International Student Mobility and Transformative Intercultural Learning in Estonia and Denmark

Abstract

Attracting the best students into universities is a policy agenda driven by the state and universities in Estonia and Denmark. While the policies on internationalization of higher education (IoHE) in Estonia and Denmark are well crafted, the value that international graduates add to the learning environment and culture are hardly explored. Adopting a phenomenological approach, this study aims to describe transformative intercultural learning within the mechanisms of IoHE in Estonia and Denmark. Our analysis of participants' experiences reveals that international graduates from Africa bring diversity into the learning environment, which promotes teaching, learning and tolerance of other cultures. In view of this, the study recommends that actors in the IoHE in Estonia and Denmark should be willing to jettison any ethnocentric cultural mentality and adopt a relativistic mentality to promote intercultural coexistence and learning.