The effect of study abroad on intercultural competence: a longitudinal case study of international postgraduate students at a British university

Educational sojourns abroad are not only increasingly popular; it is also believed that they have many positive outcomes for students. The transformative potential of a study sojourn abroad has been claimed in linguistic and broader intercultural terms (e. g. Brown 2009 “The Transformative Power of the International Sojourn: An Ethnographic Study of the International Student Experience. ” Annals of Tourism Research 36 (3): 502–521; EYP 2014. “Erasmus Exchange Programme. ” Accessed July 3. http: //europa. eu/youth/article/erasmus-exchange-programmeₑn). However, whether and, if so, how prolonged exposure to multicultural study settings affects students’ intercultural competence (IC) remains under-explored in the higher education context. This mixed methods longitudinal case study tracked a multinational group of international postgraduate students at a single British university (N = 223) in order to explore possible changes in IC over time. Quantitative questionnaire-based data were collected at two points in time (October and June), and qualitative data were obtained from a sub-sample of students (N = 20) who took part in semi-structured interviews throughout the academic year (October, February and June). The findings provide some indication for the malleability and dynamic nature of IC, challenge prior assertions and further complicate our understanding of the impact of a study sojourn abroad on IC.