Fiona Hunter

Internationalization of Higher Education—What Can Research Add to the Policy Debate?

The European process, thanks to the extraordinary achievements of the last few years, has become an increasingly concrete and relevant reality for the Union and its citizens. Enlargement prospects together with deepening relations with other European countries, provide even wider dimensions to that reality. Meanwhile, we are witnessing a growing awareness in large parts of the political and academic world and in public opinion of the need to establish a more complete and far-reaching Europe, in particular building upon and strengthening its intellectual, cultural, social and scientific and technological dimensions.

Internationalization of Higher Education—What Can Research Add to the Policy Debate? [Overview Paper]

This paper introduces the theme of internationalisation in the context of the Bologna Process. It addresses the development of the concept and context of internationalisation, its main trends and issues both in its two components abroad and at home. The paper also introduces and summarizes the eight following papers in the section on internationalisation. The paper ends with the key findings and recommendations of the discussions and papers on internationalisation of higher education from the Bologna Researchers Conference.

The Transformative Power of Organisational Sagas

Throughout human history, people have told stories as a powerful means to communicate ideas. Each one of us, in our different countries and cultures, grew up on the stories that shaped our world and our understanding of it. And stories continue into our adult and professional lives, even though we may become less aware of the part they play and how they influence us in the way we think and behave.

Internationalisation as a Lever for Change: The Case of Italy

The Italian Higher Education system has often appeared unwilling or unable to develop effective policies for change, and this struggle to introduce effective reforms is often linked to the system’s legacy of failure to cope with earlier higher education challenges over the last 60 years. Within a highly centralized system, universities developed a sense of accountability to the Ministry in a legal and administrative sense, and remained isolated from the needs of external stakeholders or the challenges of a changing environment. The few who sought to innovate or experiment were heavily constrained by a rigid bureaucracy and lack of diversity. However, with the Bologna Process, Italy acted uncharacteristically as a first mover and introduced landmark reforms with clear objectives to extend university autonomy, introduce the new degree structure and develop credit and quality assurance systems. It had expectations of greater efficiency through increased enrolments, reduced wastage rates, enhanced graduate employability and improved access to the European Labour Market. A series of further reforms have followed in an attempt to correct distortions that emerged in the system, but without significant results, and against a backdrop of receding finances. Despite the many attempts to modernize higher education by successive governments, structural dysfunctions hamper any real change within the system. Today, it is the increasingly competitive international environment that is forcing individual universities to develop an adequate response. This paper will explore how Italian universities are becoming increasingly aware of the need to take institutional action, and how they are identifying models for internationalization beyond their borders in order to adapt to, and survive in the new conditions.