The Speech and Language Pathology Programme has taken on internationalisation in a slightly special way. They have consciously chosen not to invest in international mobility but instead investing wholeheartedly in internationalisation at home. This has the consequence that internationalisation automatically also becomes more inclusive.

Instead of investing considerable resources in allowing a few students to travel the world, all students, regardless of their social background, have the same opportunity for internationalisation. Several studies have shown that the social bias in recruitment that generally prevails in higher education, is even higher when it comes to mobility abroad. It is primarily students from homes with parents with an academic degree who participate in international mobility. 

Nadina spoke about how, in the light of the Higher Education Act's writing that the higher education institutions are obliged to promote sustainable development, the decision was made that the programme should work with internationalisation in other ways than the traditional one. The inclusion perspective thus became a welcome consequence.

In addition to an international streak of activities in cultural intelligence, global health, American school speech therapy and stories from speech therapy work in the field with the humanitarian aid organisation SMILE, three specific activities are carried out within the framework of the Borderless Speech Therapy element in the last term of the programme. One of the activities consists of the students, together with “study buddies” in the USA, discussing different cases and examining similarities and differences in the speech therapy profession between Sweden and the USA. Another part consists of the students getting to listen to four different guest lecturers from different parts of the world. The part ends with a science conference, where students can present their degree projects in the form of a mini-symposium.

The students’ reactions to the international elements of the education are generally very positive, and the element is perceived in the evaluations as instructive, eye-opening and interesting. In the future, the programme will continue to develop its action plan for internationalisation and the global and international dimension of education.