Alina Schartner is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Newcastle University in the UK where she teaches and researches intercultural communication. Her research interests include the internationalisation of higher education and the transition experiences of internationally mobile groups, including refugees, international students, and expatriate academics. She is currently co-investigator on the Erasmus+ project Critical Skills for Life and Work. Her work has been published in journals such as Higher Education, the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and the European Journal of Higher Education. In 2016 the International Association of Language and Social Psychology awarded her the James J. Bradac Early Career Prize for her work on the international student experience.