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.