Mutual learning exercises have become increasingly employed in Europe over the last decade. This study examines the policy learning process in the area of internationalization of science and technology, which has been targeted as a priority for Europe. Through a case study of the open method of coordination expert group in this area, the analysis…

Higher education had a predominant national and institutional focus for a long time. In Europe, supra-national political activities played a major role for increasing the interest in comparative research. Comparative perspectives are important in order to deconstruct the often national perspective of causal reasoning, for proving benchmarks, for…

There is now an extensive literature about internationalisation in higher education. However, much of the research relates to North America and Europe. This paper is concerned with internationalisation in Latin America and seeks to consider perceptions and experiences in Colombia and Mexico, and to compare practice in the public and private…

The discourse on the internationalization of higher education emphasizes revenue generation while neglecting other diverse rationales pursued by governments and institutions. For countries that are seeking to venture into a knowledge economy or accrue greater competitive advantages under globalization, many policymakers view cross-border higher…

The global context of contemporary higher education demands international benchmarks. Quality assurance of teaching and learning would benefit from the insights gained from cross-cultural assessments. If cross-cultural assessments are used it is imperative that equivalence is assured, requiring attention to the technical standards used. In this…

This article engages with the question: what does the internationalisation of higher education in times of globalisation sustain and what should it sustain? We first consider, through literature on globalisation and Stier's ("Glob Soc Educ" 2(1):1-28, 2004) work, limitations of currently prevalent perspectives on…

This paper examines the responses of a Malaysian public university, namely Universiti Sains Malaysia, to the impact of globalisation vis-à-vis three key issues: international students, academic publications and world university rankings. There are concerted efforts put in place by the university to recruit more international students. But a global…

In an educational context characterised by globalisation, reputation constitutes a crucial issue for today's higher education institutions. Internationalisation of higher education is often seen as a potential response to globalisation and, consequently, higher education has become increasingly internationalised during the past decade. In…

The American academic research enterprise relies heavily on contributions made by foreign nationals. Of particular note is the large number of international postdocs employed at universities in the United States (US). Postdocs are among the fastest growing group of academic staff in the US, and over 50% of all postdocs in the US are temporary visa…

This paper examines how opportunity structures for learning, income, and status emerge in a global space shaped by local stakeholders aspiring for strategic positions in international competition. The case-study of Hong Kong suggests that moving up the pyramid of college and university degrees provides opportunities for higher income and reduces…

This article focuses on change in higher education in response to environmental pressures, more specifically pressures coming from European integration initiatives with respect to higher education, e.g. the Bologna Process. Significant research attention has so far been focused on the supposed impact of European initiatives on higher education…

This paper, based on the data of 48 countries and regions from 1999 to 2008, studies the economic and educational determinants of how countries of different types attract international students. The study finds that: the volume of merchandise trade between countries facilitates international student mobility across borders; international students…

While there has been considerable policy discussion about the need to internationalize American higher education, our understanding of the internationalization in American faculty's research remains limited. This study intends to investigate the extent of internationalization in American faculty's scholarly work and what individual and…

In this paper, we explore the evolution of the Indian State's role in governance, and the implications this has for goal setting. We find that the Indian government's activist role in governance marked a change from the colonial period. This, we suggest, was not due to changes in the relative influence of different stakeholder groups. It was…

This study examines the ways in which different research perspectives have tended to problematize global university rankings (GURs). An analytical framework is applied to help articulate four distinct research discourses that have been applied to GURs. The framework distinguishes research problems which are locally defined and "emergent" from…