CONTEXT In the wake of growing nationalism and anti-immigrant attitudes institutions of Higher Education are called upon to facilitate the development of “inclusive societies” (European Commission 2017). While internationalisation constitutes a top priority for most HEIs, its implementation in practice in the sense of ‘internationalisation at home’ remains lacking. Only rarely institutional practices are put into action aiming to further development of intercultural skills of students and staff or the strengthening of intercultural dialogue in the institutions.This specifically impacts on the situation of international students. Lack or inactivity to promote an inclusive organisational culture and to develop intercultural competences of staff and students may lead to international students feeling frustrated and dissatisfied or even exclusion and discrimination. Research shows that experiences of discrimination are considerably higher among international students than among locals and are heavily associated with nationality, language and ethnic background (Wejwar & Terzieva 2015). INNOVATIONIn order to generate sustainable processes of intercultural learning, the SOLVINC project transferred the proven methodology of critical incidents by Cohen-Emerique (2015) to the HE context. By collecting and analyzing first-hand experiences of international students, the project compiled a broad knowledge base from which strategies for conflict negotiation and resolution were developed as well as training material for HE staff to be better equipped to deal with an increasingly diverse student population.AIMSSOLVINC aimed to facilitate the development of intercultural and conflict management skills among international students, local students and HE staff and to further the implementation of intercultural student encounters in HEIs, thereby contributing to the promotion of inclusion in practice. PARTNERSHIPThe strong partnership consisted of four large universities with a high percentage of international students and experience on research on intercultural learning as well as an NGO specializing in intercultural training on the critical incident methodology by Cohen-Emerique.RESULTSThe specific aims of the project, within 25 months Strategic partnership, were:- Collecting and analyzing instances of intercultural conflict experienced by international students and making it available in an interactive online version: http://learningfromcultureshocks.eu/ (narrative) – IO1- Developing a reader on main areas of conflict / sensitive zones – IO2- Developing training material for Higher Education staff supporting professional development (educator’s training – IO3)- Developing a toolkit on intercultural student encounters and implement different formats at the partner institutions (IO4)TARGET GROUPS- International students and their communities- Local students- HE staff, both teachers and administrative- International Offices in HE institutionsIMPACTSOLVINC aimed to impact (1) international and local students facilitating their development of intercultural and conflict management skills, (2) HE teaching and counselling staff improving their ability to cater to a diverse student body, and (3) HE institutions in the institutionalisation of formats of intercultural dialogue. Students and HE staff were given tools to strengthen their intercultural competence by reflecting their own perspective in a conflict and the perspective of the other. This skill of being able to change perspective is the key in intercultural communication and understanding. The training material produced can be easily used for devising professional competence development measures. Further, the implementation of formats of intercultural student encounters contributed to organisational change and active diversity management as well as promoting social inclusion of international students and combat discrimination.Local members of NGOs, public bodies and adult education organisations working on interculturality, migration and anti-discrimination who participated in the multiplier Events (E6-E10), by impacting a knowledge transfer between HEIs working with international students and stakeholders working in a similar field, but with different target groups was a good opportunity for exchanging methods and approaches used.EUROPEAN IMPACT: Since international students are mobile throughout Europe and beyond, European impact was enhanced by connecting IOs to anti-discrimination platforms and associations and by the online-format in which the products are available and disseminated (http://learningfromcultureshocks.eu/). This ensures that an interested public and HEIs across Europe are able to access and adopt the product for their personal and institutional practice.