Involving Students in International Exchange Programs : From Educational Experiences to Citizen Empowerment

Résumé En

In spring 2023, as part of the ERUA “travelling seminars”, we initiated the DILIS project : a collaboration with the University of Konstanz. 20 French students from the University of Paris8 were immersed in a real-world project, in partnership with German students, they had to design multilingual and multicultural resources in just a few days, under time constraints similar to those faced in a professional environment.The aim of this seminar was initially to ground a traditional project management course in an approach based on hands-on work in the international field. The future profession of “Project Manager” for which the students are being trained requires a high level of proficiency in English as a language of specialization and international communication, whether to lead or interact with international teams, to access technical documentation or to be able to monitor emerging systems.We consider the implementation of language practices based on active pedagogy to be an effective starting point for the acquisition of transversal skills.In this presentation, we will explain how this experience has largely exceeded the initial objectives. It has, obviously, fostered intercultural interaction and enabled the students to adopt a relaxed and confident approach to the English language that we expected, and to put into perspective the skills that could be applied in other areas of interest.Nevertheless, for many of them, this project became a turning point that enabled them to evolve from a passive learner to an active one, with the ability to engage in a more spontaneous mode of action. Students found out that international programs give them the opportunity to deal with a transnational environment with a real sense of agility and flexibility. Following this experience, many of them decided, individually or in groups, to submit international collaboration projects on their own, even informally and, above all, outside any academic framework.We’ll first present in detail the initial project we carried out in Constance with the valuable support of the local team, before examining the key factors that prompted this growing awareness.Then, based on interviews with the students, we’ll discuss how this initial experience enabled the students to identify their full potential to take action, mainly aimed at multicultural encounters.