SYNTHESIS COURSE
Educating Global-Ready Graduates
Fostering and assessing intercultural and global competence on campus
Dr. Darla Deardorff
OVERVIEW
Higher education institutions often state the goal of matriculating globally competent students, yet many still address this simply through the requirement of an international course or education abroad experience.
This workshop helps leaders realistically initiate or improve the complex yet mission-critical process of developing intercultural and global competence on campus.
Confronted with rapidly changing economic, political, technological, and cultural realities, higher education institutions are charged with the goal of matriculating globally competent students.
To undertake — or iteratively enhance — the work of developing globally-ready learners in today’s higher education landscape requires a thorough understanding of what comprises global and intercultural competence as well as the paths to developing and assessing these on a college campus in concert with other educational goals.
This workshop will offer a substantial exploration of these topics. It uses Interactive Learning to draw on participants’ own experiences and knowledge as well as evidence-based best practices so that they can begin to design and develop specific plans for integrating Intercultural competence and campus programs and curricula.
In this course, you will learn how to help yourself and those you work with so that you/they can better:
- Review key theories and concepts related to global and intercultural competence, including models that can be used to frame campus, curricular, and programmatic efforts.
- Explore and analyse practices in higher education designed to develop and assess students’ (and other stakeholders’) global readiness.
- Identify and develop practical strategies for infusing global and intercultural competence into campus learning opportunities across multiple levels of your institution.
This workshop uses Interactive Learning to draw on participants’ own experiences and knowledge as well as evidence-based best practices so that they can begin to design and develop specific plans for integrating Intercultural competence and campus programs and curricula.
This course is for you if you are a higher education leader including:
- Post-secondary administrators,
- Faculty members,
- Senior leaders including deans and provosts,
- Student affairs staff,
- HR and professional development specialists and trainers,
- PhD students researching this area, and
- Consultants and others involved in higher education.
COURSE TYPE
Synthesis / Intersections
DURATION/DATES
2 days/7-8 July 2026
AUDIENCE LEVELS
Senior (20+ years)
Advanced (13-19 years)
Mid (6-12 years)
TUITION FEE
€1050 before 15 Feb
€1125 after 15 Feb
includes certificate from the University and the Institute
Darla K. Deardorff, EdD 
Dr. Darla K. Deardorff specializes in cross-cultural scholarship and training, assessment and evaluation, teacher/faculty preparation/development, curriculum internationalization, global leadership, and intercultural coaching. She regularly facilitates learning on intercultural competence, international education assessment, and global leadership, including with UNESCO and OECD. The intercultural competence models developed from her research are widely used.
Darla is the chairholder of the UNESCO Chair of Intercultural Competences at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and a research fellow at Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute. She previously served 19 years as Executive Director/CEO of the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA), and is the founder of the World Council in Global and Intercultural Competence, as well as a trainer for the European Association for International Educators (EAIE).
In addition to holding faculty positions at Nelson Mandela University (South Africa), Meiji University (Japan), and Shanghai International Studies University (China), and Harvard University’s Global Education Think Tank (US), among others, she is author/editor of eleven books and over 60 book chapters and articles.
“I believe that we all have more to learn from each other and that it’s through this learning, that we help build a better world together.”
This course is strongly participant-centered. It relies on participants’ contributions of their experience and expertise. Be prepared to share.
“Despite already high expectations, I was still surprised at how extremely enriching the different topics and formats were. I have already made a long list of activities, models, resources and topics to discuss and share with my colleagues.”
“The training program is well tailored to the current needs of those who work in the context of intercultural competence [and] it offers a perfect networking space for deep connections through well-organised training sessions with incredible faculty…and it is a lot of fun!”
“[Dr. Deardorff] responded immediately to my interests, was very approachable, and very wise.”
