ICI aimed to ensure the provision of intercultural and global learning opportunities for all students, regardless of their background or orientation and support them in their development of globally responsible professionals and citizens. ICI aimed to enhance the quality of international learning experiences by making the opportunities and offer truly inclusive, including virtual and blended modalities, alongside a systemic institutional approach. ICI raised awareness and engagement at HEI about the need for an inclusive, comprehensive approach to internationalisation. The project also encourages collaboration among the university community (academic, educational developers, administrative, and students) to co-create inclusive strategies across professional, academic, and cultural boundaries. ICI promotes critical evaluations of internationalisation efforts, highlighting ‘hidden’ messages that undermine inclusivity. Additionally, ICI fosters the adoption of inclusive digital opportunities, ensuring a comprehensive, efficient, and sustainable approach to internationalisation.
Many universities in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) tackle internationalisation and address diversity and inclusion in separate strategies or as a part of their institutional one. Still, only some universities comprehensively focus on the intersection of inclusion and internationalisation. The ICI consortium had experience in previous successful Erasmus+ projects, good practices focusing on certain stakeholders of internationalisation, like teachers and educational developers (EQUIIP) and admin and technical staff (SUCTI). The team also has valuable experience on COIL and Virtual Exchange. Thanks to this background, ICI identified the need to point the light towards the student body as a necessary step towards a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to internationalisation. To tackle this, ICI took a systemic approach, focusing on what can HEI do to enhance these opportunities and understand diversity as a complex asset rather than a problem. For this, we allocated special attention to internal aspects such as the hidden curriculum or unintended messages , and how do we incorporate inclusivity in the international opportunities, also considering virtual and blended ones.