Introduction

With the increasing demands of globalization of societies, economy and labour markets, and knowledge transfer, internationalisation in higher education has become inevitably important so that graduates are adequately prepared to meet not only academic and professional requirements but also multilingualism, and intercultural skills and attitudes. 

The local government believed that an increase of non-local students studying in Hong Kong would provide a more international environment for local Hong Kong students to broaden their horizons. Under the existing government policy, UGC-funded institutions may admit up to 20 percent non-local students to their sub-degree and degree programmes. To facilitate meaningful interactions among local and non-local students and provide support to yield positive intercultural learning experience, it urges for development of an inter-institutional framework which includes a strategic combination of curricular and co-curricular practices to enhance student integration and/or engagement with Mainland China. 

In this project, PolyU works in collaboration with HKBU and HKUST to develop an adaptable inter-institutional framework for internationalisation. The framework is developed through an intensive observations of documentation and/or reports, a systematic review of current activities, and inputs sought from students, academic and non-academic staff at the three universities.