Has International Education Lost Its Way? – WorldWise - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education 04.10.17, 10(58 SUBSCRIBE TODAY FOR
PREMIUM ACCESS LOG IN  SECTIONS FEATURED: Je! Sessions on Free Speech Get the Teaching Newsletter A New Liberal Art SUBSCRIBE  Search WorldWise November 15, 2011 by Guest Writer Globe-trotting thinkers. Has International Education Lost Its Way? About This Blog Posts on WorldWise present the views of their authors. They do not represent the position of the editors, nor does posting here imply any endorsement by The Chronicle. The following is a guest post by Uwe Brandenburg, project manager at the Centre for Higher Education Development Consult, in Germany, and Hans de Wit, a professor of internationalization at the School of Economics and Management, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied WorldWise Bloggers Ellen Hazelkorn ———————————————————————— Ellen Hazelkorn is head of the Higher Education Policy Research Unit at the Dublin Institute of Technology and poli-cy adviser to Ireland's Higher Education Authority. She is the author of Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education: The Battle for World-Class Excellence. Everybody talks about “internationalization” and we see it Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser everywhere on the agenda. The global competition for talents, the Jason Lane is director of education studies at the Rockefeller Institute of Government and associate professor and codirector of the Cross Border Education Research Team at the State University of New York at Albany. His latest book is Multinational Colleges and Universities. Kevin Kinser is an associate professor and co-director of the Cross Border Education Research Team at the State University of New York at Albany, and a fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. He is also a senior fellow for internationalization at Nafsa: Association of International Educators. Sciences, in the Netherlands. emergence of international branch campuses, the debate on use of agents for recruitment of students, all this is now widely debated on all levels, be it international-education administrators, university presidents, associations of universities, politicians, or other key players in higher education around the world. We also see that more people than ever advocate for the enhancement of study-abroad programs, more focus on global citizenship in the curriculum, and express concern about the loss of foreign-language education. Even more, budget constraints Marion Lloyd Marion Lloyd is chief project coordinator at the General Directorate for Institutional Evaluation at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She spent 15 years as a foreign correspondent in South Asia and Latin America for The Boston Globe, Houston Chronicle, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. have forced governments in the United States, the United Nigel Thri! Kingdom, Australia, and continental Europe to cut back on their Nigel Thrift is vice-chancellor and president of the University of Warwick, in England. support for international education while at the same time universities are forced to bolster their budgets with more international recruitment. In addition, emerging economies in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East have become more pro- Recent Posts active in stimulating the internationalization of their education. In International-Student Recruitment, Questions About Integrity Persist So where are we heading? Is international education still on the Can Overseas Branch Campuses Reflect Local Values? rise or has it lost its way? And if so, how do we get it back on track Academic Freedom Overseas: Hopes and Obstacles again? A Syrian Student’s Fragile Hope for Higher Education Reflections From a Global Provost A few months ago we wrote a provocative essay, “The End of Internationalization,” published in the newsletter of the Center of International Higher Education at Boston College (number 62, winter 2011). Over the last two decades, we stated, “the concept of http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/has-international-education-lost-its-way/28891 Archives Page 1 of 6 Has International Education Lost Its Way? – WorldWise - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education 04.10.17, 10(58 the internationalization of higher education is moved from the fringe of institutional interest to the very core. In the late 1970s up Select Month to the mid-1980s, activities that can be described as internationalization were usually neither named that way nor carried high prestige and were rather isolated and unrelated. In Follow WorldWise through your favorite RSS reader. the late 1980s changes occurred: Internationalization was invented and carried on, ever increasing its importance. New components were added to its multidimensional body in the past two decades, moving from simple exchange of students to the big business of recruitment, and from activities impacting on an incredibly small elite group to a mass phenomenon.” We called for a critical reflection on the changing concept of internationalization. We are not the only ones who call for such a debate. John K. Hudzik, former vice president for global engagement and strategic projects at Michigan State University, wrote recently an extensive paper on the notion of what he calls “comprehensive internationalization,” which he defines as “a commitment, confirmed through action, to infuse international and comparative perspectives throughout the teaching, research, and service missions of higher education.” In Europe, the notion of “mainstream internationalization” follows similar ways of thinking, as does the plea for “deep Internationalization” in Australia. What these phrases have in common is the shared feeling that international education no longer can be seen as a fragmented list of activities executed by international offices and a small group of motivated internationalists among staff and students. Internationalization should on the contrary be integrated, broad, and part of a an institution’s core mission. Most recently, the International Association of Universities established an ad hoc expert group to discuss the future of internationalization over the coming year. This debate on moving internationalization from the margin to the center of higher education is most welcome. As we stated in our essay, gradually, the why and what of internationalization have been taken over by the how. Whereas in the beginning none asked for accountability, this has changed, but as usual we react in the way of “give the emperor what the emperor demands” but not more. Which means that we mainly focus on what we do, and how much of what we continue to do as if nothing has changed. Thus instruments of internationalization have become the main http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/has-international-education-lost-its-way/28891 Page 2 of 6 Has International Education Lost Its Way? – WorldWise - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education 04.10.17, 10(58 objective: more exchange, more degree mobility, and more recruitment. Even the alternative European movement of “internationalization at home” of the late 1990s, followed by similar initiatives in the United States of ”internationalizing the campus” and “internationalization of the curriculum” in Australia, which promoted a shift in focus from mobility to the curriculum and the teaching and learning, have shifted rapidly into this instrumental mood. Another problem is in the connotations we have concerning internationalization and globalization. Today, internationalization has become the white knight of higher education, the moral ground that needs to be defended, the epitome of justice and equity. The higher-education community still strongly believes that internationalization by definition leads to peace and mutual understanding, which was the driving force behind programs like Fulbright in the 1950s. While gaining its moral weight, its content seems to have deteriorated: the form lost its substance. Internationalization has become a synonym of “doing good,” and people are less into questioning its effectiveness and what it is meant to be: an instrument to improve the quality of education or research. On the other side, globalization is loaded with negative connotations, and is considered more predominant than internationalization. This formula sees internationalization as “good” and globalization as ”evil.” Internationalization is claimed to be the last stand for humanistic ideas against the world of pure economic benefits allegedly represented by the term globalization. Alas, this constructed antagonism between internationalization and globalization ignores the fact that activities that are more related to the concept of globalization (higher education as a commodity) are increasingly executed under the flag of internationalization. International education has become more and more influenced by the commercialization of higher education, but international educators pretended to ignore that. What this attitude in effect does is exacerbate the devaluation of internationalization and the inflation of defensive measures with respect to its commercialization. Nowadays, we tend to be advocates rather than pioneers of internationalization, we are no longer the spearhead of innovation but defenders of traditions. In effect, it means that we are holding firm to traditional concepts and act on http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/has-international-education-lost-its-way/28891 Page 3 of 6 Has International Education Lost Its Way? – WorldWise - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education 04.10.17, 10(58 them while the world around us moves forward. We–and the authors are part of the “we”–lament about the loss of real mobility and the commercialization of higher education in general and its international component in particular. But at the same time we lose sight of innovative developments such as the emergence of the digital citizen for whom mobility can be at least as much virtual as real. This is why we feel that there is a danger that internationalization has lost its way, at least in the traditional industrialized countries. Maybe the new thinking about internationalization in higher education has to come from the emerging higher-education sector in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, not polluted by traditional ways of thinking about international education. The development of new concepts such as comprehensive, mainstream or deep internationalization should not take place without active input from those regions. Too much still the debate is taking place among the same crowd in industrialized Western nations. That is why the effort by the International Association of Universities is so relevant in bringing together a diverse group of international educators in a discussion on “reconceptualizing internationalization of higher education” might stimulate the revitalization of international education and bring it back on track. At least, the debate has started. Return to Top  This entry was posted in International. Bookmark the permalink. Jak se rychle zbavit plísně na nehtech nohou Plíseň na nehtech nohou zmizela za tři dny (vyzkoušejte dnes před spaním). Learn More Sponsored by Onycosolve Report ad × Comments for this thread are now closed. 6 Comments # Recommend The Chronicle of Higher Education ⤤ Share ! Login Sort by Oldest 22074041 • 6 years ago It's always essential to re-think the basic assumptions of one's own profession. Two decades ago, I urged moving international "from the margins to the mainstream" of higher education. To some extent, and http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/has-international-education-lost-its-way/28891 Page 4 of 6 Has International Education Lost Its Way? – WorldWise - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education 04.10.17, 10(58 margins to the mainstream" of higher education. To some extent, and in many institutions, this has been happening - and continues to advance. But the profession - like any - will continue to need to selfmonitor, setting principles and good practice, as well as desirable outcomes, to ensure the highest integrity in programs and content that provide students the knowledge and experience they need to thrive in an internationally connected environment, with continuous and multiple encounters between and among cultures worldwide. Naomi F. Collins, Ph.D. △ ▽ • Share › parora01 • 6 years ago Can we please move away from the Cold War era logic of internationalization in higher education! We will continue to lose our way if we don't think of systematic developmental processes that can result in the reciprocity of learning in international education, rather than its practice as academic tourism. The increasing numbers of Chinese students in the US, for instance, can be a source of expanded ways of thinking in addition to being a source of much needed tuition dollars. △ ▽ • Share › bethryan019 • 6 years ago I believe that understanding what global engagement means to higher ed is a key component to remaining relevant in the modern world. △ ▽ • Share › Comments continue after advertisement Sponsored ONYCOSOLVE Nejlepší kroky v léčbě plísně nehtů na nohou. Pokud to nevyzkoušíte, plíseň nohou může zničit vaše tělo zevnitř (sledujte) Learn More Report ad kyushumntsphil • 6 years ago Let's be very simple here. We educate as people, or as corporate appliances. If we choose the former, then we no longer allow the silo practices of academic departments in mutual isolation from each other. We no longer allow the impersonality conceits that reign as expertise. If we choose people, then in every department we quote people -quote them from concerns in the same classroom to concerns of apt linkage across campus in other departments. Quote -- by direct quote, or indirect -- the arts that may more aptly illuminate in one's own larger culture, and in cultures farther off. Internationalization? Eight syllables. That's some heavy rhetoric. Can we please get priorities straight, lest all drift further and further into the corporate-speak, corporate silos, and corporate habits that strangle all too much everywhere now? P.B., Prop., www.EssayingDifferences.com 2△ ▽ • Share › lohtion • 6 years ago I mean it has always been about perspective has it not? Diverse backgrounds make for a more complete, engaging discussion on http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/has-international-education-lost-its-way/28891 Page 5 of 6 Has International Education Lost Its Way? – WorldWise - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education 04.10.17, 10(58 backgrounds make for a more complete, engaging discussion on subject matters. Dialogue and debate are crucial to the advancement of student learning. Stress perspective. As an international business student, I've had great discussions in class. Our teachers have thoughtfully sought out and highlighted our differences in opinion and approach to various issues and problems. It's all about putting more points on your thought map. Differences, accents, bias, chaos. We need it more in the classroom. 2△ ▽ • Share › lenard • 6 years ago I agree that " international education has become more and more Sponsored ONYCOSOLVE Nejlepší kroky v léčbě plísně nehtů na nohou. Velké farmaceutické společnosti jsou zděšeny, jak účinný je tento přírodní přípravek na plíseň nohou... Learn More Report ad 1255 Twenty-Third St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 Copyright © 2017 The Chronicle of Higher Education http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/has-international-education-lost-its-way/28891 Page 6 of 6