WHY CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION: A BENEFICIAL EFFECT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Nowadays, there is an awareness of education policy makers in higher education in Indonesia to include cross-cultural communication (CCC) in university curricula, especially for linguistic and cultural studies. CCC is vital in everyday life, especially for people from different ethnic groups. This is in accordance with Mulyana (2012:38) who reveals that cross-cultural communication, both verbal and non-verbal, is very complex and is related to the tendency that cultural differences will remain forever, therefore knowledge and practical global guidelines on intercultural communication need to be taught to Indonesian people, including in the business world, to be able to work and communicate across cultures in the twenty-first century. This study aims to explore the purpose of the inclusion of CCC in the higher education curriculum and the benefits of studying CCU by students in higher education. This study uses a quantitative paradigm. The participants in this study were 37 students of the English Literature Study Program, Faculty of Language and Letters, Makassar State University for the 2018/2019 academic year. The results reveal that the inclusion of CCU in the higher education curriculum is essential to promote communication across different cultures for mutual understanding. Therefore, this study suggests that a curriculum with CCC topics/subjects is beneficial for the higher education curriculum.