From Classroom to Boardroom and Ward: Developing Generic Intercultural Skills in Diverse Disciplines

A strategic approach to internationalize learning in higher education institutions is to use the curriculum and classroom cultural diversity to create opportunities to broaden students’ intercultural perspectives, appreciate sociocultural variability in professional practice, and improve their intercultural interaction skills. There is no clear consensus, however, on how to “link the global classroom to the global workplace.” The article examines an evidence-based approach to embed intercultural competency development in classroom teaching using an established intercultural resource (EXCELL) in an international human resource management course; a general communication course; a pharmacy course comprising only Saudi Arabian students; and a generic first year pharmacy course. Subsequently, stakeholder analyses with Business, Nursing, and Pharmacy academics and professionals led to the development of intercultural critical incidents for the curriculum. Strengths and limitations of the intercultural resource and recommendations for incorporating intercultural competency development in curriculum design in Business and Health disciplines are discussed