COILing Careers through iKUDU

This project is a follow-on study related to a GLEA Impact Case Study “COIL as transforming Internationalisation of the Curriculum for EDI-inspired professional practice development.”
This REF2029 case study will focus on tangible academic and societal impacts driven from our underpinning research in COIL-VE in collaboration with the 10 universities involved in iKUDU (five in South Africa and five in Europe).
3385 students participated in 65 iKUDU COILs across the 10 participating Global South-North universities over the 4-year project timeline Dec 2019 - May 2024 (the project was extended by 12 months due to Global Pandemic).
The number of students who engaged in COIL-VE during the iKUDU project funding period was captured, including several case studies of student experience following the immediate experience of their COIL-VE. For example, the key impact on students’ intercultural competencies and global citizenship was noted. However, the focus of iKUDU was predominantly on capacity building of academic staff in virtual exchange pedagogies, along with institutional infrastructure.
This follow-on impact generating study “COILing Careers through iKUDU” therefore seeks to extend the impact of the iKUDU research, evidencing how COIL-VE has impacted upon the participating students’ transversal skill development for employability and/or further study. In this context ‘Careers’ refers to employment/study opportunities undertaken during a person's life and with opportunities for progress.
Transversal relates to ‘[s]kills that are typically considered as not specifically related to a particular job, task, academic discipline or area of knowledge but can be used in a wide variety of situations and work settings (for example, organisational skills)’ (UNESCO, 2013)
As well as developing novel outputs from students testimonies using post graduate students as Project Assistants, we will use the impact evidence of this activity to enable design of an Impact Tracker Tool that can build on / extend existing career development frameworks that can be used to trace/ map graduates’ testimonies and feedback post degree, as they progress on to further study, or from university into their professional careers.