Developing an Intercultural Competence Program at an International Cross-Border University

Abstract

The European University Viadrina located at the German-Polish border, with a high number of international students, was founded to promote the “growing-together” of Europe. Despite those aims it becomes more and more evident that international institutions have to develop special strategies to sensitize their members on an intercultural level and to encourage intercultural communication. The case of the Viadrina University serves as example of how a course programme can be created in order to promote intercultural competence. One of the programme’s main aims is to give students the possibility of experiencing, discovering and discussing the diversity of values and worldviews in special workshops. Today the training programme, which at first had not been considered necessary by many university’s employees, has turned into a success story that can be transferred to other international academic institutions.