Internationalization: Motives

Abstract

I classify the reasons that drive higher education institutions to internationalize into two nonoverlapping categories: academic motives and economic motives. The former include a desire to broaden the institution's educational mission to cover local as well as foreign studentsForeign students, a need to remain relevant in a globalizing world, and the wish to attract the best faculty and students worldwide. Economic motivesEconomic motivesinclude a desire to grow revenues, reduce income volatility, and diversify the institution's sources of cash-generating activities. According to surveys that ask institutions why they internationalize, academic motives dominate. To conclude, I argue that the standard academic motivesAcademic motives (to internationalize)to internationalize do not provide a complete rationale for a nonprofit institution to look beyond its local boundaries. The ultimate benefit of internationalization is to learn from the world, not just teach the world what the institution already knows in order to fulfill its academic mission and provide some international exposure to its students and faculty.