Internationalization of Higher Education: Navigating Between Contrasting Trends

Abstract

The internationalization of higher education in the last decades reigns highly on the agendas of higher education systems worldwide. Universities in Europe, as well as in other regions, are expected to become key players in a global knowledge network. In addition to state-to-state academic relationships, there are a growing number of higher education institution-to-institution collaborative ventures, operating beyond national jurisdictions. Both higher education systems and individual higher education institutions are forced nowadays to navigate between contrasting trends. This paper examines five pairs of contrasting trends along which higher education systems, as well as individual higher education institutions, have to navigate in defining their missions and in shaping their operational strategies: serving national priorities vs. operating within an international setting; government steering vs. institutional autonomy; increased diversity vs. harmonization policies; competition vs. collaboration; and intellectual property vs. intellectual philanthropy. On the continuum of these five contrasting trends, each higher education institution has to define today its functioning in its national context and in the international higher education network.