Internationalization in higher education: be careful what you wish for

Internationalization in higher education in The Netherlands seems to have become a goal of its own, with critical reflection on possible negative side effects lacking. Science in Transition hereby presents a viewpoint about internationalization. We believe that although adhering to international quality standards may seem intuitively attractive, higher education institutes have to keep in mind their regional mission.

Internationalization stimulates the use of international rankings to compare universities. These rankings lean heavily on bibliometric output indicators for “excellent” scientific research and Anglo-Saxon universities typically score highly on those. To be able to take part in the worldwide competition, Dutch universities are steering their research agendas towards international disciplines and themes that score well. Internationalization is also the driving force behind the Anglicization of higher education, while most students find a job outside academia in the Netherlands. So universities have to realize that they not only have a global mission, but also a regional mission. Read the entire article (pdf).

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