Scalable and Low-resource Preparation and Debriefing Module for Students’ Intercultural Competence Development Abroad
PADMICA – The project in a nutshell
The PADMICA project aims to foster intercultural competences among outgoing students to improve the quality of their mobility experience. To this end, the consortium develops intercultural preparation and debriefing modules as well as a train-the-trainer course.
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Mobility is not a value in itself. Simply having first-hand experience of “otherness” or living in a foreign country does not automatically lead to intercultural learning. Meaningful immersion in a different culture can only lead to intercultural competence development when it is accompanied by sufficient reflection and analysis.
Learning mobility offers students effective opportunities to increase their academic knowledge, enhance their employability skills and foreign language proficiency, as well as to foster their personal growth and intercultural development. Research, however, indicates that credit mobility does not automatically guarantee the development of intercultural competences or a dissipation of prejudice. Mobile students often have certain biases and prejudices, are not always able to effectively interact with locals or properly respond to challenging situations occurring at the intersection of cultures. After their mobility period, reflecting on individual development can be challenging and in its absence, the benefits of intercultural experiences may not be clear enough.
Higher education institutions can address these barriers by equipping students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to better deal with and learn from intercultural encounters. To this end, preparation can be valuable for students to make more of their international mobility from an intercultural point of view, and increase the overall quality of the experience. Additionally, debriefings offer safe and well-framed reflection and analysis opportunities to returnees, to help them process what they experienced abroad, which is a condition for actual intercultural competence development.
In many cases institutions still limit their services to the immediately salient logistical, health and safety, and academic aspects of a students’ study abroad. Opportunities for reflection upon return also often remain untapped. This project aims to address those needs.
PADMICA develops ready-made blended intercultural preparation and debriefing modules, that are rooted in intercultural education theory and hold up in different institutional settings and cultural contexts, targeting outgoing students.
The project will also enable International Relations Officers/Higher Education Institution staff to deliver those modules by implementing a train-the-trainer module, contributing to the development of their skills and strengthening their role as multipliers.
Intercultural preparation module
Intercultural debriefing module
Train-the-trainer module
The intercultural preparation module will equip outgoing students with the necessary minimal knowledge, skills and attitudes before departure to help them better capitalise on the intercultural learning opportunities offered to them abroad, leading to more educational mobility experiences.
The module will be easily adapted to diverse institutional settings and contexts. It will be short, low-resource and easily scalable. It will have a culture-neutral approach, i.e. not focus on a specific culture, and cover crucial theoretical insights about culture and cultural differences. Next to this cognitive component, the affective and behavioural dimensions of interculturality will also be trained during the session using active learning methods.
The debriefing will be closely aligned with the preparation module in terms of characteristics and theoretical foundation. It will be brief, low-resource, scalable, and have a culture-neutral approach.
Both modules are practice-oriented and want to impart a baseline of intercultural competences, reaching and motivating more students.
The debriefing will let students reflect on and analyse key intercultural encounters abroad to complete their intercultural learning. In terms of intercultural competence, it addresses the pre-return as well as the return phases of student mobilities.
A train-the-trainer (TTT) module will be developed for the International Relations Office and other suitable higher education institution staff to deliver the intercultural preparation module as well as the debriefing module using the proper didactic and pedagogical methods.
PADMICA will provide IRO and other HEI staff members with particular skills and knowledge concerning interculturality, enabling them to deliver the intercultural preparation and debriefing modules.
Through participation in this TTT, IROs are expected to become more sensitive to intercultural issues and fully prepared to use the modules with their own students in the long run.
News
Entering a new phase – Governance Board meeting in November 2024
The meeting gave us the opportunity to review the current status of the project. We tried out some exercises from the intercultural preparation module that is being tested, analysed the feedback from the first participants, and discussed technical issues and the next steps.
The report on good practices of intercultural preparation and debriefing measures has been released
Our recently published report maps existing measures for intercultural intervention, whether before, during or after mobility. It identifies good practices and common pitfalls and makes recommendations for the development of comprehensive, mixed intercultural preparation and follow-up modules.
Intercultural interventions before, during and after the student mobility
Good practice mapping – Intercultural interventions before, during, and after the study abroad experience are crucial for the learning and development of students. Despite this, only a limited number of HEIs have adopted these valuable practices.
Literature review on intercultural competence
In the review we aim to introduce relevant literature on the adaptation of international students and intercultural competence. The document concludes with recommendations for planning and implementing intercultural interventions.
The very first poster of PADMICA
We talked about the PADMICA project live to a larger audience for the first time! The project was showcased in the poster corner at the EUF Open Space event in Murcia, in the last week of May 2024.
Intercultural competences before and after mobility: insights from a rich literature
Our review in progress will explore the literature on the need for pre-mobility preparation and post-mobility intervention, acculturation and adaptation of international students, as well as cultural competences, and makes recommendations for designing and implementing intercultural intervention programmes.
Help us map intercultural preparation and debriefing practices
The PADMICA project team invites you to participate in a survey aimed at mapping initiatives and practices related to intercultural preparation and debriefing.
PADMICA has started
The project kick-off meeting took place on 27-28 November 2023, hosted by Ghent University.
March
2024
Literature report
& Report
on good practices
October
2024
Online and physical branches
of the intercultural preparation module
November
2024
Online and physical branches
of the intercultural debriefing module
March
2025
Intercultural preparation
module – final version
December
2025
Intercultural debriefing
module – final version
July
2026
Development
of the train-the-trainer
module
September
2026
Policy recommendations
September
2026
Final conference
Outputs
Intercultural debriefing
Available soon
Train-the-Trainer
Available in 2025-2026
Policy recommendations and other documents
Available in 2026