Support for internationalisation - four areas of development
Ingrid Svensson especially wants like to highlight the four development areas that were cultivated during the time spent working on the policy:
Ingrid Svensson, Head of the International Office.
Photo:
"The policy itself is only four pages long, but there are also more in-depth web pages (appendix) where you can click through to find information, inspiration, and support", says Ingrid Svensson. "They should be both useful and inspiring for anyone who wants to learn more."
The appendix is available on the staff website and is under development. They will be supplemented during the year with information on how to develop action plans and concrete goals in the area of internationalisation in workshop form, adapted for each activity at Umeå University.
Ingrid Svensson emphasises how important it is that the new policy and appendix become working tools that include the entire university's operations. She highlights an example of internationalisation at home that will be further developed: that students should have international subject perspective in their education. This is primarily about introducing students to different ways of understanding the subject area they are studying.
"You can, for example, discuss questions such as: why is mathematics studied in the humanities in South America but not in Sweden where it's a part of technology and science? Why does teacher education have such a high status in Finland? Providing our students with an international perspective in their own subject areas is also a way of working with internationalisation," she says.
Extensive experience with internationalisation
Ingrid Svensson has been Head of the International Office since 2017. She holds a PhD in Mathematical Statistics from Umeå University. Before joining the International Office, she had worked as a Senior Lecturer in Statistics, and was Deputy Head of Department in 2009-2011 and 2012-2017. When she took up the position as Deputy Head of Department, she was responsible for educational matters and for budgetary and personnel issues. Ingrid has also worked for a year as an education leader at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå.
She has been interested in internationalisation for a long time and has had several international experiences during her educational and professional life.
"My family lived in California for a year when I was a child and I was an exchange student in high school with a family in Oklahoma," says Ingrid Svensson. "My father often invited international guests to our home and my mother worked with nurses from all over the world who came to Sweden to obtain a Swedish nursing license. We've also had exchange students living with us."
"I have also been a visiting doctoral student in the United States and a visiting research fellow in Italy for a few short periods. As a senior lecturer, the Erasmus Programme gave me the opportunity to go on a teaching exchange to Italy to teach at the undergraduate and master's level, which was incredibly educational," she continues.
What does internationalisation mean to you?
For me, internationalisation is a peace project and it is closely linked to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. We are people that all live on the same planet earth and we must work actively to take care of the planet and each other.
What is the biggest misconception about internationalisation?
So many people think that internationalisation is all about mobility. But mobility is not really the goal of internationalisation, but rather a means to an end.
Is there anything specific that you hope to achieve during the theme year?
Yes, there is. There is an international contact person at each department, and I want all the heads of department to know who the international contact person is and to be in agreement with that person regarding responsibilities and tasks.
Although internationalisation is the University's theme for 2022, internationalisation work at the University will be included, quite naturally, in the role as an international contact person. Furthermore, I want to help develop how we can help departments, faculties, and the university management to develop action plans for their international work.
Internationalisation is a work in progress that will continue long after the theme year. However, the hope is that theme year will help us all to take some well thought out and strategic steps forward in that work.