IaH - Rationale
Internationalisation at Home is aimed at the 90% of university students that do not go abroad for study or placements. IaH can provide an international and European dimension for this large majority of students. It aims to create a learning environment for non-mobile students to acquire a international competences at home.
IaH - History
In 1999, Bengt Nilsson contributed an article to EAIE's Forum with the title: 'Internationalisation at home - theory and praxis'. This received such favourable reception that a SIG was formed that was presented at the 11th Annual EAIE Conference in Maastricht, in December 1999. The work of the SIG was coordinated by Bengt Nilsson, with Hanneke Teekens, Bernd Wächter, Paul Crowther, Michael Joris and Matthias Otten as members. A major step was Internationalisation at Home, A Position Paper, published by EAIE in 2000. Another landmark was the international conference on IaH in Malmö in April 2003. A further international conference on IaH took place in Rotterdam in May 2005. In 2004, the second Constance Meldrum Award for Vision and Leadership was presented to Bengt Nilsson, who by that time had already acquired the unofficial title 'The Father of IaH'.
IaH - From Theory to Practice
The SIG laid the basis for a European model for Internationalisation at Home, as was their overall goal. Another goal was to start and stimulate a debate among university educators on this issue at European universities. This debate was sparked during he conferences mentioned above. The debates also served to define and describe the basic ideas for Internationalisation at Home, which was another aim. The last aim was to to gather ideas and good examples for the internationalisation process for non-mobile university students.
The SIG introduced EAIE Training Courses on IaH in 2006 and published volume 2 of EAIE's Professional Development Series 'Implementing Internationalisation at Home' in 2007. There are sessions on IaH at the annual EAIE conferences.
IaH - A Community of Practice
At the 2004 EAIE-conference in Turin, a group of educators presented their ideas to continue the work of the special interest group. Their main aim is to help bring the principles of IaH into practice. The group proposed working on three levels: that of the institute, the classroom and the student. This concept was further outlined and presented as a poster at the IaH-conference in Rotterdam in May 2005. The SIG aims to be a platform for those who work with IaH or are interested in doing so.
IaH Board
Jos Beelen (chair)
Hogeschool van Amsterdam, The Netherlands
j.beelen@hva.nl
Knut Bergknut
Malmö University, Sweden
knut.bergknut@mah.se
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Caz.Thomas@uct.ac.za