Chayenne Smeets

European higher education has become increasingly international. Proponents argue that internationalisation exposes students to diverse perspectives, cultivating intercultural skills through interactions with peers from different countries. However, critics have raised concerns that internationalisation may adversely impact students’ academic success. We engage with this debate by building on findings from a large-scale quantitative study at an international Dutch university, which concluded that the international classroom at Bachelor’s level tends to have a positive effect on students’ academic success in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environment. We specifically explore how first-year students navigate the international PBL classroom. Taking cues from constructivists views of learning, which highlight the interactive nature of knowledge construction and the role of diversity therein, we conducted 22 international classroom observations and 21 semi-structured interviews. We find that students treat each other as individuals with complex identities, of which nationality is only one aspect. Tutors and leading students can create space for diverse perspectives as part of the collaborative construction of knowledge in the international classroom. Yet, this requires purposeful design of the curriculum, as well as proper training of staff and students.

These days, higher education is increasingly organized in an international classroom setting. Especially interactive instruction in small groups is influenced by such a setting, but unbiased effects of the international classroom are not unambiguous. Based on rich data of more than 19 000 unique students over 6 years from an international university in the Netherlands, we study whether a higher level of internationalisation in the classroom positively affects Bachelor students’ performance in a setting where students are randomly assigned to small education groups. We find this to largely be the case. There are however differences in effect between academic fields and between different types of students, e.g. different nationalities of students and different years of study. Analyses of course evaluations show that the international classroom is particularly effective for groups in which the teacher encourages the constant use of English as main language during classes and breaks.