Internationalization was once a marginal concern with sporadic and anyway non-systematic activity. In the last 20 years, it has become one of the ‘pet issues’ of higher education policy. Today, higher education institutions prioritize international activities. This does not mean that levels of achievement are impressive everywhere, nor that every higher education institution ‘knows what it is doing’ in the international sphere.
A very often stated argument in favour of internationalization is that it enhances the quality of higher education. The present paper will investigate just this: the internationalization-quality nexus. This sounds straightforward. But it is not. Two overarching questions need to be addressed. First, what do we mean by ‘internationalization’? Second, which ‘quality’ are we talking about?
The many faces of internationalization
‘Internationalization’ can be very different things to different people. The term is elusive. While 30 years ago, people who used it were (mainly) referring to cross-border mobility of students or academics, the list of activities referred to today by the term is long. Hand-in-glove with this development came the widening of the meaning of ‘internationalization’. Instead of providing a definition of ‘internationalization’ and thus deciding what it is and what it is not, I am taking the approach of Ludwig Wittgenstein, a Cambridge professor who originated from Vienna – like most of Europe’s thinkers did towards the early and mid-20th century – and who specialized in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of language. This slightly eccentric gentleman famously defined the meaning of a word as “its use in the language”. Thus, in my inventory below, I am being democratic, and I am listing what people refer to when they use the term ‘internationalization’.
International mobility
The ‘international mobility of students and scholars’ was the first and still is the most frequent meaning of internationalization today. In fact, there is no such thing as ‘mobility pure and simple’. Rather, there are ‘mobilities’. I want to mention only one of many differentiations necessary, the one between ‘credit mobility’ (exchanges of one or two academic terms) and ‘degree mobility’ (mobility to study an entire degree programme and graduate from it).
‘Learning mobility’, as the European Commission is in the habit of calling it, is still the dominant form of ‘internationalization’, as you will later notice. At the same time, it is what the doyen of research into internationalisation, Ulrich Teichler, once called the “most primitive form of knowledge transfer”. He argued that the need for international mobility was the result of the failure of higher education to teach students how life is in other countries. So the only option is for them to go abroad and see for themselves.
Recognition of degrees and study periods (credits) abroad
With increasing numbers of mobile students and scholars, questions of recognition of credits, degrees and other academic or professional qualifications gain in importance. Tools have been developed in Europe (ECTS, diploma supplement, qualification frameworks) and at regional and global level (Lisbon Convention). ‘Internationalization’ of this type is obviously mobility-related, since international recognition becomes an issue only through mobility across country borders.
Curricular internationalization
With this category, we are referring to a set of activities and issues which are sometimes also labelled as ‘internationalization at home’. This mixed-bag category covers as diverse elements as ‘international’ content (for example International Law or Country-Comparative Studies), area studies (South-East Asian Studies, American Studies), double and joint degrees as well as any integrated study abroad phases (often collectively referred to as ‘mobility windows’), and intercultural learning in the ‘intercultural classroom’, to mention just the most common emanations. Some of the above, though by no means all of them, have a mobility aspect (double and joint degrees).
English-medium instruction (EMI)
Some would classify the offer of programmes in English in a country where English is not the or a medium of instruction as a sub-set of ‘internationalization at home’. We do not disagree, but we mention EMI separately, because it has become a very sizeable phenomenon and yet it remains highly controversial. Many see it as an attack on the national language and a linguistic takeover by Anglo-Saxon conquerors.
Learning of foreign languages
Multilingualism is seen, in Europe at any rate, as a good in itself. One of the Union’s chief aims is that all its citizens speak two foreign languages, on top of the native tongue. While the EU clings ferociously to this aim, the reality is probably a decrease of the degree of multilingualism over time. The learning of foreign languages is also less and less mentioned as a form of ‘internationalization’. We are raising the issue here mainly to draw attention to this fact.
Services for international students and alumni
With the growth in the numbers of foreign students and the financial implications of degree-seeking fee-paying students in a growing number of European countries, universities and colleges have come to understand that international students require services of all sorts, from academic counselling to help in finding accommodation and healthcare, to intercultural support, etc. This form of ‘internationalization’ is obviously also linked to mobility (of the incoming, degree-seeking type).
Marketing and recruitment
Together with the drive to attract bigger numbers of international students, be that for financial reasons, for attracting top talent, or simply for reputational gains, the systematic marketing at an international (global) level of programmes, institutions or whole national systems of higher education has become a standard element of internationalization. Once again, this element is mobility-related.
Transnational education
Transnational education (TNE), i.e. the setting up of branch campuses abroad, ‘franchising’ or ‘collaborative provision’, to name only three of many forms, is also regarded by many as a form of ‘internationalization’. Some also categorise online and distance education as well as the MOOCs (massive open online courses) and ‘Open Educational Resources’ as TNE. TNE is sometimes presented as the ‘mobility of institutions’, i.e. a form of education where not the learner moves abroad, but the provider.
Institutional networks
We live in an age where even the most mundane matters need to be ‘strategic’ – at least as far as rhetoric goes. International partnerships of universities and other higher education institutions are not an exception to this rule. ‘Strategic partnerships’ are all the craze, even though hardly anyone knows what they are (unless the term refers to the strand of the same name in the EU’s Erasmus+ Programme). Partnerships have of course always figured high on the list of internationalization elements, since they provide a structure for the exchange of students and staff.
Joint / coordinated structural and substantive system reforms
Almost 20 years ago, the Bologna Process was started. A year later, the European Council (heads of state and government of EU member states) adopted the Lisbon Strategy. The Bologna Process tried to ‘harmonize’ system structures across Europe and Asia minor. Among others by the introduction of a then new degree architecture. The Lisbon Strategy, which is not limited to education, set targets for the improvement of education performance. In both cases, the ‘international’ nature of the processes is that their implementation was planned and agreed at a supra-national level.
International rankings
International and global rankings are leaving their mark on the internationalization discourse. Not only are universities using their position in the rankings in their promotion campaigns, if the place is a good one. Foreign students take these rankings into consideration when choosing their university. The likes of the league tables of Times Higher Ed and the Academic Ranking of World Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University impact in many ways on internationalization and are regarded by many as an element of internationalization. This is all the stranger because the global ranking measure mainly research prowess (and not the quality of teaching). They say little about the degree to which a university is international.
Values
In recent years, a number of activities have (re-)surfaced which stress ethical aspects of internationalization. In a way, this is a return to the beginnings of internationalization after WWII, when international cooperation in higher education was often motivated by the need for reconciliation, at least in Europe and the USA. Together with the ‘commodification’ of higher education, this cooperation-based paradigm was partly replaced by a competitive one. Today, the concepts of an inclusive internationalization, often linked to migration and refugees, are in the forefront. In Europe, the voices are getting stronger which advocate the use of internationalization as a tool against populism, xenophobia, and also the disintegration of the ‘European Union’, which some regard see as under threat.
Quality and internationalization
Why should higher education internationalize? Many reasons have been named. Among them the increased employability of graduates on the international employment market. ‘Knowledge gains’ are another argument, viewing international students as skilled migrants. In a not at all small number of European countries, financial rationales of a more direct sort are brought into play. Fee income from international students is often used to cross-subsidise higher education. The most frequently-named argument in favour of internationalization is ‘quality’. But what exactly is meant by ‘quality’?
No quality without internationalization
The first variant of the quality argument runs like this: in a globalized world, there can be no quality education without (elements of) internationalization. In other words, this approach claims that a purely ‘national’ education is no longer good enough. In this approach, internationalization is simply regarded as a conditio sine qua non of quality higher education. The argument is an ‘evergreen’: the European Communities used it already in the legal document establishing the first ever Erasmus Programme (1987). In the mid-1990s, Marijk van der Wende gave it its academic blessing in a landmark OECD publication. Far more recently, Jamil Salmi of the World Bank used it in its seminal book The challenge of establishing world-class universities (2009). For him, internationalization is one of three characteristics of world-class higher education institutions.
Internationalization enhances students’ knowledge and skills
This argument is closely linked to the international mobility of students. It argues that a period of study abroad enhances graduates’ skills. Particularly such of a linguistic, international and intercultural sort, but also key skills like ‘independence’, ‘adaptability’, etc. But does study abroad lead to an enhancement of disciplinary knowledge and skills? To use an example: does the study of mathematics abroad produce better mathematicians than the study of mathematics at home?
To answer the above question, it is helpful to differentiate into ‘credit mobility’ (exchanges) and ‘degree mobility’ (study of an entire degree programme abroad). Little speaks for it that a term or year abroad will (always) make a mathematics student a better mathematician. If this were so, the target university would invariably produce better mathematicians than the university of origin. This is clearly impossible.
However, there are indeed reasons to assume that ‘degree mobility’ will in most cases produce better disciplinary learning outcomes. Why is this so? Degree mobility is what we call ‘vertical’ in nature. Mobility in this category is predominantly driven by ‘push factors’. Students study abroad not because they are seeking an international education, but because they are faced, in their country of origin, with either a quantitative or qualitative lack of higher education provision.
Quality of internationalization
In the two categories above, the leading question was why and how internationalization enhances the quality of higher education. By moving to the ‘quality of internationalization’, we are entering different territory. In other words, we are asking if the education has been internationalized in a competent manner. This approach to quality in internationalization focuses on the organization of internationalization and is thus related to the delivering higher education institution. Is there a clear division of labour (who does what) and are there well- and competently staffed support units (international relations office)? Is there buy-in on the side of the academic staff? Is the staff – academic as well as administrative – interculturally competent? Have administrative support measures been put in place to minimize difficulties and maximize outcomes?
Quality as quality assurance: attempts to avoid the worst
This fourth mode of ‘quality’ is simply that of the modern for of quality assurance. Many people equate quality assurance with high quality or ‘excellence, but this is a wrong assessment. The most common form of quality assurance follows the concept of ‘compliance with standards’. The question is therefore how high the standards set are. Very often, they are not very high, because if they were, governments might have to close whole institutions and would limit provision seriously. As Sir Peter Scott once famously put it, “quality assurance is after all a policing measure”. It might be necessary in the field of TNE, where a lot of shady actors are on the loose. Otherwise, quality assurance rarely has anything to do with the pursuit of excellence.
This is slightly different with instruments faintly reminiscent of quality assurance, which are, however, meant to advise higher education institutions. Participation in them is usually voluntary and they aim at helping institutions to improve rather than awarding a label. The classical methodology consists of a self-evaluation report and a site visit of peers, resulting in a set of recommendations for the improvement of the internationalization strategy and practice of a higher education institution. An example at the global level is the International Association of Universities’ Internationalization Strategies Advisory Service (ISAS). National examples are the international audits of the German Rectors’ Conference’ (Internationalization of universities) and the Hungarian Tempus Public Foundation’s Campus Mundi Review, to name only two.
Famous last words
Too complicated? No, very simple. Neither ‘quality’ nor ‘internationalization’ are self-explanatory terms. Just follow the recommendation of Immanuel Kant: learn to distinguish and to differentiate.