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The literature suggests that recent years have witnessed a fundamental shift in higher education internationalisation. This paper argues that a reorientation of policy, which is upheld through an initiative known as the Higher Education Sprout Project, indicates the fundamental shift in higher education internationalisation in Taiwan. The paper begins with an explanation of how the notion of world-class university induced elitism in East Asian higher education. Next, it reviews the last two decades of Taiwan's efforts on developing world-class universities. In particular, the paper explains how perceived domestic problems in higher education, such as an overemphasis on certain performance indicators and the resulting effects of homogenisation, and the phenomenon of emphasising research but neglecting teaching, are considered the consequences of emphasising global competition and the associated quest for building world-class universities. The paper argues that the recent policy change reveals an intention to uphold egalitarianism, thereby reaching a balance between fulfilling global ambition and addressing local needs in higher education. This intention highlights the political essence of internationalisation policy for higher education. It also reaffirms the significance of the global–local dynamics in higher education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive attributes stick to higher education internationalisation, and it is a policy paradigm with performative effects. Internationalisation draws on imagined virtuous flows of knowledge production and exchange, and is presented as an assemblage of detraditionalisation, expansiveness and epistemic and cultural opportunity for individuals, organisations and nation states. Policies target bodies, minds and affect, yet are presented as an unquestionable good in an imagined genderneutral, borderless, meritocratic and benign global knowledge economy. This paper explores the affective economy of internationalisation drawing upon interview data gathered in fifteen private, five national and eight public universities in Japan with thirty-four migrant academics and thirteen international doctoral researchers. We aim to contribute to internationalisation theory by exploring the sticky micropolitics of internationalisation in relation to affective assemblages, and how the gendered, racialised, linguistic and epistemic inequalities constituting academic mobility are frequently disqualified from discourse. Our discussion includes consideration of the Japanese policy context, the concept of affective assemblages, navigating gender regimes, precarity and linguistic imperialism. We conclude that the immaterial or affective labour that is required to unstick, install and maintain an internationalised academic identity and navigate the translations and antagonisms from everyday encounters with difference is substantially under-estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the possible framework for encouraging the presence of local dimensions in an internationalised and globally competitive system by using Taiwan’s higher education system as a case. It begins by discussing the notion of internationalisation and its implications for higher education. It then turns to look at Taiwan’s responses to these global developments. It also reviews different opinions on the position and importance of local dimensions in the world of globalised higher education. Based on these perspectives, the paper advocates promoting the concept of state-building in Taiwan’s as well as in other higher education systems for preserving or even strengthening the local dimensions of individual academic systems operating in the international knowledge network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English as a medium of instruction and internationalisation projects have drawn increasing attention and participation among international higher education faculty, creating meso-level policies which directly affect the micro-level practices and respective learning experiences for undergraduates in these faculty's classrooms. This research explores undergraduates' perceptions of international faculty-led EMI courses, comparing Taiwan and Thailand and their private and public universities. A total of 436 Taiwanese and 306 Thai undergraduate students provided feedback on their learning experiences regarding classmate, faculty, and student traits. The primary research question provides a comparison between Taiwan and Thailand, and between public and private universities. Private university students in Taiwan and Thailand reported significantly stronger perceptions of peer support, teacher support, teacher approachability, and class participation compared to public university students; perceived learning comprehension was significantly stronger in Taiwanese universities. The discussion highlights key implications for Taiwan and Thailand's meso-level policy of international recruitment which affect the micro-level practices of international faculty and their students' respective learning experiences in the EMI classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new phenomenon of European integration has again challenged our conceptual and empirical tools for higher education studies to integrate the international dimension into frameworks that tend to concentrate on the single nation state and domestic policies even where international comparisons are made. It drives as well the awareness of certain blind spots: namely (1) the concentration on policy effects, neglecting the input side of policy formation, and (2) the concern with macro level policy-making and meso level organisational adaptation, neglecting to some extend the micro dynamics and effects in the actual practices and performances of academic work. This paper makes an attempt to contribute from a certain perspective on governance studies to the ongoing debate on the challenges ``internationalisation'' or ``globalisation'' bring up for higher education policy analyses and especially for comparative research in that area. The development of governance theory towards a multi-level and multi-actor approach is discussed and its strengths and weaknesses for higher education studies in an internationalising environment are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, one of the most significant trends in higher education in non-anglophone countries has been the growth in English Medium Instruction (EMI). However, provision is rapidly outpacing empirical research. This study examined how macro-level education policy with regard to EMI is both implemented and conceptualised at the institutional and classroom level in Chinese and Japanese universities. Utilising questionnaires with home students (n = 579) and staff (n = 28), interviews with home students (n = 29) and staff (n = 28) and four focus groups with staff and four with home students, in addition to questionnaires (n = 123), interviews (n = 10) and three focus groups with international students, the study provides insights into how EMI policy is operationalised, including types of programmes and language use, and how it is conceptualised by different stakeholders. The results highlight contextual constraints to policy implementation, calling for the need for more research into this growing trend and curriculum evaluation to inform context-sensitive ways to implement EMI policy. It also calls for a critical examination of monolingual EMI policies and academic norms amidst growing multilingualism in the EMI classroom as well as clear goals and objectives due to varying conceptualisations of the purposes of EMI amongst staff and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]