Strategic Line - I Dissemination Activity : Internationalisation of Curriculum – why and what for?

The first dissemination activity of the first transversal Strategic Lines (SL)- (SL1) Internationalisation of Curriculum – why and what for? was organized on the July 31, 2021 for the staff and students of the IIS University. In all 176 faculty members and 167 students participated in the event. The 9 resource persons of the different sessions were the Level 1 Badge achievers of the IISU.

The dissemination activity was planned to meet the objectives of RISHII Strategic line 1 Internationalisation of curriculum:  why and what for? and covered topics related to it. Besides, the agenda was also designed in a way to give the participants an insight of the RISHII project and share with them the knowledge garnered from the project so far.

•   What Curriculum Internationalisation is (and what it is not);

•   Benefits and challenges of Curriculum Internationalisation, Internationalisation-FOR-ALL;

•   Curriculum Internationalisation and Competence-Based student-centred HE;

•   Curriculum Internationalisation and employability;

•   Curriculum Internationalisation and global citizenship;

•   Agents of Curriculum Internationalisation and their roles

At the outset Dr Ashok Gupta, Chancellor, IIS University, welcomed the delegates and shared with all the vision of management vis-à-vis Internationalisation at the IIS university. This was followed by Prof T. N Mathur, Vice-Chancellor’s address on the topic.

Dr Raakhi Gupta, Rector& Registrar, IIS University and also the contact person and a participant of the RISHII project further acquainted the delegates with the objectives of the project and the purpose of the webinar. She also highlighted the need of Internationlization and its various benefits for the Institution.

The first session on Internationalisation of HE: The Global Perspective, was delivered jointly by Dr. Arti Sharma, Head, Department of Sociology and Dr. Himangini Hooja, Head, Department of Psychology. In this session the speakers reviewed the practice and profession of higher education through a broader and more globalized lens of internationalization, in order to expand the vision of what higher education is today and can be for the future

The second session was a recorded talk of Prof. Pankaj Mittal, the Secretary General, AIU who shared with all, the Govt of India’s initiatives and plans to evolve an international friendly eco system in Indian Higher Education Institutions through the New Education Policy (NEP 2020). The talk gave us a direction to align University’s strategic plan in light of the new education policy’s directives/vision.

Internationalisation includes a broad range of elements right from the curriculum, teaching-learning, research, institutional agreements, students and faculty mobility, development co-operation and many more. However, in the recent years, curriculum has become the defining element of Internationalisation of Higher education. In the next session Prof Ila Joshi, Head, Department of Home Science, Dr Chhavi Jain, Department of Management and Dr Payal Mehtani, Co-ordinator, IQAC jointly enlightened the participants with some basic concepts of Internationalisation of Curriculum focusing on Why and What for? The session was instrumental in creating a learning & dynamic environment directed towards conscious change in approach to internationalization.

The session on Connecting Curriculum Internationalisation with Global citizenship and graduate employability was delivered jointly by Dr Neha Batra and Dr Anju Singh. In their talk they emphasized on how an internationalized curriculum  engenders Global Citizenship(GC) in graduates to prepare them for life-skills, employment and employability. They deliberated on the fact that the University now has to focus on inculcating specific skill sets amongst its students through its innovative and Internationalised curricula and learner-centric teaching.

The final session was specifically on IISU’s strategic plan for internationalization, which was delivered by Prof Vijay Singh Rathore, Director IISU’s International cell who shared with all the preparedness and planning of IISU International Cell and the strategic plan for way forward in the direction of Internationalisation. The closing remarks were given by Prof K.S. Sharma, Advisor, IISU.