Project: development and improvement of internationality in …eunivercitiesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/... · 2019-07-12 · Project: development and improvement of internationality

Project:developmentandimprovementof

internationalityinuniversitycities

PartIV:Integratinginternationalsinthe

local/regionallabourmarket

AsummaryreportofthemeetinginAalborg,

26.-29.November2018ByWillemvanWinden(UrbanIQ)

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1. Introduction

InternationalstudentandstaffmobilityinEuropehasriseninthelastdecade.WhereEurope’slargercities are used to absorb an international population, for many medium-sized university cities,internationalisation isa relatively recentphenomenon.Thisgives rise toall sortsof challenges foruniversities,cityadministrations,andotherorganisations,andasksfornewtypesofcollaboration.

In an international exchange meeting in Aalborg, we focused on the question how to integrateinternationalstudents,scientistsandexpatsintheurbanandregionallabourmarket

Wefocusedonthefollowingquestions:

• Howwellareinternationalgraduatesintegratedintheregionallabourmarket?• Whatarethemainbarriersthatpreventintegration?• Howcanforeignstudentsbebroughtintocontactwithcompaniesduringtraining?• Howcantheawarenessinthecompaniesbestrengthenedthatforeignspecialistsrepresent

anopportunity?• Howcancityanduniversitycollaboratemoreeffectivelyinalltheserespects?

WeenjoyedcontributionsfromUniversityCollegeNorthDenmark(UCN),AalborgUniversity(AAU),AalborgMunicipality, and the InternationalHouseNorthDenmark (IHND).This report summarizesthemaininsightsthatcameoutofthesecontributionsandthediscussionsthatfollowed.ItfocusesonAalborg’spolicies and initiatives, as thiswas centre stage in the visit. Section2presents somebackground info on labourmarket integration. Section 3 identifies barriers for specific groups ofinternationals.Section4describestheemployabilityprogrammesoftheuniversities,andsection5presents the International House of North Denmark. Section 6 finally identifies some remainingchallenges.

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2. Background

Inmanymediumsizedcities,thesizeoftheinternationalhigherskilledpopulationisrising.Severalgroups can be distinguished.Within the students group, there are exchange (Erasmus) students,whostayonlyafewmonths,Masterstudents(1or2years),PhDstudents(4years);intheacademicstaff category, there are visiting scholars (typically a fewmonths), andmore permanent staff, forexampleresearchers/expatswhoworkforinternationalorganisations.

Somefacts&figuresonAalborg

Fromindustrialcitytocityofknowledge/studentcity

Population:213,000

Internationalcitizens:26,000(+93%since2009)

Internationalstudents:4,000

InternationalstudentsatAalborgUniversity:

There are several reasons to actively promote the integration of internationals in the local andregionallabourmarket.First,incitieswithlabourmarketshortages,internationalsareneededtofillthevacanciesandkeep theeconomyafloat. InAalborg, shortagesarenoticeableespecially in thebooming sectorsof ICT and sustainable energy, andemployers are eager to findqualified staff.Aseconddrivercomesfrompoliticsandsociety.Inseveralcountries,thereisagrowingpublicconcernthattoomuchtaxmoneyisspentonhighereducationforforeignersthatleaveaftergraduationanddonot contribute to theeconomy. InmanyEUcountries, tuition feesare farbelowcostprice,oreven zero (as is the case in Denmark). To improve the employability of students, the Danishgovernment has introduced a new funding incentive: 7.5% of university funding for studentsdepends on the question whether they find a job or not after graduation. This incentivizesuniversitiestoreducestudentnumbers instudyfieldswhere jobchancesarebleak,butalsohasasignificant impact on their policies towards international students: it becomesmore important tomake sure that they stay in Denmark after graduation and find a job. In response, Aalborg’suniversitieshaveincreaseditscareerservicesforforeignstudents.

At the same time,universities areno longerallowed tooffer language courses for free to foreignstudents,thisreducestheattractivenessofDanishuniversitiestoforeigners.Foruniversities,

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offering international programmes is becoming more expensive; At University College NorthDenmark (UCN), the number of international programmeswas decreased from19 to 12, and thenumberofinternationalsstudentshavedroppedin2018inbothuniversities.

Box1:UCNasinternationalretentionpioneer

UCN is pioneering new approaches on retaining and employability of its international students. Itreceives funding fromtheDanishgovernment for twoyears (about1,5millioncronesp/a).Amongotherthings,UCNstartedan“EmployabilityCamp”(thefirsteditiontookplaceinaugust2018).Itisanintroductioncampfornewinternationalstudentsaimedtoincreasetheiropportunitiesregardingemploymentduringandaftertheirstudies(seesection4formoredetails).UCNissupposedtosharethelearningsoftheexperimentswithotherDanishuniversities.

Our seminar focused on labour market integration, but it is impossible to fully separateeconomic/labourmarket integration fromsocial and cultural integration; after all,work is a socialactivity,andinternationalsthatstayinacityarealsopartofthelocalsociety.

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3. Labourmarketintegrationbarriersandchallenges

When speaking of labour market integration of internationals, a variety of subgroups can bedistinguished. Each subgroup has its own motives, and faces particular barriers and challengesregarding the labour market. Below, we discuss the following groups: International students,academicstaff,professionals(expats)andrefugees.

Internationalstudentsarethebiggestgroups inmostuniversitycities.Theyprimarilycometothehost city to take aBachelors orMaster course (weexcludeexchange students herebecause theystayonlyforafewmonthsbydefault).Duringtheirstudiestheycanalreadybecomepartofthelocallabour market through taking on student jobs, summer jobs, or internships. Most internationalstudentsleaveaftergraduation,butasubstantialpercentageofthemwouldliketostay,findajoborstart a business. In cities with labour shortages or aging populations, there is an explicit policyambition to retain international students to contribute to the local economy and society. Table 1shows themost important types of labourmarket integration, and barriers that can stand in theway.

Table1Typesoflabourmarketintegration

Type of labour marketintegration

Barriers

Duringstudies Internship Language;lackofEnglishlanguageinternshipsPathfinding:howtofindaninternship?ReluctanceofSMEstohireinternationals

Studyjob,summerjobs LanguagePathfinding

Startacompany Language:most incubator programmes are not inEnglish

Aftergraduation

Findaregularjob Language:FormostjobsyouneedtospeaknativelanguageReluctanceofSMEstohireinternationalsCulture: lack of understanding of local businessculturePresentation: need to present yourself effectivelytoemployers

Becomeentrepreneur Language:most incubator programmes are not inEnglish

• 30%ofAAU international studentswould like to finda job in the regionafter graduation;18%aresuccessful.

• Language is a very important factor in each situation. Encouraging students to learn thenationallanguageisthereforeparamount.Insmallercountries,studentsarelessinclinedtolearnthelanguagethaninbiggerones

• An internship is an important factor for students to learn the language, get to know thebusinessculture,andfornetworking.Butobtaininginternshipscanbehardforinternationalstudents;manyof themfallback to theoptionof returning to theirhomecountry for theinternship

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• Mixing nationals and internationals in education is an important vehicle to improveintegrationandfacilitatelanguageskills

• An Aalborg study suggests that firms that hire internationals are more competitive. Butsmaller firms who have never done it are reluctant to do so. If a firm has hired aninternationalforajoborinternship,itisverylikelytodoitagain

• Mostentrepreneurship/incubationprogrammesareofferedinthenationallanguage;mixinglocals and internationals could work, but only if teachers and locals have a sufficientcommandoftheEnglishlanguage.

AcademicStaffareasecondcategory.Academiahasalwaysbeenaveryinternationalsectorwhereitisnormaltospendtimeofyourcareerabroad,butinternationalisationhasgainedpace,andmanyuniversities have growing numbers of PhDs from abroad, visiting scholars, or permanentinternationalacademicstaff.Thesepeoplehaveapaidjobandareintegratedintheregionallabourmarket. The problem for them can be tomake a career in the local university. For flexible time-bound positions (PhD, postdoc) it has become very common to hire foreigners, but for the fixed,permanentstaff,universitiestendto fallbackonnationals.Moreover,academicstaff faceculturalbarriers:itisnotalwayseasytobecomeafull-fledgedpartofthehostsociety.Asoneparticipantinthemeetingssaid,“itisnoteasytobecomefriendswiththeDanes;theyoftenhavetheirownsmallcircleoffriendsthattheyknowforverylong”.

The third category are professionals from abroad (expats). These are foreigners working forinternational companies, permanently or temporary, or independent professionals that takeadvantage of certain skills gaps or opportunities (Aalborg for example is hiring foreign doctorsbecause there is a shortage). Again, for these groups, economic integration is not the problem,becausetheyhaveapaid job.Theyratherfacequestionsofsocialandcultural integration liketheonesdescribedabove.Also,thereisthequestionmuchintegrationisreallyneedediftheystayonlyforaverylimitedperiod.Anexampleisabatch600EnglishworkersthatrecentlycametoAalborgtoworktemporarilyonaprojectofSiemens.Todotheirjobproperly,theydonotneedtolearnDanishlanguage,or fully integrate in the local society.But it is important for themtounderstandDanishbusiness culture, and learn some basics about Danish society. Therefore, the International House(explained later)offeredsometrainings for them.Fromthecompanyperspective,a recent surveyidentifiedanumberofchallengeswhenhavinginternationalstaff(seefigure1),themainonesbeingalackofDanishlanguageskillsandlackofunderstandingofDanishcultureandrules.

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Figure1Challenges

A fourth category are refugees. We did not elaborate too much on their situation during themeeting,butseveralpointscameup.Theyareinadifferent“policysilo”:refugeepolicy,thatisnotalways so connected with regular labour market policies, and has its own policy rules, legalframeworksandincentives.Theintegrationofrefugeesinlocallabourmarketcanbecontroversial,as some of them might need to return soon to their home country. Moreover, for those whoobtained refugeestatus, it canbedifficult toassess theirqualifications.A recurrentquestion is towhatextentitisnecessaryordesirablethatinternationalsmixinintothelocalsociety:mostofthemareheretemporary,afterall.

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4. Actionstoenhancethelabourmarketparticipationofinternationals

During themeeting,we learned aboutmany initiatives taken to increase the interactionbetweeninternationals and locals, and inparticular to improve theemployabilityof international students.Also, we gained in-depth insights about the International House North Denmark (IHND). Wesummarizethemaininitiatives/activitiesbelow.

4.1 Employabilityprogramsattheuniversities

Both universities have set up a variety of projects and programmes to help students, includinginternationals ones, to be employable. A key driver is a change in the Danish university fundingsystem,inwhich7.5%oftheuniversityincome(perstudent)dependsonwhetherthestudentfoundapaidjobinDenmarkaftergraduation(the“resultgrant”).

UCN’s Employability Camp1 is a 2-week introduction camp for international students, intended toimprovetheiremployabilityduringandaftertheirstudies.100freshstudentspaid€150totakepartinthefirstedition,held inAugust2018.Roughlyhalfof themcamefromthebusiness faculty, theother half from the technology faculty. Among other things, they received a 20 hours Danishlanguage introductioncourse2,weremadefamiliarwithDanishbusinessculture,couldgetusedtoactive,problembasedlearningapproaches,andmetDanishcompanies.Toassesstheeffectivenessofthecamp,UCNwilltrackthestudents’employabilityintheyearstocome.

TheDanishEmployabilityprogrammeisawiderprogrammethatintendstoboosttheemployabilityof international students. The Danish government appointed UCN as pioneer this programme; ifsuccessful, other universities will replicate it. At UCN, 70 participants were selected to enter theprogramme(75%alsotookpartintheemployabilitycamps).Theycangainpointsbyparticipatinginemployabilityevents,ortakingtheirownextra-curricularinitiatives.Whenstudentsreach100pointstheyreceiveanEmployabilityCertificate.

Career guidance at Aalborg University3; Aalborg University is very active to support and guidestudents towards a career. Students can receive individual guidance, but there are also groupcounselling/integratedcareerprograms,workshopstogetadviceandfeedbackonjobapplications,CV, competence clarifications, linkedin profiles etc. The activities are organised and coordinatedfrom thedepartmentof StudyService,oneof the support services in theuniversity.Anumberofactivities and workshops are organised specifically for international students, see figure 2 for animpression.

Integrated career courses; AAU offers career courses that are integrated in the regular Mastercourses(seefigure3).Internationalstudentsaremadefamiliarwithgroupwork,groupcultureandwork behaviour in general through the use of DiSC profiles (a method to identify types ofprofessionals).Theyhavetoreflectingonthemselvesandothers’behaviourindifferentsituations.

The young professionals in Denmark initiative4 aims to match students and companies. Talentedinternational Master students are selected – primarily with a business or engineering

1Website:https://www.ucn.dk/english/programmes-and-courses/coming-to-denmark/ucn-employability-camp2Harnessedwithbasiclanguageknowledge,theycanentertheDanishadulteducationsystemandlearnfurtherforfree.3https://www.careers.aau.dk/newslist/news/increased-focus-on-aau-students---employability-.cid3391384https://www.careers.aau.dk/yga/

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education/focus,theyreceiveindividualsupportandcanattendeventstargetedtotheirneeds(foroneyear).Theemploymentstatusof internationalstudentswhoparticipatedisrelativelyhigh:1-2years after graduation, 58 % of them have a fulltime job, compared to 47 % of the otherinternationalgraduates.

Figure2CareerCalendaratAAUAutumn2018

Figure3IntegratedcareercoursesinMasterprogrammes

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5. InternationalHouseNorthDenmark(IHND)

The International House North Denmark (IHND) is a central platform (“One Stop Shop”) forinternationalsinAalborgandthewiderregion5.Ithousesanumberoforganisationsthatdealwithinternationals(seefigure4).ThehouseislocatedindowntownAalborg.It isorganisedandfundedasfollows:ThebuildingisprovidedbytheCityofAalborg(forfree),anditsspacesareofferedtoalarge variety of international organisations and also for events, seminars and workshops. Theactivitiesareledbyanemployeefromthecities’BusinessDepartment(whoreportsdirectlytotheMayor).Themainpart (roughly60%)ofthebudget isprovidedbyEU/ESFfunding(project-based).Additional funding (about10%) comes fromBusinessRegionNorthDenmark,anorganisation thatunites 11municipalities in the region; The commitment of all mayors is important for the IHND.Finally, private companies contributeby about20% to thebudget, through companyagreements.Thetotalannualprojectbudgetamountsto1.5millionDanishCrones(€200,000).

IHNDorganisesmanyevents,servicesandactivities(seefigure5),forexampleaspouseprogramme,in which spouses of expats are helped to find their way in the society and the labour market;individualseminarsfor(larger)companiesthatsettleinNorthDenmarkofrunatemporaryproject;training courses on diversity management; matchmaking events to connect international citizenswithregionalcompanies;recruitmentservicestofindinternational(EU)staffforcompanies. IntheGlobalGrowthAgentsprogramme,IHNDrecruitsannuallyabout30internationalstudentsandhelpsthemto improve theiremployability, freeofcharge.They learn theDanish language, thebusinessculture,andgetaccesstoimportantnetworks.In2018,the3rdgroupstarted.

Also,theIHNDfacilitatesentrepreneurshipbyinternationals.Inthestart-upstage,itoffersstart-upservicesandhelpsthemdevelopbusinessplanintheInternationalStart-upServiceprogrammeandthe Ethnic Danish Entrepreneur Network); In later stages, it helps firms to scale up and findinvestments(throughTheBusinessFactoryandKickstartprogrammes).

5http://ihnd.dk/

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Figure4OrganisationsintheInternationalHouseNorthDenmark

Figure5Servicesoffered

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6. IssuesinAalborg

Aalborg’striplehelixpartnersareveryactive inthefieldof integrating internationals inthe labourmarkets.Thereisaprofoundrealisationthatthisisimportant,andtheDanishnationalgovernmentpushes the agenda as well. Aalborg offers a lot of lessons for other European cities with similarambitions.Atthesametime,therearesomediscussionissuesandchallengesinAalborgaswell.

• A first point is the coordination between employability programmes for internationalstudents.Therearemanyofthem,offeredbyIHND,AAUandUCN.Itcouldbedifficultforinternationalstonavigateallthis,andtherecouldbeoverlappingapproaches.

• Second, international education on lower levels might need an impulse. Aalborg has aninternational private school, for pupils aged 6-16; there are now discussions to open aninternationalpublicschoolaswell.

• Third,itremainsachallengetoconnectwiththeregionasawhole;Aalborgcityhasbecomeveryinternationallyoriented,butthisismuchlesstrueforthelargerregion.Itisnoteasytoplace international studentson student jobsor internshipsbeyondAalborg, sohere someworkneedstobedone.

• AfourthissueisthecontinuityofIHNDaftertheESFfundingends.Shiftingtoamembership-based model is considered, but has downsides as well, as it would compete with othermembership-basedfundingmodels.

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Annex1 MeetingProgramme

Wednesday28thnovember

Location:UnivercityCollegeNorthJutland,BusinessCampus,Hobrovej,9000AalborgHostandguidethroughthemorning:TueWernerMikkelsen

09.00 Welcome

09.15 Aalborg’stalentattractionandretention

09.30 Discussion

09.45 UCNEmployabilityCAMP2018(onboarding)DanishEmployabilityProgramme(Employingandkeepingthestudentsintheregion)

10.30 Discussionandcoffeebreak

11.00 UCN’sframeworkforInternationalEntrepreneurs–Howcanentrepreneurshipguaranteeemployment

11.30 Discussion

11.45 TourofCampusandoftheincubatorenvironmentandFabLab

12.15 Lunch–UCN

13.00 Bustransport

13.30 AalborgUniversity Hostandguidethroughtheafternoon:CamillaBastholmLynge

13.45 GeneralservicestowardsinternationalstudentsatAalborgUniversity-YouthGoodwillAmbassadorsprogram

14.30 Discussion

15.15 Coffeebreak

15.30 TheEmployabilityprogram(Cand.Merc.),asatargetedactionincludingfocusontheProjectBasedLearningmodel,categorizationofinternationalstudentsinrelationtoreadinessforDanishemployment,TheInternshipExchange,etc.

16.00 Visitingcities’presentations

17.30 Endofday- Freetime

19.00 Dinner–AalborgUniversity

Thursday29thnovember:

Location: InternationalHouse,Rantzausgade,9000AalborgHostandguidethroughthemorning:LasseFrimand

09.00 InternationalHouse:ConceptofInternationalHouseNorthDenmark

GlobalGrowthAgents–Up-qualifying&retentionprogramforInternationalStudents

InternationalStartupServicesforinternationalGraduates

Discussion

11.45 TourofInternationalHouse

12.00 Lunch(InternationalHouse)