The project Bridge is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Servicio Espanol para la Internacionalizacion de la Educacion (SEPIE). Neither the European Union nor the National Agency SEPIE can be held responsible for them. -- Number: 2025-1-ES01-KA220-HED-000359236 --

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LEVEL 1. Designing Teaching with International Students

BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.4. Fragmented management of cultural diversity and weak institutionalisation of intercultural dialogue

What problem does it address?

As international student numbers rise, university teachers face misunderstandings rooted in different academic cultures, learning expectations and unconscious stereotypes. A 2018 needs assessment at the University of Bayreuth found 25 problem areas and no coherent qualification pathway. Whether lecturers acquired intercultural teaching skills depended on their own initiative, with no institutional structure behind it.

What does it propose?

A 50-work-unit certificate programme for all teaching staff, permanently anchored at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (ZHL). Four modules lead from intercultural awareness and classroom methods to a supervised teaching project and an expert classroom observation. Completion is rewarded with an official certificate, so intercultural competence counts as a recognised part of teaching quality at the university.

Why is it an inspiring practice?
  • Makes intercultural competence an official, certified part of teaching qualification.
  • Complete didactic cycle: awareness, methods, own teaching project and external classroom observation.
  • Grounded in a needs assessment of the campus community with 20 interviews, and designed on that basis.
  • Applies theories of interpretive authority, Third Space, othering and reframing to real teaching situations.
  • Permanently financed and run on existing infrastructure, so it does not depend on project funding.
  • Hybrid delivery and individual consultation make it accessible to busy staff across all disciplines.
Resources you'll find
  • Certificate curriculum with four modules and 50 work units (AE)
  • Seminar curricula for the introductory and advanced modules
  • Theoretical concept papers on intercultural communication (Schiewer, Meyer)
  • Discussion paper 'Lived Interculturality at UBT' (2018 needs assessment)
  • Programme website and ProfiLehrePlus booking portal
Featured results
50
work units (AE) per certificate
4
modules from awareness to classroom observation
20
interviews in the 2018 needs assessment
25
problem areas identified across four domains
5
university units in the Interculturality Network
What can visitors learn?
How to design a staff qualification pathway that embeds intercultural competence institutionally.
How a campus-wide needs assessment with interviews can ground the design of a training programme.
How theories of interpretive authority, othering and reframing translate into classroom practice.
How supervised teaching projects and expert classroom observation secure transfer from seminar to lecture hall.
How to sustain a programme through permanent budgets and shared infrastructure once project funds end.

LEVEL 2. EXPLORE BEST PRACTICE

Introduction

The certificate programme 'Designing Teaching with International Students' at the University of Bayreuth qualifies teaching staff to analyse and improve teaching with international students. Developed from a 2018 needs assessment and launched in 2022, it comprises 50 work units in four modules: intercultural awareness, teaching in multicultural classrooms, a supervised teaching project with reflection report and an expert classroom observation. It is delivered in a hybrid format by the ZHL with the Interculturality Network.

  • Coordinating organisation: University of Bayreuth, ZHL (Germany)
  • Participating countries: Germany (DE)
  • Duration: 2022 - Ongoing
  • BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.4. Fragmented management of cultural diversity and weak institutionalisation of intercultural dialogue
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

The Challenge

What social issue does it address?

German universities often treat internationalisation as an administrative or mobility task. In the classroom, teachers meet divergent academic traditions, learning cultures and expectations without methodological tools, which can lead to tension and symbolic exclusion of international students. Isolated measures existed in Bayreuth, but no coherent professionalisation pathway bundled them.

Why is it important?

International students encounter unreflective teaching cultures shaped by a one-sided, Eurocentric interpretive authority. Whether they are included depends on the personal initiative of individual lecturers. Without institutional anchoring, intercultural dialogue at universities remains fragile and unequal.

How does it contribute to the BRIDGE Challenge?

The programme responds to Challenge A4 by institutionalising intercultural competence as a certified component of teaching quality at the ZHL, replacing ad-hoc measures with a standard pathway backed by a cross-departmental network and a permanent budget, so that managing cultural diversity becomes a shared institutional task.

How does it work?

Participants complete four modules within a 50-work-unit certificate: an introductory course on culture and intercultural awareness (9 AE), an advanced seminar on teaching in multicultural classrooms (20 AE), a teaching project in their own course with a reflection report (15 AE) and a classroom observation by interculturality experts with written feedback (8 AE). Delivery is hybrid; booking runs via ProfiLehrePlus.

What might inspire you?
Ideas for adaptation
  1. Start with a needs assessment: interview teaching and administrative staff before designing courses.
  2. Make intercultural competence a certified part of teaching qualification.
  3. Combine theory, methods, an own teaching project and classroom observation in one pathway.
  4. Let participants write reflection reports that feed back into the institutional knowledge base.
  5. Use classroom observation by experts to give evidence-based feedback on intercultural teaching.
  6. Discuss interpretive authority, asking who sets the terms and topics in a seminar and who is absent.
  7. Treat learner diversity as a resource when planning courses.
  8. Include administrative staff, since cultural diversity concerns the whole institution.
  9. Offer hybrid delivery and individual consultation to lower barriers for busy teaching staff.
  10. Run the programme on existing infrastructure and permanent budgets to secure continuity.
Resources created

Certificate programme website 'Lehre mit internationalen Studierenden gestalten' (ZHL, University of Bayreuth)

Online training

The official programme page of the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (ZHL) presents the certificate 'Designing Teaching with International Students'. It sets out the modular structure of 50 work units: the introductory course 'Culture and Intercultural Awareness' (9 AE), the advanced seminar 'Teaching in Multicultural Classrooms' (20 AE), the transfer module 'Teaching Project' with a reflection report (15 AE) and the classroom observation by interculturality experts (8 AE). It also explains the target groups, from professors and post-doctoral researchers to lecturers and administrative staff, the voluntary entry with individual consultation, optional courses of the Language Centre and Writing Centre, and the award of the official ZHL certificate. The page is in German and is the entry point for anyone wishing to adapt the programme's four-step logic.

Teaching staff, Professionals, Policy Makers

https://www.zhl.uni-bayreuth.de/de/zertifikate/internationalestudierende/index.html

ProfiLehrePlus seminar portal (Bavarian network for higher education didactics)

Online training

ProfiLehrePlus is the state-wide Bavarian platform through which all seminars of the certificate programme are booked and documented. The portal lists the annually recurring introductory and advanced seminars, records completed work units and provides the documentation on which the ZHL certificate is issued. For the BRIDGE audience the portal shows how an existing regional infrastructure for teaching development can carry an intercultural qualification without a dedicated platform. Booking, recording of work units and institutional recognition are handled by a shared system used across Bavarian universities. The portal is in German; seminars are held in German and English. Users can browse the current seminar programme and see how the intercultural modules sit within the broader continuing education portfolio.

Teaching staff, Professionals

https://profilehreplus.de/seminare

Discussion paper 'Lived Interculturality at UBT' (AK Interkulturalität, 2018) and certificate curriculum framework

Digital publication

The discussion paper documents the needs assessment that preceded the programme: 20 semi-structured interviews with representative voices across the campus, 25 identified problem areas, grouped into four domains (institution, teaching, research and social environment), and the measures proposed in response. It is complemented by the certificate curriculum framework, which specifies module structures, work-unit requirements and target groups, and by theoretical concept papers by Prof. Dr. Gesine Lenore Schiewer and PD Dr. Frank Meyer on intercultural communication theory, interpretive authority, the Third Space, alterity and reframing. Together these documents show how the findings of a campus-wide diagnosis led to the curriculum. The materials may be used with attribution; the institutional contact is the ZHL. No public download is available; please contact the ZHL.

Teaching staff, Researchers, Policy Makers