The internationalization competence of university teachers. A challenge for higher education

The university is expected to satisfy the demands of the society, as well as to adapt itself to its produced changes. Aware of this fact, and of the global and international character of the society, Spanish HEIs have launched themselves into internationalization. However, reports such as those by the OECD, among others, reveal the poor effect of these policies, leaving Spain to an unprivileged position compared to other European institutions. Detecting an important gap between social demands and university teacher training programmes, this paper reflects on the role of the academics' functions within the internationalization of universities and claims the introduction of the internationalization competence in the university teachers' competence lists so as to help teachers face this challenge, therefore, contributing to the real internationalization of HE. After reviewing the role of internationalization within HE, we analyze from international perspective academics' duties, as well as accepted teaching competence taxonomies for university teachers. Finally, we propose the unlisted transversal competence of internationalization for academics, being compounded of two subcompetences that interact with all the teaching competences: the international academic communicative competence (IACC), and academic intercultural competence (AIC).