The Work · Programme
Intercultural Competence Development
Training that treats intercultural competence as something an institution has, not something individuals are asked to feel.
01 — A deficit, not a mood
“Institutional intercultural competence is better understood as a prerequisite for inclusion than as a supplementary cultural investment.”
The study measures seven dimensions across 580 international students of 70 nationalities. The strongest association in the whole dataset is between an institution's intercultural competence deficit and the marginalization its students report. That finding is why this training exists, and why it is not delivered to students alone.
- 0.80r
- Intercultural competence deficit against marginalization — the strongest association in the dataset
- 2.62mean
- Institutional intercultural competence, on a five-point scale
- 28.4%
- Affirm that university leadership promotes meaningful inclusion
The study is cross-sectional and self-reported, so these are patterns of co-occurrence rather than proven causes. The paper says so itself.
02 — Who it is for
“This study treats intercultural competence as an organizational property: the aggregate capacity of an institution's leadership, faculty, and administrative staff to perceive and respond to cultural differences in the design and delivery of services.”
Leadership, faculty and staff each hold a different part of that capacity, and a workshop aimed at one of them cannot supply the others. The programme runs as three tracks, designed separately and delivered to each group in its own terms.
Students
Interactive sessions on communication, adaptation, and community building.
Outcomes
- Cultural navigation
- Identity negotiation
- Community building
Faculty
Frameworks and workshops for classroom inclusivity and cross-cultural understanding.
Outcomes
- Inclusive pedagogy
- Cross-cultural engagement
- Student retention
Administration
Service delivery, cultural sensitivity, and problem-solving trainings.
Outcomes
- Service delivery
- Cultural sensitivity
- Problem-solving
03 — How it runs
- 01DiagnosisWhat the institution already has, and where the gap sits. Leadership commitment, staff communication and programme design are assessed separately, because the research finds them failing at different rates.
- 02DesignCurriculum built for the three tracks and for the institution's own context, rather than a syllabus carried in from elsewhere.
- 03DeliverySessions run on site or blended, in the language of instruction, with materials the institution keeps.
- 04ReportingWhat changed, what did not, and what the institution should carry forward without external support.
“Intercultural competence must be embedded at every layer of the institution — from rectorate decision-making and resource allocation to international office staffing, faculty training, and student affairs programming.”
Two interventions follow most directly from the item-level results: redesigning career counselling around international graduates' distinct labour-market position, and providing support in the language of instruction. They address the two lowest-scoring items in the whole instrument.
04 — Structures, not showcases
“Universities mobilize international students as symbolic resources through cultural festivals, promotional photography, and marketing materials, establishing diversity credentials without altering their power dynamics or opportunity structures.”
In the survey, roughly 67% of students agreed they were used this way, while 35.5% agreed they benefited from it — a gap of about 31 percentage points, which is the quantity the tokenism construct is built to capture. Training alone does not close it. What closes it is standing structures that students hold office in, publish in, and answer for. Two of these were founded at Istanbul Aydın University and are part of what the programme helps an institution build.
Model United Nations
Founded the campus programme and launched four conferences.
A delegate holds a position, negotiates it, and is held to it. The competence is exercised rather than described.
STARLIGHT
Türkiye's first international student magazine.
An editorial platform students run gives them the authorship that a promotional photograph takes.
05 — Working together
Bring this to your institution.
Research collaboration
On intercultural competence, marginalization, or the internationalization of higher education.
Counselling
For international students, and for the staff who support them.
Advisory
On internationalization strategy, partnership activation, and student experience.
Short-term programmes
Summer and winter schools, peace and diplomacy intensives, faculty and staff exchanges — concept through to reporting.
ICD course design
Building an intercultural competence course that your institution owns and runs itself.
Institutional intercultural competence is the condition inclusion depends on. It can be measured, and it can be built.