Session
✅ Included for all participants
How can we support students in turning a study abroad experience into real intercultural and employability development? This session will bring together three universities from the UK, the Netherlands and Japan to share different perspectives with one goal: centring students in facilitating and assessing intercultural learning through mobility. Join us to explore practical, student-centred approaches that build intercultural competence, employability skills and inclusive participation in mobility.
Thomas Legge is a lecturer in the Faculty of Business Administration at Momoyama Gakuin University in Osaka, Japan. He teaches Global Business English, IELTS and TOEIC preparation, study abroad preparation, and runs a seminar for students planning to work or study overseas after graduation. He serves on several university committees, including the Foreign Language Centre.
His research focuses on working holidays, study abroad trends, and the challenges faced by Japanese students participating in these programs. He has published several papers on these topics, including a recent study titled "An Exploration of Japanese Working Holidays: Trends, Motivations, and Challenges" in 2025. He is also an IELTS specialist and teacher trainer, having previously worked at the British Council. His experience with IELTS has been a significant part of his research and teaching.
He currently serves as President of the Study Abroad Special Interest Group, part of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT). In this role, he supports language educators and contributes to discussions around study abroad and international student mobility. Additionally, he is a member of AsiaTEFL and KOTESOL, professional organizations that promote English language teaching in Asia.
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tlegge
Julia Porter is the International Exchanges Manager at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen, Scotland. With a career in student mobility dating back to 1996, she is responsible for overseeing all aspects of international exchange, including managing institutional agreements, coordinating all non-academic elements of incoming and outgoing student mobility, and administering funding programmes such as the Turing Scheme and the Scottish Education and Exchange Programme (SEEP).
Julia is passionate about international education and considers her selection as the UK Staff Ambassador for the Erasmus Programme’s 25th anniversary one of the highlights of her career.
She is an active member of the Group for Exchange and Mobility Scotland (GEMS), where she served as Chair from 2016 to 2017. Julia has also contributed to several national and international working groups, including the UK Best Practice Expert Group, the Erasmus for All Expert Advisory Group, and the National Mobility Strategy Working Group.
Julia regularly collaborates with colleagues across the UK and beyond and is a frequent contributor to conferences and training events focused on international education and exchange.
