This case study was commissioned as part of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centres for Hospitality Leisure Sport and Tourism (HLST) and Business Management Accountancy and Finance (BMAF) Enhancing series which focused on International Learning Experience.
Changing the culture of an organisation as large as a university is not easily done but this is exactly what Leeds Metropolitan University has been doing to support internationalisation. Since 2003 we have increasingly engaged the staff and student community in seeking to enrich the learning experience both for home and international students and to expand staff horizons. A strategic approach was adopted which reflected institutional values and re-framed the recruitment of international students within a broader ethical context. While universities vary in the degree to which they view internationalisation as a 'whole of institution' initiative (Knight 2007) Fielden claims that the trend is for internationalisation strategies in UK universities to become 'more all-embracing and to require the involvement of all the community' (Fielden 2008 p1). It may be timely therefore to offer Leeds Metropolitan's experience as an illustration for those universities adopting a similar strategy or considering an institutional commitment to global perspectives across the curriculum.
