How to improve SCIENCE mobility: lessons from UCPH

Professor Grete Bertelsen is Vice-Dean for Education at the Faculty of Science at UCPH, with the overall responsibility for education at the faculty. Since taking office in 2012, she has overseen a vast increase in mobility numbers, while fulfilling other parameters of internationalisation as well. Vice-Dean Bertelsen sees internationalisation as a continuous and close collaboration between three faculty entities: the management, the departments and the administration.

A change of culture

Grete Bertelsen

Increasing mobility also calls for a change of culture at the Faculty of Science, however. “All our lecturers are part of international networks, but internationalisation might only be a small part of their job. We work hard to remind them of the importance of international collaboration,” Vice-Dean Bertelsen says. A key focus has been to work thoroughly with curriculum development of each of the faculty’s programmes and to identify room for mobility, so-called ‘mobility windows’. This enables more students to spend a semester abroad. Curriculum mapping of courses offered at strategic partner universities has furthermore been an important element.

The focus on internationalisation at SCIENCE has also resulted in incorporating an internationalisation aspect into the annual performance and development review with all heads of studies at the faculty, in which they have to comment on the levels of internationalisation of their programmes. Not only do they have to explain their level of internationalisation, but also to reflect on how to improve it. “Everyone agrees that internationalisation is important, so the changes are welcome,” the Vice-Dean says. This has encouraged the heads of studies to learn from and help each other across disciplines. Targeted and proactive communication to students has also been emphasised, and the heads of studies are increasingly seen as ambassadors of internationalisation.

Different methods of teaching

Katja Sander Johannsen

All of this has had a positive effect on the number of students applying for a semester abroad, which is at an all-time high. According to Katja Sander Johannsen, Head of International Affairs and MSc Admissions at the Faculty of Science, this will ultimately help us prepare our students for their future careers. “No matter if you end up working in Denmark or not, you need to be able to work with different people with different working methods. Going on exchange prepares you for this, while providing a new perspective and adding to your competences,” she says. Classic science may be universal, but how to teach it is not.

If the mountain will not come…
For various reasons, going on exchange is not an option for everyone, however. Another way to ensure internationalisation is thus to bring the international aspect into the classroom at SCIENCE, which has been part of the faculty’s strategy for a number of years. The vast majority of master’s programmes at the Faculty of Science at UCPH are taught entirely in English. This helps attract both excellent international students and faculty members to Denmark, and brings internationalisation to students at home. It would probably be both easier and cheaper to stick with teaching in Danish, but the Vice-Dean for Education at Science believes it will be highly beneficial in the end: “We are educating students for a global labour market, in which they need language proficiency and intercultural skills. They are going to work with people from all over the world”.