this time was the Nightingale
Project in which students mentored children of recent immigrants (Sild Lönroth & Nilsson,
2007).
While the value of students developing international and intercultural knowledge, skills and
attitudes as part of their formal study program is evident in the literature before this time, the
focus in Europe, as in the US, had traditionally been on short periods of study abroad and
exchange as the primary means of achieving this goal. In his situation at Malmo, Nilsson
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