All five tutors shared the view that educating the students who are in their care is part of being a teacher. Acknowledging that mostly language teachers take on this task as it is more easily done in language classes (SI, SU), the participating tutors stated that developing students’ global competence should be every teacher’s responsibility – no matter what their subject is. In Ulrich’s words, as developing GC is time-consuming, “teachers have the responsibility to decide [whether they will] or not make the time… these are not just things you can do quickly and move on…” (T/SU-11). However, there seems to be a consensus that it is not only teachers’ responsibility to develop students’ global competence, e.g., Ulrich and Iván both emphasised the students’ own responsibility in developing it. As Ulrich put it, teachers can only create the right conditions and guide the students but cannot develop anyone, “it is [the students’] task ultimately” (T/SU-12) and used the metaphor “take the horse to the water but can’t make it drink” (T/SU-12). As Iván saw it, the students themselves have to be open to this process, and “they just cannot bury their head in the sand” (T/SI-17), they have to be aware that in the 21st century, there are demands from the labour market and one’s surroundings and they have to meet these demands, so it is their task to develop after all. The tutors also mentioned two other factors that need to be taken into consideration: the family’s (SI) and the university’s (SI, SK, SM) role. For instance, Kristóf saw the role of the university relevant in organising programmes for students to meet people from different cultural backgrounds, for example, in the context of international student nights, or other events where their affective filter is lowered.

After expressing his strong beliefs about his role, Ulrich also pointed out that unfortunately some teachers in the institution completely reject the role of educators and regard themselves solely as language instructors or depending on their subject, as academics. In sum, all the participants see themselves as language teaching educators, and to varying degrees feel that they have a role in fostering their students’ global competence.