Research on First Year Students’ Global Competence Development and its Impact on Study Abroad: An Analysis Through the Intercultural Collaborative Learning Course “MCW”

In 2024, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (MEXT) launched the Support Program for Creating Social Impact through University Internationalization. This involves setting intercultural collaborative learning courses where domestic and international students study together, gaining global competence, and fostering interest in study abroad programs to actively send domestic students. Building on this background, the present study seeks to explore three main questions: (1) Did students in intercultural collaborative learning course develop global competences? (2) What factors positively affect global competence, and (3) Whether gaining global competence promotes study abroad. Within this framework, APU’s (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan) SI project plan1） references previous intercultural collaborative efforts, including a first year experience course called “Multicultural Collaborative Workshop (MCW) 2）”, and residential experience in the international first-year dormitory AP House. The analysis yielded three key findings. First, students generally showed an increase in global competence from the beginning to the end of the MCW course. Second, notable improvements in global competence were observed among students who actively engaged in group work during MCW, and those with residential experience in AP House who frequently interacted with peers from the opposite language standard. Third, students who developed higher levels were more likely to be motivated to participate in study abroad programs.