International opportunities at home
Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology
There are many ways for staff to gain international experience and strengthen their own intercultural competence. The power of internationalisation at home is that it offers internationalisation for everyone.
There are many opportunities to strengthen your intercultural competence at home. The important thing is to talk to your immediate manager to see if it can be done during working hours and included in your professional development plan.
Welcome an international employee to the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology
For the first time, the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology and Lund University are encouraging employees to mentor incoming international staff. During the 2023–2024 academic year, an initiative is underway to investigate whether there is interest among the staff to welcome new international employees and doctoral students to Lund University and the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology. The hope is to be able to match new and existing staff. Feel free to sign up and give it a try!
As little as a couple hours of your time would mean a lot to a guest or new employee – and be fun and rewarding for you.
How do foreign guests experience their time at LU? Read a number of portraits of incoming international staff, doctoral students and master students.
- Strengthen your English by taking a course for employees offered in the Kompetensportalen training portal (in Swedish).
- Job shadow a colleague who works in a unit with a lot of international students or staff, or who works with internationalisation. Do it in Lund or go to Campus Helsingborg – or contact colleagues in Malmö or Ljungbyhed. The universities of Malmö and Copenhagen are not far away and of course offer plenty of opportunities. Take inspiration from the tips on the LU Staff Pages.
- Job shadow a colleague abroad through a virtual exchange – from your own workspace. Struggling to find a contact? Get tips and help on the websites for international opportunities abroad.
- Do what is known as a Blended Mobility; first you job shadow a foreign colleague virtually, and then you visit them by applying for Erasmus+ staff training (job shadowing) funding.
- Keep an eye on the courses offered in the LU Staff Pages for professional and career development – maybe there is something with an intercultural focus?
- Listen to an interesting lecture or seminar on an intercultural theme. There is a lot going on at Lund University every month – take advantage of this!
- Learn Swedish! Each department is supposed to pay for international employees' courses in Swedish. This also applies for doctoral students.
- Take a course in Danish. The Centre for Oresund Region Studies offers intensive courses for employees regularly.
- As a member of TA staff, you can take inspiration from the EU-funded SUCTI project (“Systemic University Change Towards Internationalisation”).
- Keep in mind that strengthening your intercultural competence can open up new career paths. LU is in the process of reviewing the professional and career development of TA staff. Keep an eye on what this project could mean for you.
For teaching staff
Start a virtual collaboration or set up a digital learning environment with a colleague abroad. Funding is available, especially if the colleague is working at one of the universities in the EUGLOH network. Read more about the EUGLOH network's Seed Money Programme. You can apply no later than 1st February 2024 for Lund University seed money for course and programme development within EUGLOH.
Within the framework of the newly launched “EUGLOH guest lecturer programme for teaching mobility”, you can invite a colleague from one of the partner universities within the EUGLOH alliance and teach with them on an ongoing course.
If possible, make use of Lund University's cultural and museum activities (LUKOM) in the teaching and link to global phenomena, findings and events.
- Read more here about LU seed money for course and programme development.
- You can learn more here about COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning).
- There are different forms of collaboration with funding.
- Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP) are a new feature of the Erasmus programme (2021–2027). You can be awarded € 6,000–8,000 for your institution if you set up such a course collaboration from at least two other foreign universities. If any of the other universities are members of the EUGLOH network, you have a very good chance of receiving funding. For students, the programme involves both a virtual and a short physical exchange.
Develop your ability to manage a heterogeneous lecture hall.
- Here you will find inspiration from foreign universities (Ohio State University, USA and University of Utrecht, the Netherlands); links provided by Rachel Forsyth at LU Development.
- Rachel Forsyth also presents a series of tips for university teachers working in the intercultural classroom.
- Further inspiration can be found both within and outside Sweden (Karolinska Institutet, University of Groningen and University of Copenhagen). This tip was shared by Joyce Kling, the Department of English Studies at the Centre for Languages and Literature.
- The Division for Higher Education Development (AHU) offers courses and support. Keep an eye out for anything in their current programme that strengthens your intercultural teaching skills.
- LU's career development programme can offer training with intercultural content.
- Since September 2020, Lund University holds the EU certification HR Excellence in Research. Read more and find out what it can mean for you as an employed researcher.
