Impact of Internationalisation Strategies on Academics’ International Research Activities – Case Study of the Three HE Peripheries: Slovenia, Croatia and Lithuania

Abstract

Internationalisation processes affect academic cultures by establishing new challenges within different higher education functions, with academics being an important actor in its implementation. Even though internationalisation is usually central to higher education reforms in small higher education systems, to be successful, it needs to be accepted and acknowledged by the individual academics and supported by institutional and national mechanisms. In our chapter, we analyse the academics’ views on their institutional focus on research excellence and internationalisation and to what extent they are involved in international research activities. Internationalisation is one of the major reform issues in the three studied small peripheral higher education systems (Slovenia, Croatia and Lithuania). The chapter looks at the internationalisation of research, which is high on the institutional agendas, but its actual implications in the studied countries vary due to different historical backgrounds, focus and approaches. Presenting comparative analysis, the authors discuss differences and similarities in three former socialist higher education systems and analyse gender, ranks and disciplinary perspectives.