Internationalizing the curriculum: The implementation experience in a Faculty of Business and Economics

Abstract

Curriculum internationalization is a strategy adopted by many universities as they prepare their graduates for employment in the global economy. This paper is a case study of the organizational change involved in one institution's (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia) attempts to implement curriculum internationalization in the foundation subjects in the six core business disciplines. The Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash, in encompassing five Australian and two offshore campuses and three families of degrees, presents both an opportunity and a challenge in implementing curricula change. The multicampus structure provides the opportunity, while the challenge is the number and geographic dispersion of the teaching staff, along with differing academic cultures. In this paper, we discuss organizational change as it accompanies the curriculum internationalization process, and the responses of the discipline-based teams to the curriculum internationalization objective. We identify significant staff and faculty issues requiring consideration in the change that accompanies curriculum development, such as the powerful effect of the traditional notion of academic autonomy, and the need for continued resources to support the changes.