Internationalisation and diversity
The GIHE supports Griffith's commitment to engage with students from diverse backgrounds and to prepare all students as global citizens. The Griffith learning community includes significant numbers of staff and students who have indigenous cultural heritage, students who come from non-english speaking backgrounds, international students, mature age students and students who have disabilities. GIHE provides a range of resources to support the development of cultural intelligence among staff at Griffith.
Cultural intelligence is the capacity and orientation to accommodate and adapt to diversity in open productive and harmonious ways. It is fostered when students and staff from diverse social and cultural backgrounds engage in reciprocal exchange of expertise, knowledge, and experiences. These exchanges are most successful in the context of an internationalised and inclusive curriculum where students and staff enhance their intercultural awareness and their capacity to live and work in changing local and international communities.
The GIHE offers workshops and a suite of resources to support staff in promoting the values of cultural intelligence and inclusivity in the curriculum.
Internationalisation involves integrating international, intercultural, and global dimensions into learning and teaching, curriculum design and assessment. The priority is to ensure that local and international students, alike, benefit from top quality learning experiences designed to prepare them to live and work anywhere in the world.
For further information the Internationalising Teaching, Curriculum and the Student Experience at Griffith A GIHE Information and Resource Guide for Academic Staff at Griffith University (PDF 275k) is available to download.
Internationalisation is core to the values of Griffith University, which recognises the importance of preparing its students as global citizens. Griffith has adopted a working definition of internationalisation as “the process of integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension into the purpose, functions, or delivery of post secondary education” (Knight, 2003, p. 2-3).
The aim is to prepare our students to live and work anywhere in the world by providing them with the skills, expertise and cultural sensitivity to do so. Best practice for internationalisation builds on principles of effective teaching in higher education and is underpinned by a commitment to cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence can be understood as the capacity and orientation to accommodate and adapt to diversity in open, productive and harmonious ways.
For further information the Good Practice Guide: Internationalising the Curriculum (PDF 275k) is available to download.
Celebrating Cultural Diversity Calendar
Griffith's Cultural Diversity Calendar (PDF 503k) is produced by the Griffith Cultural Diversity Community of Practice and is designed to inform the university community of significant annual events, festivals, and holy days in the lives of staff and students.