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March 23, 2017
International Association of Universities (IAU) embarks on a dedicated "Internationalization of Higher Education" Campaign
Photo: A section of UNESCO headquarters building, Paris, France. Image Credit: Anna Armstrong.
The UNESCO-based worldwide association of higher education institutions, International Association of Universities (IAU), is strengthening its Higher Education Internationalization program.
What is Internationalization of Higher Education?
Professor Hans De Wit, a noted specialist in this field and founding editor of the Journal of Studies in International Education describes it as the process of integrating international and intercultural dimensions into the purpose, functions, and delivering of post-secondary education so that its quality improves and making it a meaningful contribution to the society.
While, OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), defines it as the complex of processes whose combined effect, whether planned or not, is to enhance the international dimension of the experience of higher education in universities and similar educational institutions.
IAU has classified the internationalization process into five sections:
- Academic mobility
- Internationalization at home, of the curriculum, and learning outcomes
- Internationalization of research
- Borderless, offshore, transnational and cross-border education
- Development cooperation and capacity building
What are the academic benefits of Internationalization of Higher Education?
According to IAU, educational benefits of internationalization include:
- Improved quality of teaching, learning, and research.
- Broader engagement with national, regional, and global matters and stakeholders.
- Better preparation of students as national and global citizens and as productive members of the workforce.
- Access for students to programs that are unavailable or rare in their home countries.
- Enhanced opportunities for faculty improvement and lowered chance of academic inbreeding through mobility.
- Possibility to participate in international networks to conduct research on pressing issues at home and abroad and benefit from the expertise and perspectives of researchers from diverse regions of the world.
- Opportunity to analyze institutional performance.
- Improved institutional policy-making, governance, student services, outreach, and quality assurance by sharing of experiences beyond national boundaries.
Giorgio Marinoni, Manager of Internationalization Policy at IAU, told the editor that globalization has completely changed the environment in which Higher Education institutions around the world operate, and it is a phenomenon they cannot ignore.
IAU’s program of advisory services for advancing internationalization called ISAS (2.0), consists of several different but complementary services offered to IAU Members, other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), individuals at HEIs, national governments, and other organizations.
IAU has, meanwhile, called upon higher education institutions pursuing internationalization to adhere to the following values:
- Commitment to promote academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and social responsibility.
- Pursuit of socially responsible practices locally and internationally, such as equity in access and success, and non-discrimination.
- Adherence to accepted standards of scientific integrity and research ethics.
- Placement of academic goals such as student learning, the advancement of research, engagement with the community, and addressing global problems at the centre of their internationalization efforts.
- The pursuit of the internationalization of the curriculum as well as extracurricular activities so that non-mobile students, still the overwhelming majority, can also benefit from internationalization and gain the global competencies they will need.
- Engagement in the unusual opportunity to create international communities of research, learning, and practice to solve pressing global problems.
- Affirmation of reciprocal benefit, respect, and fairness as the basis for partnership.
- Treatment of international students and scholars ethically and respectfully in all aspects of their relationship with the institution.
- Pursuit of innovative forms of collaboration that address resource differences and enhance human and institutional capacity across nations.
- Safeguarding and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity and respecting local concerns and practices when working outside one’s own country.
- Continuous assessment of the impacts, intended and unintended, positive and negative, of internationalization activities on other institutions.
- Responding to new internationalization challenges through dialogue that combines consideration of fundamental values with the search for practical solutions to facilitate interaction between higher education institutions across borders and cultures while respecting and promoting diversity.
Founded in 1950, under the auspices of UNESCO, the International Association of Universities (IAU), with headquarters at UNESCO, Paris, France, is the leading global association of higher education institutions and organizations.
Its members from India, for example, include the following among others:
- University of Delhi
- University of Mysore
- University of Jammu
- Amrita University
- Banaras Hindu University
- Birla Institute of Technology & Science
- Chandigarh University
- Indian Institute of Information Technology
- National Law University, Delhi
- PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh
- Punjab Technical University
- Panjab University, Chandigarh
- Lovely Professional University
- South Asian University
International Association of Universities (IAU) chairs the editorial team of the “Internationalisation of Higher Education” handbook. This handbook, published by DUZ Academic Publishers, Berlin, Germany, is a valuable tool and source of reference for higher education institutions.
|GlobalGiants.Com|
The editor, Surender Hastir MAUA, is an Administration Consultant and an Expert in Internationalization of Higher Education. He is currently collaborating with IAU in advancing this field.
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 3:49 AM | Link to this Post
