Examining cosmopolitan learning among Chinese university students through internationalisation at home

Abstract Internationalisation at home (IaH) has gained prominence in higher education, emphasising the cosmopolitan aspects of curricula, teaching, and learning. This case study, grounded in the concept of cosmopolitan learning as a sociological approach, focuses on three dimensions—cosmopolitan engagement, critical reflections on global and local issues, and ethical judgements—made by 23 Chinese university students participating in IaH at a prestigious Chinese university. It explores these students’ cosmopolitan learning experiences through IaH and their gains and learning challenges. The results show that the student participants exhibited more cosmopolitan engagement through the IaH curricula. Cosmopolitan engagement also enabled them to reflect critically on global and local issues, such as inequality in access to cosmopolitan learning resources, the impact of the global social imaginaries, and asymmetrical geo-power relations on the situatedness of knowledge, people, and learning. Accordingly, they made judgements to pursue ethical and meaningful changes. The challenges identified by students in cosmopolitan learning emphasise the need to further develop IaH cosmopolitan curricula to promote equity among diverse students in cosmopolitan learning, support multilingual learning, and empower students through a plural, egalitarian, and critical epistemology in addressing ethical change. Consequently, comprehensive proposals for the construction of cosmopolitan IaH curricula are presented.