This study aims to explore academic staff attitudes and practical, pedagogic responses to increasing internationalisation at one Higher Education Institution in Wales. Academic staff have in-depth practical knowledge and experience of how internationalisation is taking place at the micro level of classrooms and tutorials, and their attitudes shape the ways in which institutional rhetoric and policies are translated into everyday reality. An exploration of staff responses to internationalisation as it affects academic working practices can serve to illuminate the diversity of its impacts on identity and experience.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with academic staff from seven different departments (n=14), all of whom have had experience of teaching and supervising international postgraduate students. Qualitative data derived from these interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Themes focused on the benefits and challenges experienced by staff, as well as individual attitudes to re-framing their pedagogies in response to internationalisation. Attitudes ranged from staff not wanting to make many changes, to accepting that an entirely new approach to teaching and supervising is needed to accommodate international students’ needs.

Data analysis showed that staff are generally positive towards the trans-formative potential of multicultural classrooms, but they face significant obstacles and challenges in realising this potential. Tensions exist between wanting to accommodate new perspectives and stimulate engagement with global issues, at the same time as teaching essential postgraduate skills and maintaining academic standards. Participants spoke about overwhelming workloads, excessive emphasis on international recruitment, and inadequate support mechanisms: there were concerns about knowing how to overcome a combination of linguistic, academic, pastoral, and cultural challenges. Despite these challenges, most staff are making some accommodations to their pedagogy to include an impressive array of student-centred, inclusive and culturally relevant techniques. These adjustments are based on personal and professional values about the nature of UK HE and whose responsibility it is to adapt, as well as pragmatic considerations such as time available to re-design materials, and disciplinary skill requirements.
As staff have different interpretations of internationalisation, the extent to which these adaptations represent academic transformation, or simply an extension of inclusive ways of teaching, varies between individuals and across departments.

Internationalisation presents new challenges for academic staff, as they face growing numbers of international students, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Yet there is limited specialised training, pedagogical discussions, or opportunities for sharing good practice in relation to interculturalism or internationalisation of the curriculum. Individual staff find their own ways of breaking down cultural barriers in classrooms and developing intercultural competences amongst students, as well as new approaches for teaching and supervising international postgraduate students, even if they are often uncertain about the best approach. Greater recognition of staff efforts and dedicated support to help tackle the challenges of internationalisation are especially important as numbers of international students continue to grow, at this and many institutions, to facilitate more trans-formative academic approaches to internationalisation and reduce the sense of it being a burden foist upon staff.

Keywords: internationalisation at home, internationalisation of the curriculum, intercultural competences, widening participation, inclusivity, interculturalism, pedagogic responses.