On intercultural dimension of internationalization of higher education and intercultural learning in formal and non-formal education: the experts’ views from Italy and Ukraine

This research was intended to contribute to a deeper understanding of intercultural dimension of internationalization of higher education and intercultural learning through the perception of policy-makers, representatives of higher education and civil society sectors from Italy and Ukraine. Both countries stive to become more open to the outer world and help their citizens to live and work in the global context. More specifically we have attempted to study if internationalization has operated a shift towards qualitative learning objectives, making universities to focus on intercultural learning within the internationalization process. Universities in both countries strive to be internationally highly ranked and to have numerous international studentship, however they form different multicultural contexts, ways to institutional policy and practice, have different internationalization strategies, different traditions of cultural and language homogeneity in education systems. The cases provided from Italy and Ukraine will illustrate how the policies of internationalization cultivate the intercultural awareness. This is not intended to be a comparison between the two countries but rather as a snapshot of the ways internationalization agendas enhance cosmopolitan outlook of the academia in different locations. Under the complexity of the globalized world it is an urgent need to draw attention at the historical mission of the university education concerning the formation of globally aware citizens. Challenges of globalization today continue to increase pressure for the education to change curriculum and learning environment in order to educate young generation to be capable to live and work in culturally diverse society. The research idea is to examine whether the internationalization of higher education stimulates the universities to fulfill this mission. The present research examines how these discourses interact with internationalization of higher education, taken particular universities in Italy and Ukraine as the research sites. The intercultural/global discourses are complex phenomena represented through various ideas and practices, hence they can be understood differently in different places, by different people, and also may lead to different outcomes. The research is done as a comparative study in two countries: Italy and Ukraine. The higher education institutions in both countries strive to be internationally highly ranked and to have numerous international studentship, however they form different multicultural contexts, ways to institutional policy and practice, have different internationalization strategies, different traditions of cultural and language homogeneity in education systems. The cases provided from Italy and Ukraine will illustrate how the policies of internationalization of higher education at national and institutional levels meet the stated above challenges.