Maurizia Ruinelli, in Prague for a Staff Week

In the frame of the staff mobility programme for training, Maurizia Ruinelli, collaborator of the International Relations Service, had the opportunity to attend the EAIE Academy at the Czech Technical University in the enchanting city of Prague.

The programme enables staff of higher education institutions to acquire knowledge or specific know-how from experiences and good practices as well as practical skills relevant for their current job and their professional development by undertaking a period of training at a higher education institution.

The EAIE Academy takes place twice a year in a different European city and it is one among the many learning and networking platforms of EAIE, the European Association for International Education. It offers in-depth courses in the internationalization of higher education intended for academic and non-academic professionals held by expert trainers in the international education. Here are Maurizia’s impressions:

“I attended the course “Facilitating cultural learning in education abroad” in a class of about 20 advisors, professionals and experts coming from Europe and the US. The aim of the course was to give advisors working in an international frame, for instance international relations service and international academic programmes, awareness of how important it is to accompany students going on a mobility program in a host country (even if they have already visited it) with an appropriate intercultural training in the pre-departure phase as well as during and after their exchange period in order to make the most out of their study abroad in term of academic and personal experience.

We learnt through research-based cultural learning models how an intercultural learning highly influences the development of the intercultural competences of exchange students while abroad and at the end of the study abroad experience, particularly if they are going to stay less than two years, as the length of the stay in the host country facilitates the process.

Besides the classes I had to opportunity to work in a small motivated group of participants to design a cultural training activity project in the frame of the predeparture phase. The project has been developed in a way that can be easily adjusted, integrated and implemented and can serve as a model in each institution.

The staff mobility training experience totally met my expectation to immerse myself and structure my knowledge in the fascinating, dynamic and broad field of the institutions’ internationalization process.”