Abstract:

The internationalization of higher education (HE) assumes several perspectives and challenges – all interrelated, e.g.: international student and staff mobility; internationalization and improvement of curricula and digital learning; and strategic cooperation, partnerships and capacity building [1].

Due to national and institutional strategies, aiming at targeting internationalization activities, the number of international students in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in the last decades has also increased significantly [2-3]. Bearing this in mind, this paper aims at analyzing the continuity of the authors’ reflections on the efforts that are being made to enlarge the critical discussion on international supervision, more specifically, under the framework of a specific action titled “Let’s talk about and with international students’ supervision”. This project integrates other stakeholders beyond the “traditional” academia, namely Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations for Development (NGODs) – among others – that work in the field of education for development. These international students come from the Portuguese Speaking Developing Countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Region (ACPR) – i.e. Angola, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe, Mozambique and East-Timor, as well as Brazil.

In the framework of this action, a workshop involving different institutions’ types will be carried out. These institutions range among higher education institutions (HEIs); research centers, civil society organizations (OSC), NGOs and NGODs. This workshop and action aim at exploring the possibilities, difficulties and challenges felt when developing joint work between HEIs and OSCs. In addition, it hopes to shed light on work methodologies for and with international students based on the use of symbols – already tested in other contexts. The preliminary results of the monitoring strategy involving a questionnaire to the participants as well as field notes extracted during participant observation methods will be presented in this study.

Keywords:

International Cooperation, Supervision, Higher Education Institutions, NGOs, NGODs & OSCs, New methodologies.