PIE Internationalisation Community Meeting 2026
The Curriculum in Context
Vilnius, Lithuania

Theme

Drawing on Leask, the formal curriculum is “[…] the syllabus as well as the orderly, planned schedule of experiences and activities that students must undertake as part of their degree program” and the informal curriculum as “[…] the various support services and additional activities and options organised by the university that are not assessed […].” The hidden curriculum refers to the “implicit and unintended messages sent through teaching and learning.”¹

Together, these perspectives encourage us to consider not only what is taught, but also how values, hierarchies, and intercultural attitudes are formed within higher arts education environments.

Main questions:

• How are international and intercultural dimensions embedded in curricula — formally and informally?
• How do we prepare graduates for global citizenship and professional life in a diverse world?
• How does the hidden curriculum reflect or challenge equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI)?

What we mean by formal and hidden curricula in context:

Formal Curriculum

Leask defines the formal curriculum as “the syllabus as well as the orderly, planned schedule of experiences and activities that students must undertake as part of their degree programme.”²

We ask how are different aspects of internationalisation embedded in this type of curriculum? For example:

• Are Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programmes or similar activities integrated into curricular development, or do they remain outside the formal programme structure?
• How do institutional partnerships and collaborative projects influence curricula and learning communities?
• Are student mobilities and internships structured as mandatory or elective components — and how do they contribute to intercultural learning?
• Is the curriculum built primarily from a Western viewpoint, or does it include multiple, global perspectives?

These questions aim to encourage reflection on how institutions can design curricula that promote intercultural competence and inclusive learning environments.

Hidden Curriculum

It is the hidden curriculum that encompasses the unintended, implicit messages conveyed to students through everyday practices, rituals, and relationships. It includes social norms that shape classroom interactions, understandings of collaboration and competition, or attitudes toward hierarchy and authority.³ Closely tied to local institutional contexts — lived by academic and support staff as well as students, the hidden curriculum can manifest in differing expectations about behaviour, participation, or communication styles.

The hidden curriculum is closely tied to local institutional contexts — lived by academic and support staff as well as students. It can manifest in differing expectations about behaviour, participation, or communication styles, and can influence how equity, diversity, and inclusion are experienced in learning environments.

¹ Betty Leask, Internationalizing the Curriculum (London: Routledge, 2015), p. 8.

² Leask, Internationalizing the Curriculum, p. 8.

³ David Killick, Developing the Global Student (New York and London: Routledge, 2015), p. 84.

Call for Contributions

The PIE Working Group invites students, teachers, deans, and directors from ELIA member institutions to co-create the programme and submit proposals on the main theme. We are looking for inspirational and tangible examples of how internationalisation and its different facets work and interact in the formal and hidden curriculum.

We welcome a wide range of contribution formats, such as academic papers, interactive workshops, roundtable discussions, research and project presentations, collaborative projects/initiatives, and other interventions.

We are especially interested in contributions that explore:

• Institutional cooperation and projects: How are international collaborations and/or European initiatives integrated into teaching? Many institutions have developed and participated in European and international initiatives. But what is their impact on the curriculum and learning communities?
• Mobility and internships: How are these structured — as mandatory or elective elements? Are these incorporated into the curriculum?
• Internationalisation of curriculum: How are diverse, global, decolonial and intercultural perspectives included in content and pedagogy?
• Hidden curriculum: What implicit messages, social rituals, and unspoken norms shape intercultural learning in higher arts education?
• Skills and competences for global citizenship: What international and intercultural knowledge, skills, and competences do graduates need to thrive as professionals and to act as responsible global citizens?