Analysing intercultural discourse in an institutional setting: intercultural communication between Utrecht University’s international officers and international students

Abstract

This BA thesis was part of the USO project Intercultural Competence for the UU. Its objective was to contribute to this project by making recommendations about intercultural communication in an institutional setting for the staff training programmes. From the short advice conversations that were recorded, and where the base of this thesis lies, it became clear that intercultural competences play a minor supportive role in short conversations. However, the institutional setting of the university appeared to have problematic areas which were found in the use of institutional key words, procedural key words and talking about e-mails. Solving these problems will drop the institutional barrier to counselling and advice conversations and aid intercultural communication between international office staff and international students.