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How is the cross-border mobility of students, academics, educational programmes and institutions changing the higher education landscape and affecting country policies? And how will countries cope domestically with the mounting international pressures and competition?
The internationalisation of higher education is a double-sided phenomenon, which has induced both growing collaboration and growing competition between countries and among institutions and providers. Cross-border higher education has grown significantly over the past decades, and growth is expected to continue. This growth has been driven by several inter-linked forces: increased and encouraged mobility of skilled workers in an increasingly knowledge-based economy; the drive to develop export industries and expand international collaborations in education; the need to build a more educated workforce in the home country of some of the mobile students, where study options may be limited; the desire of students and academics to have international experience and promote mutual understanding; and the fall in the cost of transport and communications. This growth has, in turn, fed increased competition between countries and higher education institutions for students and academics.
At the same time, domestic higher education systems increasingly face international pressures and competition, be it under voluntary harmonisation agendas (e.g. the Bologna process in Europe, which has led to similar initiatives at a smaller scale in Latin America and Asia); under the pressures of international comparison, manifested by quality labels, ranking efforts; or due to the increasing frequency of partnerships and recognition agreements. Like the older-established research universities, higher education institutions of all types increasingly see themselves as actors in a global market, not restricted to a domestic role or agenda.
This strand of the work builds on CERI work on internationalisation and trade in higher education.
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