Picture of several women facing each other

COILing Careers through iKUDU

Funder

ESRC (Follow on Funding)

Project team

Jos Beelen (THUAS, The Netherlands) Co-I
Lynette Jacobs (UFS, South Africa) Co-I
Preeti Patel GLEA, CU, Project Assistant

Total value

£5,000

Collaborators

Jos Beelen, The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS), The Netherlands)
Lynette Jacobs, University of Free State, (UFS), South Africa)

Duration of project

01/03/2025 - 30/11/2025

Project overview

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).

As part of iKUDU, 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.

This follow-on impact generating study “COILing Careers through iKUDU” 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.

Project objectives

Review the claims made by final year students as they looked back on the contribution of COIL-VE to their studies captured in the iKUDU case studies.
Request students to consider what transversal professional skills they feel COIL-VE has offered them now, and in looking forward, in how these transversal skills are influencing their next stage career plans / career trajectory as preparation for the world of work / further study. Here we will also conduct a cost/benefit analysis with support of Dr Bhatia, GLEA (Educational Economist) as well as equivalent Business Economist colleagues at UFS and THUAS.
Enable design of an Impact Tracker Tool that can build on / extend existing iKUDU Evaluation tools and career development frameworks used at CU, UFS, THUAS, to be used to track graduates’ testimonies and details post their degree experiences, about their progress into further study, or the world of work. This tool will be of wider value for education researchers also seeking ways to capture and map graduates particular skills and mindsets influencing their trajectory into work or postgraduate study.
Recruit post graduate Project Assistants (PAs) in the three core team university contexts to support the capture of student/Alumni impact evidence as further detailed in this application. PAs will be recruited who have skills / background in media production to support.

Impact statement

Increased visibility and understanding of the impact of COIL-VE on students’ transversal skill development for employability and/or further study across the 10 Global South North universities.
Greater inclusion of students voices in the benefits of internationalisation-at-home (IaH) curriculum as part of global graduate skills development, and the value of continued resourcing and infrastructure for COIL-VE.
Greater appreciation by employers for understanding graduates’ transversal skill development for employability through COIL-VE as part of IaH, rather than assuming physical mobility (only accessible to a minority of students, particularly those in the Global North) as a main influencer for global graduate skills.