Perceptions on Intercultural Competence Development in Phd Programs

International policy maker agencies have transformed education around the world

over the past two decades. From Delors’s competences as a start point and all the

way through Deardoff’s intercultural competence. This latter appeared when the

process of globalization forced international educational organisms to make

changes emphasizing new requirements related to the internationalization process.

Internationalization requires global citizens to join knowledge societies with people

from different cultures, for which they have to be prepared with a competence that

allows them to interact in an effective and appropriate way in order to avoid cultural

shock or differences, under the very basis the UN was founded. Nevertheless,

internationalization of Higher Education Institutions in Mexico is a work still in

progress. HEI have implemented different strategies, such as: mobility, second

language acquisition and the use of technology, leaving aside necessary abilities

when interacting with people from other cultures.

This cross sectional qualitative exploratory study presents the findings of a

dissertation carried out in a Mexican southern university. Participants involved

were coordinators, faculty members as well as PhD students from 3 PNPC PhD

programs. The findings show that internationalization attempts are being made with

the resources they have at hand, there is no presence of foreign students nor

professors in their programs, lessons are not bilingual, little literature in a second

language is being handed in, as students are expected to do international stays

and join international research networks for future collaboration and cooperation,

they are not being prepared in order to perform appropriately nor effectively in an

intercultural situation. The findings also show that internationalization at home is

required followed by the inclusion of a subject on intercultural competence in the

curricula, and as the literature and the state of the art suggest, a four-axis

internationalization model and a taxonomy were designed.