How international are we? A study of the barriers to internationalisation of UK Higher Education

Thomas, Kevin (BE) (2011) How international are we? A study of the barriers to internationalisation of UK Higher Education. In: North East Universities (3 Rivers Consortium) 2011 Regional Learning and Teaching Conference, 12 April 2011, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

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Abstract

The internationalisation of higher education may appear to be a fairly recent phenomenon however it has been highlighted as a trend within developed country universities since the late 1980's. How universities inetrnationalise varies and this can be attributed to the differing definitions and perceptions of internationalisation itself. It is apparent that a wider ranging and more diverse internationalisation strategy will be critical to institutions to successfully manage the complex process of internationalisation. University internationalisation strategies have been analysed using content analysis to identify a number of themes why they internationalise, together with those identified a priori through the literature review. This forumlated a questionnaire, distributed to staff at UK HEIs to assess where they currently are in their internationalisation process and what they perceive as being important to this process and they have been analysed. A further stage of interviews with a range of interviewees of differing job functions at differing HEIs is still to be completed and some early initial analysis will hopefully be available for the conference.
The contenet analysis produced an extensive range of coded words/phrases that were grouped into a series of rationales and there were significant similarities to findings from previous studies and also new themes identified. The questionnaire distributed via Surveymonkey generated 76 responses from across 55 different UK HEIs, a representative sample for analysis. It is clear that there is some commonality of issues associated with internationalisation but also that some opinions vary depending upon the role undertaken by the respondent and also whether a pre or post 1992 institution. Internationalisation is likely to increase in importance as traditional UK Government funding stops and HEIs seek other sources of income. To identify barriers will hopefully aid HEIs to successfully operationalise internationalisation and enhance the student experience.

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