When I began my teaching career, I realized that this was a brilliant career –to help people develop personally and professionally– but it had the disadvantage that for three months of the year the workload, and therefore the income, dropped dramatically.

I thought about solutions for this and I discovered that one of the best options was definitely internationalization.

I got down to work and, not without many difficulties, in a few years I found myself teaching at a university in Puerto Rico. When the University and I started working together and as we got to know each other better, they asked me to design an international experience in Spain for their Post Graduate students.

It turned out that the concept of internationalization was not only that I went elsewhere, but also that others came here. I had never considered reverse internationalization. It was like a round-trip internationalization.

The academic program I prepared for them included sessions at ESIC Business and Marketing School. Puerto Rican students and professors were amazed at the marketing leadership of our school.

I learned then that sometimes we do not give enough value to what we have. As we are accustomed to it, we assume that it is normal and it is the same everywhere. For this reason, we immediately become aware that the pursuit of academic excellence is an essential quality of the education we want.

The Master in International Trade & Business (MITB) has now launched at ESIC Aragón, a program that has been successfully implemented in ESIC for a few years with campuses in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

The program is in English and accredited by the most demanding European associations (EPAS), required to endorse its quality standard and be internationally approved. This puts the MITB on the map of internationally recognized master’s degrees and attracts students from all over the world.

It is a postgraduate programme with a very innovative methodology, with modules in long formats of 30 hours. This allows a more in depth and thorough study in the most important subjects.

Also in my experience teaching the MITB, one of the characteristics of the programme that makes it more attractive for students is that you can do one of its modules in Shanghai.

This makes the learning experience also truly international, as not only do you share this experience with students and teachers from other countries, but also live a few months in China.

We always think of internationalization as an exercise to go beyond our borders. Company from Aragon are competitive and can export and sell their products and services. Nevertheless, internationalization is to import and buy products and services that are produced across our borders by other companies that are also competitive.

It is also when our children go to work abroad or that professionals from other countries come here to practice their trade or their profession. In the field of education, it is the same. We can go abroad to study, learning not only knowledge and skills, but also integrating ourselves into the cultures of the countries that host us.

We can also study and learn internationalization right here, sharing the classroom with students and teachers who come from different countries and cultures. Now, with ESIC Aragón, it is possible.  Reverse Internationalization. Internationalization without leaving Aragon.

*Dr. Arturo Gómez Quijano, professor of MITB de Esic Business and Marketing School