CALPIU Research Center aims to provide an organizational framework for Danish, Nordic and international cooperation for the purpose of creating a new theoretical understanding of the internationalization process which universities are undergoing. Internationalisation of higher education means that both professors and students to an increasing degree come from a large number of countries and have a background in many different languages and cultures, which is assumed to affect university programs and study environments in different ways. It is generally assumed that internationalisation in this context means the same as use of English, witness the Danish discourse about language in education, where many voice their fear that English might change its role from the universal contact language to the dominant language in Danish universities. Within CALPIU, it is assumed that internationalisation is about the relationship between many cultures and languages within the same educational institution, and about the possibility of practicing diversity as a resource in education.

CALPIU’s main research focus will be the function of language in the social and cultural practices of the university, especially the significance of language choice and language proficiency within a context of power relations and hierarchies of influence, as well as the significance of power relations and hierarchies of influence vis-à-vis the organisation, didactics, learning processes and academic content of educational programmes in the humanities and social and natural sciences. Thus, one purpose is to further the professionalization of university education in an international context.

Within the multifaceted practice of a university we wish to examine four fields of practice, each of which represents a type of role relationship:

• The communicative practice and self-conception of the university as an “actor” in a multilingual world,
  
• Student-teacher relations,
  
• Student-student relations, and
  
• Student-Administrative staff interaction.

Recordings of conversations within all four fields as well as other data material will be collected in a comprehensive electronic database which aims to be representative of the linguistic and cultural practices of the international university.

CALPIU was conceived with Denmark, particularly Roskilde University, as its focal ‘case’, but the Center cooperates with researchers in several European countries and beyond (Hong Kong, Japan, Australia), who share our interest in the internationalized university and the practices defining it.

In Denmark, these practices comprise the use of several languages:

• Danish, both as the L1 of most students, and the language of instruction in Danish universities since C18 (predominantly, and for a while exclusively)
• English as the international contact language and the second most important language of teaching besides Danish,
• other languages which play a (possibly diminishing) role in teaching and research dissemination, and
• the L1 of students that come to Denmark in larger cohorts (e.g. Chinese and several Central and Eastern European languages).

All these languages are in contact at universities in Denmark. The local language happens to be Danish, but this is immaterial: The situation applies to many industrialized and industrializing countries in the world.

However, our knowledge of this multilingual reality is rather limited, both in Denmark and world-wide. We know very little about the influence of this diversity on teaching and learning processes. Is language just a neutral tool? What difference does it make whether one uses English or one’s L1 in teaching or in student group work? How does teaching in a second language affect teacher roles? What about standards of Academic English in an ELF context? What role does the local language play, for students from abroad, as compared with their L1s? How many languages does the university need?

CALPIU originated in 2003 from a network of researchers in sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, discourse analysis and communication studies at Roskilde University. Since 2007, CALPIU has been receiving financial support from the Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication – most recently in the form of a grant of 7 million Danish kroner for the purpose of consolidation as a research center. The CALPIU Research Center now comprises about 50 researchers from 27 universities in Denmark, the other Nordic countries, and many countries within and outside Europe. The CALPIU  Research Center includes at the moment almost 20 research projects, of which 9 are based at Roskilde University and of which 8 are funded in part by the Danish Research Council of Culture and Communication.