Mapping of existing intercultural preparation and debriefing measures in HEIs across Europe - Comprehensive report on good practices about content and formats

The value of mobility lies not merely in experiencing different cultures firsthand but in fostering true intercultural competencies through meaningful immersion, reflection, and analysis. While studying abroad provides students with opportunities to enhance academic knowledge, employability, language skills, and personal growth, research shows that it does not automatically lead to the development of intercultural competencies or the reduction of prejudices.

Students often return with unchanged biases and struggle to effectively interact with locals or navigate intercultural challenges. To address these issues, higher education institutions need to equip students with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes for better intercultural learning.

The PADMICA project (Scalable and Low-resource Preparation and Debriefing Module for Students’ Intercultural Competence Development Abroad) aims to bridge this gap by developing comprehensive blended intercultural preparation and debriefing modules.

These modules, grounded in intercultural education theory, are designed to be effective across various institutional settings and cultural contexts, thus enhancing the overall quality of international mobility experiences for students.

This report, a component of the PADMICA project, maps the existing measures for intercultural preparation before mobility, initiatives during, and debriefs after mobility, collectively referred to as 'intercultural interventions'. It identifies good practices and common pitfalls, leading to recommendations for the development of the project modules. The findings are based on two surveys conducted among European higher education institutions (HEIs) and students, developed and implemented as a preparatory task for the intercultural and debriefing module development, resp. work package 2 and 3, within the PADMICA project.

The purpose of the present report consists in presenting the results of two surveys conducted by the PADMICA team amongst administrative and academic staff of HEIs and outgoing mobility students to better understand stakeholders’ perceptions and needs in view of study abroad experiences and the role of interculturality in this context. The aim of the report is to discuss good practices as emerging from the two surveys, to deliver a certain number of recommendations destined to facilitate the targeting and developing of intercultural modules by the project before (preparation module) and after (debriefing module) mobility.

Chapter 1 is dedicated to the analysis of the results of the HEI survey, Chapter 2 to those of the student survey. The concluding chapter provides several key takeaways and recommendations.