Regenerative internationalization: Designing learning for a thriving future

Abstract

While internationalization of higher education can help develop global competencies, there are significant risks that increased international mobility will undermine the credibility of universities to address wicked problems like climate change. The social license for institutional strategies that emphasize the growth of internationalization, is now under scrutiny. In this chapter, the design of internationalized learning experiences for inbound international students are viewed through the lens of regenerative practice. This chapter proposes a transition towards regenerative internationalization. A set of reflective questions have been developed to allow those designing the next generation of international learning experiences to fully consider the extent to which the experiences will have regenerative impacts so that Universities realize the significant benefits of internationalization in a manner that will withstand their own critique. In doing so, this framework positions the designers of these experiences as leaders of change, actively contributing to a thriving future of internationalization.