Heléna Stakounis (Education Specialist) on language matters and the student experience at the internationalised university
On 25 February 2026, CULCOM hosted a talk by Heléna Stakounis, Education Specialist and Founder of Language Café. The talk explored the experiences of home and international students at an internationalised university. International students and home students are typically classed as two distinct groups with different sets of needs. However, Heléna’s yearlong ethnographic study at a UK university revealed that regardless of background or culture, international and home students face similar challenges and have more in common than that which we make think divides them. In her talk, Heléna discussed what the data revealed particularly in terms of the language challenges all students faced in both the social and academic contexts of the internationalised university. She proposed a framework called the ‘language promise’ to respond to the ‘language problem’ for a more linguistically just and inclusive student experience where language matters and intercultural communication strategies are given the importance that is required.
Heléna is a teacher, manager, and assessment specialist with extensive experience in the private and Higher Education sector. She is the Founder and Owner of Language Café – a school which brings together people across cultures and countries to learn language and become part of a shared community. Her book Language Matters at the Internationalised University: From Practice to Policy was recently published by Routledge.