Interculturalism and Higher Education: The Role of Academic Staff in Promoting Campus-Based International Academic Environment

The paper presents an attempt to articulate the link between the notions of «interculturalism», «internationalization», «collaborative online international learning» as a new educational paradigm enhancing intercultural competence of all actors of educational process within jointly established multicultural academic environment. The focus of empirical research is centered on the «internationalization-at-home» paradigm, which is viewed as the nexus of international and intercultural dimensions integrated into formal, non-formal, and informal learning with the application of digital teaching formats such as international virtual exchange and virtual mobility projects, etc. The analysis has been conducted with regard to the internationalisation process at Slovak higher education based on the empirical data provided by online open platforms of Commenius University in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The collected data have showed that the enhancement of interculturalism in higher education should be aimed at developing more of an education for all in the spirit of recognizing the differences that exist within the same society, and less an education for different cultures, which would involve isolation of cultural groups. Among the results of the research the ways of achieving interculturality at higher educational institution are highlighted, such as: simultaneous learning of at least two foreign languages; integration in twinning European programmes; obtaining scholarships for academic mobility (including virtual one), etc.