The importance of intercultural citizenship has become prominent in HE and the increased use of digital tools and platforms in academia has been shaping EAP instruction providing students with opportunities to develop not only their academic but also intercultural competencies (IC) so that they can engage in global communication that is very much required from a university student in current times. In this presentation, I will report findings from a small-scale empirical study that investigates undergraduate university students’ perspectives on developing Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) to succeed in academia in the
digital age. The study draws on the theoretical framework of the ICC Byram’s (1997) model to explore the undergraduate students’ perspectives on ICC in the HE context. In Byram’s model, ICC is described as an important factor in developing effective language skills by L2 students through engaging and communicating with other cultures. The results of this study show that students see the importance of developing their ICC to communicate and understand other cultures and their people and although ICC does not seem to have a major impact on achieving their short-term academic goals, they see the need to develop ICC as crucial to achieve long-term goals in academia and their professional lives as they notice the increased use of digital tools needed to achieve those goals. Recent studies show major gaps in research concerning the development of IC through digital technologies thus this study offers support for the findings of previous researchers and provides new insights into the research.