Webinar: Building Stronger Cultural Support: A Conversation on Supporting international Students Across Cultures

Webinar

Building Stronger Cultural Support: A Conversation on Supporting international Students Across Cultures

Zoom

September 29 2026

100 seats

Webinar international Students-1

What you told us

When you registered, many of you shared with us some of the challenges they face. Here are the 5 challenges that came up the most:

The classroom as culture shock: getting students to speak up, differing views on academic integrity, and teaching one class with 15 nationalities in it.
Communication breakdowns: directness, several languages at play even when everyone speaks English, and in-person versus virtual preferences.
Our own culture as the invisible default: assuming our values apply everywhere, and missing the deeper reasons others behave differently.
Hierarchy and trust: students who argue every grade, hide their confusion until the exam, or hear "use your own judgement" as a teacher not doing their job.
Support gaps beyond the classroom: making friends, navigating the university system, and breaking into the local job market.

If you recognised your own situation in this list, you're in good company. These challenges are shared across institutions and countries, and the panel covered many of them.

Takeaways from the webinar

Five things our panel has learned from years of supporting students across cultures.

"It's All Clear" Rarely Means It's All Clear

Sanyogita Kulkarni's students always said they understood, even when they didn't, because asking a teacher to slow down felt disrespectful.

One question is not enough. Check understanding in several indirect ways, rather than taking silence or a polite "yes" as agreement.

Find the Stone in the Shoe Early

New student teams often start with "we're all just students, there are no cultural barriers."

Then friction builds. Elina Wainio surfaces it early, and asks her students to hold up a mirror to their own Culture.

"Speak Up" Is Not an Instruction

In the Netherlands, a student who never challenges the teacher worries parents. In India, one who does gets parents invited for very different reasons.

Students need the full picture: if they disagree, should they say so in class, in a meeting or by email?

English Is Only Half the Language

The course may run in English, but tutorials, group work and corridor conversations often don't. Sanyogita Kulkarni called this one of the most underestimated challenges for international students: officially included, but left out of everything beyond the lecture.

Connect First, Then Redirect

Around 70% of the world expects the expert to lead. Telling those students "let's figure it out together" can make them panic. Bilal Ojjeh's advice: give clear structure first, then build independence.

"That's Interesting" Isn't Always a Compliment

Many of you raised communication that breaks down even when everyone speaks English. The panel's example: "that's an interesting point." Is it praise, polite disagreement or a quiet no? Same words, different meaning. When in doubt, ask: "Is this what you meant?"

PROGRAMME

9:00 EDT / 15:00 CEST / 16:00 EEST / 18:30 IST

Welcome and introduction
What SAIMA can do for you and how it works.
What is culture?
How culture shapes communication
Directness, silence, how feedback is given and received. Why the same sentence can mean two different things to two students sitting next to each other.
What are the main issues international students face
What catches students off guard when they arrive in a new culture for a long or a short terms mobility.
Culture is relative, why communication breaks down, and why
when everyone assumes their own default is neutral, and how to catch it happening in real time.
How to help students, and everyone around them, be better prepared
Pre-arrival, arrival, during, and after: what preparation looks like at each stage.

Live SAIMA demonstration:
See how SAIMA our cross-cultural Coach can help students make sense of everyday interaction from start to finish.
Live Q&A

Why you should join us.

If you teach, advise, or support international students, you already do more cultural interpretation than your job title suggests.

This session is a chance to put language and structure around what you're already doing well, and pick up what's worked for others doing the same job in different institutions.

You'll hear from practitioners working directly with international students, on what culture actually does to communication, where it breaks down, and what support looks like at each stage of a student's journey, not just orientation week.

We will also present SAIMA, our AI cross-Cultural coach, and how it can help you support your students at every step.

What you will leave with

A clearer way to name what's actually happening when a student "isn't adapting"
A framework for spotting cultural friction before it becomes a bigger problem
A live look at SAIMA, a live Cultural Coach that can help them support the students 24/7.
Peer learning from practitioners doing this work at other institutions

Sanyogita Kulkarni

Cross-cultural management consultant specialised in higher education

Sanyogita has spent a decade at the intersection of language, culture and learning. She taught French to adult professionals for nine years at Alliance Française, then moved into intercultural consulting - delivering programmes across India, Europe and Francophone Africa, including a certification course delivered in French to executives from six African nations.
Most recently in the Business Education sector in India, she managed global academic partnerships with diverse global institutions and led executive MBA cohorts on international immersions. She now designs bespoke executive education programmes in her latest venture.
She knows that culture shapes not just how students learn, but where they choose to go, who they trust, and whether they thrive once they arrive.
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Bilal Ojjeh

Founder/CEO MBA-Exchange.com & Careernomics, Switzerland

Bilal Ojjeh is the CEO of two platforms that provide career intelligence to students, career services teams and employers. He co-founded and co-directs a bilingual Montessori school near Geneva and serves on the board of directors of the Association Montessori Internationale. A McKinsey, INSEAD and Wharton alumnus, he applies technology and the science of learning to education, from early childhood to career.
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Egbert Schram

Group CEO, The Culture Factor Group

With a strong background in International Business and International Management, he specialises in cultural and strategic change projects.
He works effectively with diverse multinational and cross-functional teams, focusing on aligning organisational culture with business strategy to boost corporate performance.
Egbert specialises in creating hands-on solutions for the world's largest organisations, helping them align culture and strategy.
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Elina Wainio

Senior Lecturer (M.Sc. Econ.) at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland

For over 26 years, Elina has worked with students, educators, businesses, and international partners to bridge academic learning with real-world and cross-cultural experiences.
Through teaching, publications, and international projects, she has championed approaches that connect higher education with working life while strengthening intercultural understanding.
Throughout her career, she has helped students and educators develop the skills needed to work effectively across cultures and in diverse international environments. She advocates for meaningful intercultural engagement as a foundation for learning, innovation, and sustainable global cooperation.
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