MILSA in a nutshell
MILSA started as a project between the University of Bern and University of Technology Sydney. With support of the Mercator Foundation Switzerland, a project team developped a mentoring program about intercultural learning for students who were preparing for their exchange abroad. Since 2016, the University of Bern has hosted an international colloquium on ithe topic and been active in mentoring its outbound students. In 2018, the MILSA project team was awarded the Bo Gregersen Award for Best Practice by the European Association of International Education in honor of its international collaboration.
As of autumn semester 2021, the University of Bern is offering MILSA to both its outbound as well as - very newly - its inbound students.
An in-depth view of an award-winning study abroad program: MILSA
Click here to get an in-depth view of our MILSA program in this interview with SIETAR Switzerland
«Bo Gregersen Award for Best Practice»
The MILSA program was awarded with the «Bo Gregersen Award for Best Practice» at the EAIE 2018 in Geneva.
Project manager Annie Cottier shares her experiences with the first group of MILSA participants.
Publications
2020
Oguro, Susan, and Annie Cottier. 'The complex challenge of delivering a university-wide intercultural mentoring program for study abroad', in Martin Howard (ed.), Study abroad and the second language learner: expectations, experiences and development, Bloomsbury, in print.
2018
Jackson, Jane, and Susan Oguro, eds. Intercultural Interventions in Study Abroad. Internationalization in Higher Education Series. London and New York: Routledge.
2017
Poster presentation at the European Association of International Education (EAIE) conference (Poster EAIE).
2016
International international colloquium Facilitating students’ intercultural learning through study abroad programs at the University of Bern (MILSA Colloquium Programme)