How to create global classrooms: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Dates:  

• Virtual part of the BIP: 5.-26.4.2027 
• Physical part of the BIP: 10.-14.5.2027 

Location:  

• Linnanmaa campus, University of Oulu, Erkki Koiso-Kanttilan katu 1, Oulu, Finland 

Application period:  

• 15.09-15.11.2026 

Registration: 

• Registration to the programme is coordinated by the local UNIC office.  The application period is between 15.09-15.11.2026. 

Programme Outline 

In an increasingly interconnected world, higher education educators are called upon to prepare students to learn, collaborate, and thrive across cultural, disciplinary, and geographical boundaries. As classrooms become more diverse and international, teaching requires more than subject expertise alone. It calls for the ability to create inclusive learning environments, facilitate meaningful intercultural dialogue, and design learning experiences that connect students to global perspectives and real-world challenges.  

The global classroom offers a powerful response to these opportunities and challenges. Whether through international partnerships, virtual exchange, collaborative online international learning (COIL), challenge-based learning, or innovative assessment practices, educators have an essential role in fostering students' global mindsets and intercultural competence. At the same time, they must navigate diverse educational contexts, embrace multiple perspectives, and build learning communities that value curiosity, inclusion, and collaboration.  

The UNIC InterTeach Blended Intensive Programme supports educators in this journey by bringing together colleagues from across the UNIC alliance to explore, share, and co design innovative teaching practices. Through a combination of online collaboration and onsite experience, participants will critically reflect on their own teaching contexts, strengthen their intercultural competencies, and develop practical approaches for creating globally connected learning experiences. Together, they will design educational solutions that promote international collaboration, student engagement, and inclusive teaching in higher education. 

The UNIC Teaching and Learning programme focuses on developing participants’ capacity to design innovative educational practices while strengthening intercultural competencies, fostering international collaboration, and cultivating a sustainable community of practice. These transversal skills complement the deep disciplinary expertise participants develop within their academic fields and support inclusive, socially responsible approaches to teaching and learning. 

Learning Outcomes 

Following this programme participants will be able to demonstrate the following learning outcomes: 

1. Critically reflect on why and how their own and their students’ experiences, identities, and cultural perspectives matter in the design and facilitation of learning and teaching 

2. Design teaching artefacts in line with high impact practices to integrate international, intercultural and global dimensions in the curriculum. 

3. Propose approaches for how to respond to diversity of the student population through assessment design and enactment. 

4. Collaborate in the design of an inter-institutional teaching activity that supports virtual mobility/collaborative online international learning (COIL).  

5. Engage in collegial dialogue and practice exchange to enact innovative learning and teaching and foster a global mindset. 

Online Sessions

• Monday, 5 April 2027, 14:30-15:00 CEST | Introduction to UNIC InterTeach BIP Programme | Anca Teodosiu (University of Oulu) and Paula Ruppert (Ruhr University Bochum)
• Monday, 5 April 2027, 15:00-17:00 CEST | Calibrate Your Cultural Compass | Kamila Pytka (University of Lodz)
• Monday, 12 April 2027, 15:00-17:00 CEST | Classroom Ecosystems: Comparing Contexts, Finding Common Ground | Višnja Rajić (University of Zagreb)
• Monday, 19 April 2027, 15:00-17:00 CEST | Managing Large-Scale Near-Peer Programs | Dominique Verpoorten (University of Liège)
• Monday, 26 April 2027, 15:00-17:00 CEST | Collaborative Teaching for Global Classrooms | Patrick Dorls and Nathalie Auer (Malmö University)
• Monday, 26 April 2027, 17:00-17:30 CEST | Next Steps Towards Oulu | Anca Teodosiu (University of Oulu) and Paula Ruppert (Ruhr University Bochum)

On-site Session in Oulu

• Monday, 10 May 2027, 09:00-12:00 | Welcome to Oulu | Anca Teodosiu (University of Oulu) 
• Monday, 10 May 2027, 13:00-14:30 & 15:00-16:30 | Shaping Ideas and Growing Partnership | Catherine O’Mahony (University College Cork) 
• Tuesday, 11 May 2027, 09:00-12:00 & 13:00-14:30 | Whose Challenge Is It? Positionality, Care, and the Design of Transdisciplinary Global Classrooms | Joe Binetti (Erasmus University Rotterdam) 
• Wednesday, 12 May 2027, 09:00-12:00 | Assessing Students’ Presentation Performance in a Culturally Diverse Environment | Marek Molenda (University of Łódź) 
• Wednesday, 12 May 2027, 13:00-14:30 | How to Design Project-Based Courses in the Context of Sustainability | Betül Kaya (Koç University) 
• Thursday, 13 May 2027, 09:00-12:00 | The Global Classroom Incubator | Arantza Arruti Gomez (University of Deusto) 
• Thursday, 13 May 2027, 13:00-14:30 | From Inspiration to Implementation: Designing Virtual Exchange Activities That Actually Happen | Paula Ruppert (Ruhr University Bochum) 
• Friday, 14 May 2027, 09:00-12:00 | From Inspiration to Implementation: Designing Virtual Exchange Activities That Actually Happen | Paula Ruppert and Anca Teodosiu 
• Friday, 14 May 2027, 13:00-14:30 | Reflections, Discussions and Wrap-Up | Paula Ruppert and Anca Teodosiu 
• Friday, 14 May 2027, 14:30 | Programme Ends 

Note: Cultural activities will be announced later. 

Expected time commitment: approximately 10 hours for the online part and 36 hours for the on-site part. 

Certificate 

An Erasmus participation certificate and UNIC certificate of attendance will be awarded to participants who complete the full programme.