Mid-Semester Feedback Sessions? Yes, Please!

Reflection and feedback are reserved for the end of the semester, right? No. In order to get genuine, high quality feedback, you need to divide your school year into time frames that are smaller than the regular 4 or 9 months. Ideally, you should enable your international...
Posted On 08 Dec 2016

Warning: Your International Students Are Having a Negative Experience!

Dropping grades, poor attendance – this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s only a symptom of a negative experience while studying abroad, but not the cause. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has dedicated many years of his work to the research on happiness and his key...
Posted On 07 Dec 2016

Checklist For International Student Offices: Gender Equality

Attracting and retaining a diverse and vibrant international student body is an objective for every university that aspires to provide quality international education. Ensuring that students from different backgrounds feel appreciated, welcomed and engaged creates conditions for...
Posted On 06 Dec 2016

Telling The Future: Indicating Countries That Will Excel In Outbound Student Mobility

Predicting trends in international student mobility might seem slightly complicated but in fact it is far away from fortune-telling business. There are always clear indicators as to which country has a head start in the race and which one is likely to lag behind. Today we will...
Posted On 05 Dec 2016

Poland and Iran: What Can We Learn From Mixed Cultures?

Richard D. Lewis’ cultural typology model may be fascinating, but it is surely not exhaustive and universally applicable to each and every country in the world. There are many countries that actually do not fit straight into any of the 3 main types we’ve been...
Posted On 30 Nov 2016

How To Address The Needs of Students From Reactive Cultures?

As we mentioned in our previous post, reactive cultures are generally governed by conformity and strict observation of traditions. There is strong focus on certain values such as integrity, diligence and the pursuit of perfection. The worst thing that can happen to any member of...
Posted On 29 Nov 2016

Reactive Cultures Explained: Japan and Vietnam

Between linear-active and multi-active cultures we see the reactive culture type. We consider it falling in the middle, displaying features that are characteristic of both linear- and multi-active worlds. Richard D. Lewis defines reactive cultures through a strong emphasis on...
Posted On 28 Nov 2016

Multi-Active Cultures Explained: Bolivia, Chile and Morocco

Multi-active countries represent a culture where relationships are more important than schedules. The usual course of action here would be adapting to situations as they come and paying close attention to the relationships you build on the way. People from...
Posted On 24 Nov 2016

How To Approach International Students From Linear-active Cultures?

This week we expore Richard D. Lewis’ model of culture classification that groups different cultures into three main types – linear-active, multi-active and reactive. Yesterday we took a more detailed look at what linear-active cultures look like with two typical...
Posted On 23 Nov 2016

Linear-Active Cultures Explained: Germany and U.S.

Students from linear-active countries traditionally come from Western Europe and North America. These regions are also among the biggest players in international student recruitment – both in sending and hosting. So, today we’ll find out what linear-active...
Posted On 22 Nov 2016

A Deeper Look: Getting To Know Different Cultures

Last week we gave you an overview of the basic strategies for cross-cultural management, including a few possible ways to create inclusion for international students, build a community and make life on campus generally more rewarding as well as enjoyable. However,...
Posted On 21 Nov 2016

4 Basic Strategies for Cross-cultural Management: Gamification

Today we conclude our 4-chapter series of basic strategies for cross-cultural management of international students with an innovative approach. This approach not only has the potential to be extremely helpful, but is also the most captivating and enjoyable one by far. Of course,...
Posted On 17 Nov 2016