How COILs Might Encourage Law Students to Spring into Action: The Opportunities and Challenges of using Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Initiatives to Promote Internationalisation, Inclusivity and Community Building Amongst Law Students

The move towards internationalisation has been progressively more visible on the higher education agenda, both institutionally, nationally and internationally, in recent years. Integrating this multifaceted concept into legal education can be achieved in a plurality of ways, including student mobility for the purpose of short-term academic study abroad.

There is widespread agreement as to the benefits of physical exchange. The challenges facing our current student cohorts though, such as finances, caring responsibilities, health issues and the need to be in paid employment, can create real barriers for students seeking a study abroad experience.

Increasing recognition of Internationalisation at Home initiatives, including Collaborative Online International Learning (COILs), might be a more inclusive alternative, although not replacement, to physical exchange.

This session will highlight the opportunities and concomitant challenges of running an extra-curricular COIL for law students, drawing on the experiences of setting up and running a small-scale virtual exchange between law students at Kent Law School and Université de Bordeaux, France for the past 3 academic years. The ambition is to encourage others to seize the opportunities that simple technology-facilitated COILs can offer for embedding internationalisation, promoting inclusivity and community building amongst our current and future law student cohorts.