Exchanging expertise, theory and practice at Master’s level healthcare education between Russia and Finland – experiences from an intensive course in St. Petersburg

The aim of this article is to raise discussion on the internationalisation possibilities of master’s students who study while working. The objective of the article is to describe and share experiences on how to make the development of students’ internationalisation competence possible through collaboration with representatives of different cultures during a one-week intensive course. Internationalisation is an essential component in the competence-based curriculum of master’s level social and healthcare education. On the other hand, it has been a difficult task for adult students to enhance their internationalisation competence when they pursue studies alongside work. In addition, internationalisation in master’s level education has been a key feature both in Finland and in Russia. An intensive course is one educational method to share students’ existing professional know-how in an international multi-professional student group and to enable adult students’ mobility. This paper describes a one-week intensive course which was carried out in St. Petersburg, Russia in autumn 2008. The course was evaluated by the adult students and their teachers participating in the course. The intensive course increased the degree of transparency and compatibility between higher education and advanced professional education qualifications gained in postgraduate healthcare education in the partner organisations. It seems that an intensive course is a good pedagogical method for enhancing the internationalisation competence of adult students.