Global: The Changing Role of Leadership in International Education

Abstract

Over the past year, several conferences, reports, documents and articles have addressed the changing role of internationalisation in higher education and the need to rethink the why, how, and what of it. One aspect has received little attention in this debate: how the change impacts the role of leaders in international education— referred to in the United States as senior international officers—both now and in the future. The recently published call for action by the International Association of Universities (IAU), Affirming Academic Values in Internationalisation of Higher Education, describes the changes in internationalisation clearly. It states among other things: “Internationalisation today is remarkably different from what it was in the first half of the 20th century, in the 1960s or 1980s (…) The resulting changes in goals, activities and actors have led to a re-examination of terminology, conceptual frameworks and previous understandings and, more importantly, to an increased but healthy questioning of internationalisation’s values, purposes, goals, and means.” These changes inevitably have an effect on management and leadership in international education, but are these well prepared for the impact?