Community-Centered, Internationalization at Home based Plan for the Global Student Citizenship

Abstract

Internationalization has brought benefits to educational institutions, such as international research and recognition of the international academic community, by favoring global student citizenship. However, reductions in government investment in student mobility and project funding limit initiatives, hampering the internationalization process and stimulating new forms to handle this issue. This work presents an inclusive, internationalization plan, called C2-IaH (Community-Centered Internationalization at Home), suitable for any professional education institution, whose actions are centered on the local community and based on Internationalization at Home approaches with lower financial investments. The C2-IaH presupposes integrating different teaching, research and extension actions, at multiple educational levels (vocational and higher education), with the participation of students (including foreigners) and traditional communities, to promote knowledge of additional languages and interculturality as engines of institutional internationalization. A local case study showed that actions linked to C2-IaH achieved effective results for the professional institution as a whole at a low level of investments.