Abstract
This chapter examines how European universities are shifting from relatively haphazard academic partnerships and random capacity-building activities to more strategic approaches to internationalisation. Based on the results of studies and projects carried out by the European University Association (EUA), particularly the Trends 2015 report, the chapter discusses how important international activities are in relation to other strategic priorities. What sort of international activities are important and what is the share of lucrative activities? What could be learned from the European and national data? What future trends could be anticipated?
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Notes
- 1.
For ease of reading, the word university in this chapter refers to any type of higher education institution.
- 2.
It should be noted that none of the surveys on which this chapter is based address directly the economic benefit of internationalisation but some of their questions could be used as proxies to grasp trends in this regard. Further studies would be required to test the hypotheses presented here.
- 3.
As the organisation representing universities in Europe, EUA includes 783 members, including universities (for the most part PhD-awarding universities) in 45 countries and 34 rectors’ conferences. It frequently conducts projects and studies involving its members.
- 4.
The Trends reports have been a regular feature in the context of the Bologna Process. The first one was published in 1999. The questionnaires have included a number of questions that have been asked recurrently over the years to enable longitudinal analyses.
- 5.
Countries with fewer than four institutions that responded to the questionnaire are excluded from all country analysis.
- 6.
The results from the United Kingdom include answers from institutions in Scotland.
- 7.
Kwiek (2015) notes that Western Europe will be on the opposite trajectory to the one he describes for Central and Eastern Europe. Because of demographic decline in Central and Eastern Europe, he speaks of a shift ‘from privatisation to de-privatisation’ and ‘re-publicisation’. The private system expansion that started in 1989 in these countries is coming to an end. This is expected to affect the share of fee-paying students enrolled in the public sector and the number of private institutions, primarily because of their lower prestige in that part of Europe.
- 8.
A total of 171 institutions from 39 countries responded to the RISP survey, which was complemented by six site visits and a roundtable. Of the 171 responding institutions, 90% were included in a national or international ranking, or both.
- 9.
It should be noted that this longitudinal analysis is tentative because 2015 respondents had more items to choose from and more response options than in 2010. Thus, in addition to low/medium/high importance, there were also the options of ‘no reforms’ and ‘I don’t know’.
- 10.
In this context, regional does not refer to the European region but to a territorial or administrative subdivision within a country.
- 11.
175 EUA members in 38 countries answered the consultation on internationalisation.
- 12.
MOOC refers to Massive Open Online Course. For a detailed explanation of this development, cf. EUA 2014d.
- 13.
The e-learning survey, administered in 2013, was answered by nearly 250 EUA members in 38 countries.
References
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Sursock, A. (2016). The Shift to Strategic Internationalisation Approaches. In: Rosa, M., Sarrico, C., Tavares, O., Amaral, A. (eds) Cross-Border Higher Education and Quality Assurance. Issues in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59472-3_4
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