The Internationalisation of Universities: Specific Challenges and Opportunities for Capital City Universities

Dr. Hans de Wit, VU University Amsterdam/Windesheim University of Applied Sciences

Editor Journal of Studies in International Education

jwm.de.wit@windesheim.nl

Poland International Education Conference, Warsaw, April 17,2008

Terms used for Internationalisation of Higher Education :

1. Curriculum related:

International studies, global studies, multicultural education, intercultural education, peace education, etc.

2. Mobility related:

Study abroad, education abroad, academic mobility, foreign students advising, academic exchange, etc.

New: cross border delivery of education related

Borderless education Education across borders or cross-

border education Global education Offshore education International trade of educational

services

Internationalisation Abroad or Borderless Higher Education (1)

Athough it is not a new phenomenon, it is its rapidly increasinging scale since the 1990’s that makes it a relevant phenomenon

The privatisation and deregulation of higher education have stimulated that traditional public and private higher education get involved

New private ‘for profit’ providers have entered the market

Internationalisation Abroad or Borderless Higher Education (2)

GATS (1995), including trade in educational services, became a highly debated response to this increasing phenomenon

International trade in education services accounts for app. 3% of global services exports, primarily through student mobility

Trade is already more important than aid in higher education

Programme mobility (Franchising, twinning, joint and double degrees) and Consumption Abroad (International Student Mobility) are the most dominant forms.

New Driving Forces/Rationales

Strategic alliances

Regionalisation (Bologna Process)

National Security (9/11)

Revenue Generation

Skilled Migration

Standards, Status, Profile, Branding, Ranking

Implications for Internationalisation

Internationalisation can be seen as to consist of two components:

Internationalisation at Home: activities that help students develop international understanding and intercultural skills

Internationalisation Abroad: all forms of education crossing borders, mobility of students, teachers, scholars, programmes, courses, curriculum, projects

(Knight, 2006)

These are basically the new versions of the two traditional categories of curriculum and mobility forms of international education.

Future Challenges for Internationalisation of Higher Education

Skilled immigration: competition for skilled labour in the global knowledge economy between developed countries and emerging countries.

The increasingly more competitive higher education environment, which requires new approaches and strategies for cooperation than the traditional ones

Opportunities

Education more and more important in a knowledge society

Stronger regional cooperation, such as the development of the European Higher Education Area

Increase demand for education and research to solve increasingly complex global problems

New and deeper forms of international co-operation

New dimensions and perspectives gained through entering the global educational market place

Universities in Capital Cities

Do they have specific challenges and opportunities of Internationalisation?

Qualitative ranking of the university potential of the European cities (personal elaboration on the basis of the 2007 Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranking of the 500 best universities in the world, UNICA, VanderMotten, September 2007)

1 ère ville 2 ème ville 3 ème ville TotalFirst City Second City Third City Sum

Royaume-Uni United Kingdom LONDON (23,5) Glasgow (4,2) Cambridge (3,3) 115,4Allemagne Germany München (6,5) Heidelberg (3,2) Göttingen (3,2) 109,8France France PARIS (24,2) Aix-Marseille (5,6) Lyon (3,9) 55,2Italie Italy Milano (6,1) Pisa (5,8) ROMA (4,2) 46,3Pays-Bas Netherlands AMSTERDAM (6,3) Utrecht (3,3) Leiden (3,2) 36,2Suède Sweden STOCKHOLM (12,0) Uppsala (6,2) Göteborg (5,9) 31,3Suisse Switzerland Zürich (6,5) Lausanne (6,1) Basel (3,2) 23,1Belgique Belgium BRUXELLES (5,8) Gent (3,2) Leuven (3,2) 21,2Espagne Spain MADRID (5,9) Barcelona (5,7) Valencia (5,6) 20,2Autriche Austria WIEN (7,0) Innsbruck (3,6) Graz (3,6) 14,3Danemark Denmark KOBENHAVN (6,4) Aarhus (3,2) Odense (2,9) 12,5Finlande Finland HELSINKI (4,3) Turku (2,6) Oulu (2,6) 10,5Norvège Norway OSLO (3,2) Trondheim (2,9) Bergen (2,6) 9,8Irlande Ireland DUBLIN (5,6) Cork (1,0) 6,6Russie Russia MOSKVA (3,2) St Petersburg (2,6) 5,9Grèce Greece ATHINAI (2,9) Thessaloniki (2,6) 5,6Hongrie Hungary BUDAPEST (2,6) Szeged (2,6) 5,3Pologne Poland WARSZAWA (2,6) Krakow (2,6) 5,3Rép. tchèque Czech Rep. PRAHA (2,9) 2,9Portugal Portugal LISBOA (1,0) Porto (1,0) 2,0Slovénie Slovenia LJUBLJANA (1,0) 1,0

Implications

The most important cities, in particular capital cities, are concentrating the most important university potential (with the exception of Germany, Switzerland and Italy)

Even if sometimes in peri-metropolitan locations : Louvain and Louvain-la-Neuve, Oxford, Cambridge, Uppsala, etc. (VanderMotten, 2007)

Capital cities Universities in the THE ranking 2007

Key aspects:

1. 25% of the universities (37) in the top 150are from Capital Cities and 50% of the 40

UNICA members

2. Paris (6) and London (5) are the best represented, followed by Berlin, Stockholm and

Dublin (3), andAmsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Vienna (2).

3. 28 out of the 37 are in 10 Capital Cities.

4. Only 3 in Southern Europe and 2 in Central and Eastern Europe, all in the second half of the list.

International Staff and Student Factor in the THE Ranking

1. All 5 London universities score high on international staff and students.This is also the case for 2 of the 3

Stockholm Universities and one from the 6 of Paris.

2. From the three universities in Southern Europe two score very low both on staff and students, as does one of the two universities in Central and Eastern

Europe.

3. All 6 universities in Paris score lower on international staff than on international students, 3 of them even extremely lower. The same is true, although to a lesser extreme for the three universities in Berlin and the 2 universities in Vienna.

4. In contrast, the 2 universities in Amsterdam score much lower on international students than on staff. The same is true for the three universities in Dublin, although to a lesser extent.

Conclusions from the Rankings

Universities in Capital cities play a leading global and regional role in Research and Education, in particular if one includes the peri-metropolitan universities.

This is true for North-Western Europe but not (yet) for Southern and Central and Eastern European universities (in general and for universities in capital cities).

The English Language and Anglosaxian Higher Education Orientation play an important factor, in general and in particular in the recruitment of international talents.

Strategic Alliances between universities from capital cities can increase their leading position even more, as together they are a strong pool.

UNICA

UNICA promotes itself as ‘an Institutional Network of Excellence of Universities from the Capital cities of Europe’, with more than 40 universities, 30 countries, 1.8 million students and 150.000 staff.

It is active in:Internationalistation & MobilityPolicy & StrategyEducationResearch & DevelopmentMission & Link with Society

http://www.unica-network.eu

Mission & Link with Society

Activities:

Urban-Capial working Group Contact with the Union of the

Capitals of the European Union.

Weaknesses

UNICA Universities and their cities are not cooperating in a strategic and innovative way to improve their positions as leading international entities in the knowledge economy

The same applies to their regional associations

UNICA as well as other alliances and networks of city universities have not been very effective in exploring the opportunities of cooperation with their cities

Opportunities

Capital cities are international and intercultural centres: demographically, culturally, economically, financially, and academically.

Such centres are a most valuable asset to recruit international top talent.

They also create a positive environment for national top talent, that can compete in an international knowledge economy

Challenges

City authorities, the private sector and university management should develop a joint strategy to provide a positive climate for national and international talent: industry-university partnerships, scholarships, internship opportunities, employment opportunities, housing facilities, an open cultural climate.(See for instance the Freie Universitat Berlin Excelence Initiative)

They also should develop joint strategic alliances with similar cities: joint degree programmes, joint industry-univrsity partnerships, joint centers of excellence.

THE DYNAMICS OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CIRCULATION IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Hans De WitWindesheim Hogeschool, The Netherlands

Pawan AgarwalMinorities Development and Welfare Department, India

Mohsen Elmahdy Said Ministry of Higher Education, Egypt

Molatlhegi T.SehooleUniversity of Pretoria, South Africa

and

Muhammad SiroziGraduate Studies Program of IAIN, Indonesia (Eds.)[

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