Recently I have been doing a bit of reading about the international education market in the United States of America and the internationalization of the country’s higher education sector.

In the articles I looked at, internationalization is defined as a comprehensive and complex process where by an institution pursues a variety of measures in an effort to better prepare all of their graduates for an increasingly globalised world, a world where both the employment and ideas market are increasingly integrated.

 

 

When considering whether a university is engaging with the process of internationalization there are several factors to consider. Although the most visible aspect and often the most controversial, the amount of international students enrolled at a particular campus is just one aspect of internationalization. Other aspects include foreign language enrollments, domestic student interest in study abroad programs, the amount of international content included in curricula across all subject areas, the presence of requirements for students to take up a language or an international area of study as part of their undergraduate degree, international faculty members, how aware an institutions students are of international issues, and institutional support for internationalization in the form of funding. Central to all of these elements is Government policy that encourages internationalization and funding that allows for its facilitation. With this view of view internationalization, we can see how interaction between Government policy and the vision of individual tertiary institutions shapes the nature of the international education sector within a country.

 

Recent media debate in Australia regarding international education has focused solely on the importance of international students as the customers who sustain a valuable export commodity. When we read about international students being attacked or ripped off it is often as if we are reading about a threat to Australia’s market share rather than serious problems affecting the lives and hopes of individual students.

The reality is that international student enrollments should be viewed as but one aspect of a larger process that has as its goal the production of students capable of handling the challenges of globalization. Taking the creation of global graduates as the goal of international education and viewing international enrollments in domestic universities or the establishment of off shore campuses and online delivery systems as only one part of a broader process allows one to take a less cynical view of international education markets and see the potential that truly internationalized university campuses could provide.

 

This brings me to the question. Are any of our universities truly internationalized? Sure, in Victoria, international education is our number one service export but what is the Government doing, and what are universities doing to ensure that all students on campus are reaping the benefits of increased student mobility. International students are not the only ones who could be benefiting from a truly internationalized campus. Whilst international students come to Australia to earn a degree and benefit from increasing their English skills and knowledge of a foreign culture, the Australian population should also be tapping into this population and harnessing their wealth of cultural and linguistic knowledge.

 

To improve the benefits we all may hope to receive from internationalizing our universities, academic Madeline Green posts a series of questions in her article ‘Joining the world: The challenge of internationalizing undergraduate education’, questions that are aimed at ascertaining the degree to which an institution is embracing the process of internationalization. I have posted the questions below in the hope that they might give us all pause for reflection, and wonder whether Australian universities truly believe in internationalization, or are they merely seeking to benefit from the full fees paid by international students?

 

 

* To what extent has your institution developed learning goals associated with the global and international dimensions of undergraduate education? How do you assess student achievement of those goals?

* To what extent is there a clear strategy to accomplish the goals? How does this strategy take into account your institution's mission, history, and student body?

* To what extent does your institution's general education curriculum include global content, perspectives, and different ways of knowing? What is your evidence?

* To what extent do the academic departments attempt to internationalize the major? To what extent do they promote or impede study abroad for students? What is your evidence?

* How rich are the opportunities for students to take courses with an international/global focus? What do enrollment patterns in these courses over time tell you about student interest?

* Do you have a language requirement? Why or why not? What do enrollment patterns in language courses reveal? What qualitative data do you have about language learning at your institution?

* How is internationalization manifested in the co-curriculum (such as international events, festivals, lectures, and films)? To what extent do students attend these events?

* How does your institution review and evaluate the global dimensions of undergraduate education?

* How does your institution promote faculty engagement in internationalization? What barriers are there to their engagement? To what extent are you succeeding in removing them? What is your evidence?

* What opportunities exist in the local environment to enhance your internationalization efforts? To what extent has your institution taken advantage of them?

* What governance and administrative structures support internationalization? How well are they working?

* What financial resources does your institution provide for internationalization? What are the most important targets for further investment?

* What have been the trends in recent years with respect to enrollment of international students on your campus? Are there strategies to make their presence contribute to the internationalization of your institution? How well are they working?

* What links does your campus have with institutions in other countries? How well are they working?

* How would an undergraduate student on your campus know that your institution considers internationalization a priority and an institutional value?