A Meaningful International Experience

Photo: Sara Þöll Finnbogadóttir

The European Commission has made it their goal to establish a European higher education inter-university ‘campus’ where at least 50% of students, at all levels, including at Bachelor, Master and Doctoral levels, graduate with an international experience as part of their studies, whether that be through physical, virtual or blended mobility. This is stated in the Erasmus+ programme guide, published in 2020 and meant to be realised by 2025.

Global cooperation

This is only one of several ambitious goals laid out in the programme guide that aims to revolutionise the landscape of higher education in Europe through new joint and flexible curricula based on a cross-disciplinary approach where content is personalised and cooperation is globalised. They also seek to place an increased emphasis on practical or work-based experience to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and increase civic engagement. The Commission emphasises creative and innovative activities at every turn, essentially calling for a complete overhaul of our educational system that some might call long overdue.

An open and international university

The Erasmus+ Programme receives thousands of applications for funding projects across Europe each year and one of the projects that has received funding in the past year from the Programme is the Aurora Alliance, of which the University of Iceland is a member. The goals laid out in the programme guide are therefore extremely relevant to the University and have helped shape HÍ26, the University’s strategy for the years 2021-2026, that states an open and international university as one of its four main emphases. This is also why the University provided seven students from the University of Iceland with the opportunity to attend a Design Thinking Jam in Tarragona, Spain, just last month.

The importance of international experience

In short, Design Thinking is a hands-on method of problem solving that aims to shed a new light on challenges, redefine problems and come up with innovative solutions in a very short amount of time. The process demands that participants step out of their comfort zones and produce concrete output in the form of prototypes of their prospective solutions. And that is exactly what we did in Tarragona.

The overarching theme of the workshop in Spain was What can universities do to guarantee that every Aurora student has at least one meaningful international experience as part of their studies? This is, of course, a very ambitious goal. For comparison it is estimated that around 2-3% of students at the University of Iceland employ the current mobility opportunities offered, every year. So how do we bridge the gap? How do we reach the goal laid out by Erasmus+ of incorporating mobility into 50% of students’ education by 2025? This was the problem that we, a group of around 25 students studying all around Europe, attempted to tackle over the course of three days in Spain. It might seem impossible, coming up with viable solutions to such a vast problem in only a few days but you’d be surprised what a group of students with varied experiences and a willingness to bring forth lasting change can do in the right environment, with some expert administrative assistance.

Leaving your comfort zone

The workshop was intensive and for a perfectionist like me it was hard to shed my preferred work methods and prioritise producing concrete output quickly over making something in which I could see no flaws. However, it is only through leaving your comfort zone that you truly learn your own capabilities and over the course of three days our little group managed to identify 5 areas of particular concern that may be part of the reason relatively few students make use of the mobility opportunities their universities offer. Not only that, we also managed to create prototypes of solutions that were introduced during Aurora’s biannual meeting the following day to other Aurora representatives from 11 universities all across Europe where they will hopefully be developed further and introduced to students in said universities.

The group tackled how exchange studies could be modified to fit student parents’ needs, what support students abroad could be offered, whether they were dealing with racism, mental illness or a language barrier, how opportunities could specifically reach underprivileged or underrepresented groups who may not perceive mobility opportunities as something achievable for them, and how the opportunities Aurora offers could be better advertised in future to the student population in general.

The impact of international experience

This isn’t just about meeting the target Erasmus+ has set; this is about offering the most valuable and most holistic education for our students. An education where they do not only walk away with a degree but walk away having developed skills that aren’t necessarily taught in the traditional classroom environment. Surely we want our graduating students to have learned soft skills and confidence in their own abilities? We want graduating students who are innovative, open-minded and confident, and that is what international experience teaches you. It teaches you to understand different perspectives and communicate your own, it teaches you how to stand on your own two feet and it provides you with a wider network of contacts that isn’t confined to your country of origin. Because a meaningful, international experience actually shapes you as a person, it pushes you and provides you with opportunities to grow. Because it is only through leaving your comfort zone that you truly learn your own capabilities.