Enhancing Students’ intercultural competences through University Academic Training

Abstract

The present paper aims to exhibit the benefit of intercultural educational courses in enhancing University students’ global understanding, tolerance, and inclusive social engagement. The paper displays the academic description, objectives, and implementation of the practices of the intercultural educational courses. The courses are inserted as major modules in undergraduate college studies. The case study analyzed within this experiment relates to the module entitled “Intercultural Communication”, which is part of a program that runs over three years entitled “Applied Languages in Culture” at Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco. The paper analyses quantitatively and qualitatively the attitudes and performances of undergraduate students having trained in how to succeed in communication in extreme intercultural contexts where different religions, traditions, and beliefs are encountered. Homework tasks, tests, exams, cultural exchange, and student-oriented surveys are analyzed and studied. The results produced by the immersion of intercultural courses in the university academic programs reveal that the graduated students succeed not only in being well integrated in their own cultural community but also in raising their chances of being hired in touristic companies where people from different cultures meet and interact. Such is the case of the graduates in intercultural communication taking place in Marrakech, which is a highly renowned touristic city.