Building COIL Capability in the UK and Ireland - April 2025

UNICOIL was born from the Symposium Building COIL capability in the UK and Ireland held at the University of Leeds on 24 April 2025, organised by Professor Martin Ward,  which brought together 35 academics and professionals from 12 universities across both countries.

The symposium featured a keynote address from Simone Hackett (The Hague University) and Mark Dawson (IU University of Applied Sciences, Berlin), focusing on embedding evidence-informed COIL. Additional sessions included discussions on COIL through the lens of social justice and inclusion, presented by Dr Müge Satar (Newcastle University) and Prof. Mirjam Hauck (The Open University), as well as an overview of UArctic’s work by Izzy Crawford (Robert Gordon University). Participants also engaged in interactive networking sessions to explore potential collaborations.

Such was the fervent shared perception of the value of COIL for Internationalisation at Home and for the rich benefit for students in Ireland and the UK, and the recognition of the powerful potential for a community of practice around COIL, that UNICOIL was transformed from vision to reality!