CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Craciun, Daniela Alexandra |
|---|---|
| Title | Systematizing National Higher Education Internationalization Strategies: Reconceptualizing a Process |
| Summary | Internationalization has come to be considered the most significant development in higher education changing the face of the sector across the globe. At the same time, it is less clear what this transformation entails and how countries compare against each other in forwarding the process. The thesis recognizes, and subsequently addresses, a trifecta of interrelated problems with existing research on higher education internationalization: (1) a loose conceptualization of the process, (2) limited cross-country comparative research, and (3) the lack of a methodological apparatus to efficiently study policy developments across the globe. Considering these limitations, the thesis asks: How can the conceptual clarity of ‘interna tionalization&# x2019; be improved so as to increase its analytical purchase in the study of higher education? In order to answer this central research question and address the uncovered research gaps, the thesis proposes to: (1) reconceptualize higher education internationalization by (2) building a typology of national higher education internationalization strategies from across the globe using (3) an innovative and efficient methodological apparatus to analyze, summarize and compare policy texts. The thesis develops a novel methodological apparatus that enables higher education researchers to make reliable, valid and replicable inferences from textual data. It uses a mixed methods research design based on computer-assisted topic modeling techniques, specifically Latent Dirichlet Allocation, and qualitative interviewing of documents to show how researchers can carry out high-quality international comparative research with limited resources. The analysis is based on an original database comprising a census of national strategies for higher education internationalization. The findings of the thesis reveal important insights into the intricate landscape of higher education internationalization at the national level as related to the prevalence, timing, geographical spread and the characteristics of the countries and higher education systems that pursue internationalization in a strategic manner. Moreover, the findings clearly show that internationalization is not an end in itself, but a means to a wider goal, with different countries pursuing different goals and priorities in relation to the process. The analysis uncovers two types of higher education internationalization approaches that countries pursue: (1) inward internationalization focusing on international student mobility and the internationalization of universities and the study programs and courses they provide and (2) outward internationalization focusing on international student mobility and the internationalization of research through international cooperation. In light of the findings of the thesis, higher education internationalization is reconceptualized to ensure a link between the definition and the empirical manifestations of the process. The findings lend support to conceptualizing internationalization as: (1) a planned process (2) that covers a variety of measures that change the purposes, function and delivery of higher education (3) with a specific goal in mind. Thus, a updated definition of internationalization that covers all these attributes is proposed: In ternationalizat ion is the intentional process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purposes, functions and delivery of post-secondary education, in order to achieve intended academic, socio-cultural, economic and/or political goals. The thesis ends by highlighting the original theoretical, empirical and practical contributions of this study, identifying its limitations and pointing towards avenues for further research. |
| Supervisor | Matei, Liviu |
| Department | School of Public Policy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/craciun_daniela.pdf |
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