The aim of internationalization strategies is to develop intercultural competencies in students, including an increase in the cognitive capacities required to live and work in an environment shaped by the knowledge society. The aforementioned aim requires the implementation of a process of internationalization framed within a concept of comprehensive internationalization, that is, through the integration of the international and intercultural dimension into the substantive functions of higher education, into its culture and the everyday behaviour associated with it, as well as schemes for physical mobility of individuals. Within such a framework, internationalization strategies need to be transversal in relation to policies, and institutional in terms of integrating the international dimension into the three levels of the educational process: the macro (institutional decision-making and policy design), the medium (in relation to curriculum structure), and the micro (in terms of teaching and learning activities), with all of this being carried out in a holistic and systematic way (Gacel-Ávila, 2012). (...) Read Paper
Jocelyne Gacel-Ávila is the President of the Mexican Association for International Education and Researcher at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. This paper is a contribution to the EU-LAC Foundation’s Newsletter edition of September 2014 dedicated to the theme of Higher Education. This English translation is the responsability of the EU-LAC Foundation. To read the original paper in Spanish please follow the link.