Cultural diversity and multilingualism are often celebrated as drivers of innovation and global competence in higher education. However, the assumption that these outcomes will automatically emerge from diverse environments risks falling into 'magical thinking' - the belief that simply assembling diverse individuals will suffice. This presentation examines Unite!, a pioneering European university alliance that has developed a structured approach to embedding multilingualism and multicultural engagement in everyday academic and organisational practice.

What began as a grassroots initiative has evolved into a formalised policy on multilingualism and multiculturalism, providing a scalable framework for transforming diversity into meaningful intercultural competence at individual, group and institutional levels. This approach seeks to harness linguistic and cultural resources in curricula, administrative structures and extra-curricular activities to promote intercultural engagement and the development of global competence.

By calling on all stakeholders to actively engage with diversity as a shared resource, Unite! addresses the challenges of integrating cultural and linguistic diversity while maximising its potential for impact. The initiative also provides practical tools, including a comprehensive guide with actionable implementation strategies, to enable institutions to adapt these practices to local contexts in a sustainable way.

Relevant not only to European University Alliances, but also to individual institutions and international networks worldwide, this approach exemplifies how higher education can move beyond symbolic commitments to diversity and develop transformative, locally adaptable strategies. This session will provide insights into these strategies, with a particular focus on their applicability to a global audience.

The field of engineering evolves rapidly and universities face the challenge of preparing graduates with the competencies needed for the profession. To guide these efforts, clear, broadly applicable, and practical competence frameworks are needed. While numerous frameworks exist, no widely accepted model has emerged. Given the varying quality of these frameworks, which can overwhelm universities that aim to address this issue, this study provides an in-depth examination of non-technical competence frameworks for engineers. A systematic literature review of the most frequently cited peer-reviewed competence frameworks was conducted, and a total of 40 publications were thematically analysed. Four broad types of competence frameworks emerged – global, professional, generic, and sustainability competence. While there were differences between them, similarities also became apparent, such as an emphasis on social intelligence and information literacy. However, many frameworks also shared problems that could hinder their impact, such as a lack of contextual adaptability or practical indicators. Based on these findings, the study proposes core attributes for an ideal framework to guide educational efforts to integrate non-technical competencies into engineering education.

This paper critically examines the ongoing implementation of a policy of multilingualism and multiculturalism for global competence development within an engineering-focused European University Alliance (EUA), situating it within broader discussions of European values, global citizenship and sustainability. Through the lens of a newly developed policy and its accompanying implementation guide, we aim to assess whether and how these initiatives contribute to what might be termed a pedagogy of hope - a framework that can help to foster reflective critical consciousness, justice, and humanisation alongside technical competences.

Engineering and technical education, traditionally firmly rooted in an instrumentalist paradigm, often neglects explicit engagement with values or emotional dimensions, despite its central role in addressing global sustainability challenges. In the context of the EUA, the policy under review seeks to promote inclusive multilingual and multicultural practices that foster gratitude, empathy and intercultural understanding, referring to European values and the EU motto ‘united in diversity’, but perhaps thinking more in terms of Freire’s concept of ‘unity in diversity’. By linking policy work to global citizenship and sustainability, the paper asks to what extent such frameworks can shift educational priorities from the mere production of solutions to the development of reflective, empathetic and globally competent individuals. 

Based on participatory action research and focus group workshops with students, educators, and staff, preliminary findings suggest that the policy can foster reflective practices, empathy, and interpersonal curiosity. It also shows potential to help reframe technical education as a force for transformative change that goes beyond technical solutions. However, its implementation faces significant challenges. These include overcoming bureaucratic routines, entrenched monolingualism of international education initiatives, and the technocratic ethos that persists in engineering education. Ultimately, the study contributes, from a Nordic perspective, to an understanding of how a pedagogy of hope - where gratitude, diversity, and sustainability converge - might emerge in the context of engineering education.

Efforts to promote intercultural and global competence within European University Alliances (EUA) risk reproducing the very national-cultural imaginaries they seek to transcend. This paper examines how intercultural initiatives often end up framing difference through the lens of national cultures, despite their intentions to the contrary. Based on document analysis and critical observation of practices within one of the first EUAs, Unite!, we argue that even among the cosmopolitan professionals working within the alliances, many of whom have transnational biographies, cultural difference is regularly articulated in reductive, nation-based terms. Partner institutions become synecdoches for national cultures, and stakeholders are imagined as nationally bounded collectives. The promotion of national languages within Unite! further underlines the persistence of nation-centred frameworks.

The Unite! Policy on Multilingualism and Multiculturalism, the key document for this study, is based on a non-essentialist, dynamic understanding of interculturality. However, its emphasis on drawing strength from diversity - an idea in line with the EU project as a whole - can still, when embedded in the ‘banal nationalism’ of everyday discussion, reinforce the assumption that cultural diversity naturally corresponds to national divisions. We argue that conceptual development requires moving beyond inherited national ontologies, but explicitly addressing this dilemma can serve as a productive starting point for a deeper, contemporary approach to cultural diversity. Such an approach would foreground everyday practices and interactions that truly transcend national categorisations. Ultimately, the challenge for the EUAs may not be so much to manage cultural difference, but to question the frameworks through which ‘culture’ itself is made legible.

Engineering curricula need to integrate global competence learning to ensure that graduates can succeed in globalised labour markets. In this context, this study examines disciplinary engineering courses, focusing on the key characteristics of globally competent educators and teaching approaches in terms of learning environments and course activities from the students’ perspective. We conducted focus group discussions with 28 students from different engineering disciplines to learn more about their perceptions and experiences. The results suggest that they felt that integrated global competence learning would require educators to demonstrate open-mindedness, a global mindset, and strong social skills. In addition, global competence teaching approaches were associated with learning environments that were described as engaging, inclusive, and student-centered, and with course activities that were related to real-world situations, included collaborative elements, and were facilitated and supported by the instructor. This study contextualises the idea of global competence in engineering education and provides valuable insights into students’ perspectives and experiences with its integration during their studies. It also critically examines students’ ideas and suggestions about opportunities for such learning in relation to educational science, and suggests a way forward for global competence in engineering education.

Global competence has become a popular concept for engineering institutions around the world. Despite its recent emergence and still vague characteristics, it has been widely adopted by institutions aiming to prepare globally minded graduates. However, the concept’s elusive and complex nature requires careful consideration in order to lead to impactful learning. This study provides a comprehensive overview of engineering institutions’ practical efforts to foster global competence learning. Guided by a systematic literature review covering the last two decades, it provides a comprehensive account of work related to the concept. The study first explores institutions’ practical efforts to promote global competence development, highlighting the most popular institutional approaches, including intercultural collaborations, mobility experiences, internationalization at home activities, and virtual collaborations. Furthermore, it critically analyzes how the concept is translated into practice, showing that practical efforts often lack guiding conceptualizations or reliable outcome assessments. To provide a thorough overview of institutional engagement with global competence, the study also highlights the geographical contexts of the universities involved in such efforts, as well as related chronological trends and developments, before concluding with reflections on the future of global competence education.

This work-in-progress innovative paper outlines the development of a recently adopted policy on multilingualism and multiculturalism to enhance global competence in engineering education within one of the first European University Alliances (EUA), comprising nine universities from nine European Union countries. The policy represents a creative and ambitious response to not only the call to embed such competencies in curricula but also to invite all stakeholders in the alliance to become agents of change in order to leverage existing linguistic and cultural assets in all their work. In terms of content, the policy builds on and extends a rich foundation of established scholarship on the development of intercultural, plurilingual, and global competence in engineering education and fills a gap in current educational practice by operationalizing these concepts in the context of a EUA. Applying complex systems theory, the paper describes how the policy's development, endorsement, and planned implementation reveal the complex interactions among multiple stakeholders within the EUA's organizational ecosystem and its constituent institutions. By highlighting the policy's potential to catalyze adaptive change and foster resilience within the system, as well as to inspire actors outside the Alliance, the policy not only addresses immediate educational needs but also anticipates the challenges of engineering education and practice in a world characterized by cultural and linguistic diversity, and confronts a reality in which such diversity is not universally celebrated as a beneficial resource, despite the European Union's motto of 'united in diversity.' The policy is further supported by an innovative guide for implementation, offering practical activities for individual growth, collaborative engagement, and community enhancement, embodying the policy's comprehensive approach to fostering global competence through multilingualism and multiculturalism. While the content of the policy is well aligned with the explicit goals of the Alliance and the broader European Union project ethos of which the EUAs are a part, the policy is deliberately general in its description of its agenda to allow for flexibility in responding to the different local contexts, challenges, resources, and priorities of the Alliance's partner universities, none of which have a policy as ambitious as that of the Alliance. While the policy is closely linked to and must be seen in the context of the emergence and partly unpredictable future development of the Alliance, the built-in non-linearity of its implementation makes it vulnerable to factors at play within the Alliance that could effectively nullify the implementation of the policy or reinforce negative feedback loops that serve to maintain the status quo at partner universities. While the trajectory of the policy demonstrates the importance of initiatives at both the individual and group levels, the realization of the policy and its prescribed practices ultimately depends on political decisions within the Alliance and within the educational leadership of the European Union, where an agreed vision for the future of EUAs has yet to crystallize.

This paper critically examines the challenges of promoting plurilingual competence in European universities against the backdrop of an English-dominated academic environment. Drawing on empirical data from the design and implementation of a policy on multilingualism and multiculturalism in a European technical university alliance, we explore both the persistent reliance on English as the lingua franca and the unrealised potential of linguistic plurality.

While promoting multilingualism is a key objective of EU higher education policy, as well as of the Alliance focused on in this paper, our findings reveal significant barriers to moving beyond English-centred practices. We highlight the inherent difficulties faced by students and staff in engaging with multiple languages, including limited institutional support, resource inequalities and entrenched preferences for English. These challenges, when juxtaposed with case studies from the Alliance, reveal a disconnect between policy aspirations and realities on the ground.

One way to address this would be to move away from the notion of linguistic purity towards a more fluid and dynamic use of languages, encouraging translanguaging, intercomprehension and other plurilingual practices based on the principles of transculturalism. Embracing translanguaging in a communicative way can improve language proficiency and encourage more learners. This approach still recognises the need for well-developed languages for global communication (English), community integration (local languages) and broadening perspectives (additional languages), but promotes the value of fluid linguistic integration and functional multilingualism to enhance inclusivity and engagement.

Recognising the importance of building on existing language assets within diverse university communities, even where these are predominantly English-speaking, we provide recommendations for fostering a multilingual environment focused on personal development, collaborative engagement and community enrichment, as well as strategic advice for institutions. By adopting these strategies, institutions can not only enhance academic and social integration, but also promote broader goals of cultural diversity, equity and inclusion. In doing so, they contribute to a more equitable and dynamic higher education landscape that values and utilises linguistic diversity as a vital resource, benefiting not only the academic community but society at large.

This paper focuses on an unprecedented government initiative to boost the field of Swedish higher education teaching and learning in 2022-2023, seen from the perspective of Swednet, the Swedish Network for Educational Development in Higher Education. In late 2021, the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) received a government mandate to coordinate a major initiative in higher education pedagogy in 2022 and 2023 with the aim of improving the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. UHR was instructed to disseminate information and good examples of how higher education institutions work with higher education pedagogy, encourage and help finance co-creation of new resources, and be responsible for the exchange of experiences, not only between the higher education institutions but also involving other 'relevant actors' on the national level. For the initiative the UHR received a total of 30 million SEK (approx. € 2.6 million), of which at least 20 million were earmarked for distribution to higher education institutions and organisations within higher education pedagogy. This was an initiative that had long been asked for by different stakeholders, not least the Swedish National Union of Students, but also by Swednet, one of many active partners in planning and executing the initiative. UHR did indeed rely on the different stakeholder organisations for designing activities and ways of allocating funding for the planning and realisation of the initiative. Calls for ongoing enhancement based on the initiative's projects were, however, curtailed by the new government in 2023.

With the initiative set to officially conclude by December 2023, we will critically outline the range of projects underway, addressing some of the needs most acutely felt by various stakeholders. Participation in the initiative has provided valuable insights into the complex ecosystem of higher education pedagogy. It has also raised critical questions about the impact and sustainability of the initiative’s projects, as well as concerns about the ecosystem itself. Finally, we will discuss the power relations of the stakeholders involved from a more theoretical perspective, an important aspect in a nation where many of the stakeholders involved, e.g., Swednet, are both wholly independent from the state, being Non-Profit Educational Organisations or open and less formally organised networks, and at the same time being fundamentally reliant on the government, the state being responsible for financing both the initiative and the absolute majority of HEIs, and indirectly many of the regular activities of the stakeholders in the pedagogical ecosystems.

University graduates capable of addressing global challenges require a sense of global citizenship and the ability to understand, communicate, and work effectively and appropriately with people from different backgrounds. Linguistic diversity comprises a crucial cultural asset, yet the Englishisation of higher education and the emergence and development of text-generating tools may drastically reduce the perceived importance of language learning. This paper is empirically based on the analysis of two text-based datasets from course participants in a teacher training course (n=19) and a lifelong learning course (n=52), looking for examples of experiences, plans, and attitudes towards multilingualism in educational settings. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of a specific focus on students’ linguistic diversity as a vehicle for cultural and global competence learning, and offer suggestions for an institutional approach to empowering teachers, staff and students to enable this change. Finally, we emphasise the need for empirical studies to understand how multiculturalism and multilingualism can be effectively integrated into higher education, and we highlight the implementation of a recently adopted policy on multilingualism and multiculturalism by one of the European University Alliances as a promising area for future research.