International Study

A key aspect of our methodology is that our courses incorporate 'connected learning'. The international character of our courses adds a crucial dimension to this.

1. Students are made familiar, not only with elements of their own culture, but with elements belonging to a wide variety of cultures.

2. The lecturers who design the courses and the tutors belong to different continents and come from diverse religious and social backgrounds.

3. The students are made to interact creatively with other students whose experience may be totally different from their own.

4. Sharing classroom space with students from other backgrounds happens in terrestrial colleges too. Our courses, both in content and interactive dynamics, aim at opening our students' minds to seeing the world through the eyes of others and learning how to discern values within a wider frame of interpretation.

Questions uppermost in our mind at all times:

• Did the process involve the widest possible spectrum of points of view?

• Did people who interpret the matter one way, and from one set of background assumptions, interact with people who approach the matter from a different perspective?

Important note

One specific example of a cross-cultural study project of Catherine of Siena Virtual College is Building bridges of solidarity with women in India.