Aligning Institutional and National Contexts with Internationalization Efforts

Abstract

In this article we report on our study that explored internationalization in higher education institutions as it relates to two levels of “culture” -- institutional culture and national higher education culture. We examined two leading research-intensive universities, “Coastal University” (Australia) and “Prairie University” (U.S.A.), which have similar institutional cultures (as theorized by Bergquist & Pawlak, 2008) yet reside in different national higher education contexts. Through cross-case analysis, we examined internationalization strategies as they relate to institutional culture and sought to draw inferences about the influence of national higher education cultures on these strategies. We propose the need to examine these cultures when developing internationalization strategies within institutions.