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In this article, we focus on the transformations imposed on schools by individual parents, arguing that schools as modern organisations change not only through top-down pressures orchestrated by an array of international organisations, for-profit companies and media as shown in previous research, but also through the agency of mobile parents, who seek to import reforms from elsewhere, based on their previous schooling experiences abroad. We focus on a specific group of middle class parents, who are continuously mobile, moving between global cities for employment. This paper brings into the discussion the role of individual parental strategies as they seek to promote education policy-borrowing. By applying the theoretical lens of stakeholder identification and salience, using a multi case study research design, we suggest that parents express high levels of power, legitimacy and a sense of urgency, thus being able to successfully advocate for change. We argue that while exploring organisational reform occurring due to the globalisation of education, we must view parents as central actors in this new space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Spolsky's definition of language policy, this introductory paper offers a brief reflection on the three main lines of research that are represented in this special issue regarding the relationship between internationalisation and language policies in higher education: management and planning, practices, and beliefs. In the first part, we comment on Englishisation and the establishment of multilingual policies as responses to the globalisation of higher education. The attitudes deriving from the interaction between English and local languages as a consequence of internationalisation are presented in the second part. Finally, the third part points at the interest of studying how the members of the academic community accomplish the management of language diversity in specific settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a period when international flows of higher education students are rapidly increasing and diversifying, this paper reviews recent research evidence about the experiences of ‘home’ students – those who are not mobile and study in their home nation. This is situated within the concept of ‘internationalisation at home’, which asserts that these students should also receive an international educational experience: through interaction with international students, curriculum development and new pedagogic approaches. However, the evidence to date suggests that this is considerably more problematic than might be imagined. For example, home students across the world are often found to resist intercultural group work and generally to avoid contact with their international peers, leading to concerns about unequal access to transformative experiences and powerful knowledge. The conflict between ‘global worker’ and ‘global citizen’ approaches to internationalisation is discussed, as well as the increasingly hegemonic role of English. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What happens when standardised literacy assessments travel globally? The paper presents an ethnographic account of adult literacy assessment events in rural Mongolia. It examines the dynamics of literacy assessment in terms of the movement and re-contextualisation of test items as they travel globally and are received locally by Mongolian respondents. The analysis of literacy assessment events is informed by Goodwin's ‘participation framework’ on language as embodied and situated interactive phenomena and by Actor Network Theory. Actor Network Theory (ANT) is applied to examine literacy assessment events as processes of translation shaped by an ‘assemblage’ of human and non-human actors (including the assessment texts). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the situated meaning given to a so-called ‘welcome’ service for international students at a Catalan university. The official business of the service is to offer support with bureaucratic procedures and information about available services, including those for learning Catalan. However, the complex range of overlapping activities emerging in interactions at the service leads us to question how participants themselves (i.e. service providers and student users) understand the business of ‘welcoming’. Furthermore, the use of different languages in the interactions brings us to ask what role participants assign to their plurilingual resources in accomplishing this business. The results allow us to describe the ‘welcome’ service as a complex and significant place for the language socialisation of newcomers to the university, as well as the central role of plurilingual resources in achieving this aim, in constucting the multilingual order and in accomplishing internationalisation. These results provide insights for policies aiming at the management of linguistic diversity in scenarios of internationalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines how the addition of intercultural interventions carried out throughout European credit-bearing exchange programmes can enhance sojourners’ development of intercultural competencies, and it explores how both formal and non-formal pedagogical interventions may be designed and implemented. Such interventions were conducted at a Portuguese university with 31 sojourners throughout one academic year, and their impact was assessed using a mixed methods research design. Sojourners included incoming students of the exchange programmesCampus EuropaeandErasmus, as well as highly skilled immigrants. Findings confirm the positive impact of interventions on the development of intercultural competencies and, in turn, their contribution to internationalisation efforts. Implications for further research suggest a need to increase interventions and to develop a systematic approach for fostering intercultural competencies throughout the study abroad cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a small state transitioning from traditional communities into a modern society. This is a complex process: it involves instilling a national identity over tribal structures; modernising and technologising while retaining Islam; ensuring a high level of security while allowing for a liberal and relatively free society; preserving culture while building one of the largest and most multicultural societies, albeit mostly expatriate; and providing one of the safest countries in the Arab world for women. This paper presents an expatriate female academic's position in relation to the emergent literature on the contradictory positioning of women in different Arab cultures. It reviews the literature in the light of anecdotal evidence drawn from the author's doctoral students' experiences as women leaders within the wider socio-cultural context of the UAE and the emergent higher education system that is considered central to its nation-building exercise. The discussion recognises the implications of different contexts for Emirati women moving into leadership positions and calls for further research in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reprises the argument for the emergence of a global education policy field and then focuses on the shared habitus of global and national policy actors and technicians. It is argued that this shared habitus is constituted as a reflection of and a contribution to the creation of the global education policy field. Bourdieu’s approach to habitus as both methodological tool and concept is used and the significance of the interview encounter to understanding habitus is argued. The authors also draw on the content of interviews with five elite policy-makers and technicians. It was found that the policy actors and technicians shared a similar middle-class embodied habitus; in terms of schemes of perception, they identified with a high-modernist confidence in both science and technology; they identified with a cosmopolitan outlook and sensibility; and demonstrated scientistic approaches that held real confidence in understanding the social through quantitative social science methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Globalisation has inspired a wide assortment of curricular initiatives within engineering education in the USA and Europe. This interest could be categorised in multiple directions – international exposure, service learning, or critical understanding and praxis. In Canada, however, there has been far less consideration for integrating globalisation within the engineering curriculum. The recent episode of reform initiated by the Canadian Board of Engineering Accreditation could usher in changes on this front. Situating the development of a course titled Development and Global Engineering within these broader conceptual and organisational impulses, this paper will illuminate a pathway towards understanding globalisation, especially within the Global South, through a comprehension of complexity and informality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key role of administrative staff in the implementation of specific institutional policies at university has often been ignored when analysing policies or attitudes related to higher education. Consequently, little is known about the administrative staff's attitudes and involvement relating to the processes of internationalisation and multilingualism in higher education. In order to confront this problem, this paper is intended to shed some light on the following questions: (1) What features do administrative staff associate with the concepts of ‘international university’ and ‘multilingual university’? (2) What degree of interconnection do they establish between internationalisation and multilingualism at university? and (3) How do their views compare with those of academic staff and students? The study combines quantitative data, obtained through a Likert-scale based questionnaire, and qualitative data, derived from open questions included in the same questionnaire as well as two focus group sessions with members of the administrative staff. The analysis of the data shows that for administrative staff an international university is characterised by incoming mobility, the presence of English as a third academic language and academic excellence. A multilingual university has more advantages than disadvantages for them, and most of these are connected with the internationalisation of the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Our paper discusses trends and challenges faced by Lithuanian Higher Education (HE) internationalisation policy processes in the context of European and global internationalisation tendencies. Using 2001–2011 EU mobility statistics and data from recent HE Lithuanian strategic programmes aimed at promoting the internationalisation of university education (for 2009–2010 and 2011–2012), we discuss implications of these developments for the country's language (education) policy and its practical implementation. The officially practiced policy approach that aims to strengthen the national language and culture (as is visible throughout the post-Soviet space) faces challenges with the development of societal multilingualism. This contrasts with Western policy practices, where common/mutual rationales and approaches seek to support multilingualism and multiculturalism. In the Baltic region, protectionist national political instruments have had to address dilemmas that have arisen in connection with Western-mediated HE internationalisation processes. This has led to the deployment of different internationalisation policy rationales that promote global and regional cooperation. New approaches focused on linking Baltic language studies centres with departments of Baltistics and Indo-European studies have worked to establish stronger bonds with structures at foreign universities. As a consequence common interests in the study, research, development and promotion of the languages in the Baltic are now more widely shared, both regionally and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the period of this journal's life the education of adults has been changed and developed in a wide variety of ways: the same phenomenon – adult learning – has been given a variety of meanings and the education of adults has assumed many titles. The aim of this paper is to unravel some of the changes that have occurred in this field during this time [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rapid and wide spread of English has given rise to its lingua franca status, which in turn, changes the nature of English and English teaching at the tertiary level. This paper, based on a survey, discusses some of the problems with the current English curriculum used in Chinese universities and proceeds to offer some suggestions for a more appropriate university English curriculum in China in the context of English as an international language. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the framework of the internationalization and globalization of higher education and competition for international students, the paper examines how language policy in higher education shapes the provision of study programs in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It concludes that study programs in the Baltic states mostly follow the convention of a monolingual curriculum offered in the official national language, or Russian, as the largest minority language in the Baltic states, or English. Comparative analysis of international student flows also shows that while students from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are leaving to study in predominantly English-speaking countries, which dominate in the global competition for international students, language policy laws in the Baltic states, except for Estonia, remain protective of the use of the official language in public higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalisation has brought about remarkable changes at universities all over the world. In the case of the University of the Basque Country (Spain) this is reflected in the increasing presence of English-medium instruction. This paper examines two issues: the university community's perception of (1) the term international university and its interaction with languages and culture; and (2) the effect of English on attitudes towards the minority language, Basque. The participants were 589 subjects (students, teachers, and administration personnel) whose views were sought by analysing their responses to two open questions. Results show that there is a strong association between the presence of different languages and cultures in the conceptualisation of an international university. As for the impact of English on Basque, international students and teachers were mainly positive, whereas local students and administration personnel harboured a more reluctant attitude. Finally, we conclude that it is essential to raise language and cultural awareness in the implementation of multilingualism in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan is well known as a super-aging society, with a low birth rate, and has been ranked as one of the countries having the highest quality of healthcare system. Japan's society is currently approaching a major turning point with regard to societal and healthcare reforms, which are influenced by international trends and regional needs. Development of Japanese healthcare human resources, including medical students, is now expected to ride the wave of globalization, while resolving regional problems in the training and delivery of healthcare. Terms and global trends in medical education, such as outcome-based education, community-based education, reflective learning, international accreditation of medical education, and professionalization of educators are well translated into the Japanese language and embraced positively among the Japanese medical educators. However, these trends occasionally sit uncomfortably with cultural variations that are often a common approach in Japan; notably, "hansei" (introspection) and "kaizen" (change for the better). In the world facing a new era where people are unsettled between globalism and regionalism, Japan's future mission is to steer a balanced route that recognizes both global and regional influences and produce global health professionals educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I explore the contemporary value of John Dewey's conception of democracy to addressing the challenges of neoliberal globalization. I begin by describing his vision of democracy as a way of life that requires habits of experimentalism, pluralism, and hope. I then suggest that contemporary forms of mobilization, resistance, and insurgency-specifically, alter globalization activism, the Occupy Movement, and the Forward Together Moral Movement in North Carolina-model aspects of Deweyan democracy that are especially important for our times. These forms of civic activism can help reinvigorate Dewey's vision of democracy as rich, deep, participatory, and creative. I argue a significant value of these movements is the democratic habits and ways of life they encourage and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Global medical education standards, largely designed in the West, have been promoted across national boundaries with limited regard for cultural differences. This review aims to identify discourses on cultural globalization in medical education literature from non-Western countries. Methods: To explore the diversity of discourses related to globalization and culture in the field of medical education, the authors conducted a critical review of medical education research from non-Western countries published in Academic Medicine, Medical Education and Medical Teacher from 2006 to 2014. Key discourses about globalization and culture emerged from a preliminary analysis of this body of literature. A secondary analysis identified inductive sub-themes. Results: Homogenization, polarization and hybridization emerged as key themes in the literature. These findings demonstrate the existence of discourses beyond Western-led homogenization and the co-existence of globalization discourses ranging from homogenization to syncretism to resistance. Conclusions: This review calls attention to the existence of manifold discourses about globalization and culture in non-Western medical education contexts. In refocusing global medical education processes to avoid Western cultural imperialism, it will also be necessary to avoid the pitfalls of other globalization discourses. Moving beyond existing discourses, researchers and educators should work towards equitable, context-sensitive and locally-driven approaches to global medical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalisation in higher education has been shown to provide both intellectual and cultural benefits to students which can help in their future employment. This case study describes student views on learning alongside students from different countries in an online distance learning environment. Seventy-three students undertaking the online Master of Public Health programme at Manchester University, UK completed the survey which explored student experiences, views and opinions on aspects of the course. Learning about other countries’ health systems and the experiences of public health professionals in other countries were identified as a key benefit of studying alongside students from other countries. Students were able to appreciate other perspectives, reconsider their own attitudes and improve their understanding of the context of public health issues. The benefits of learning alongside students from other countries can be enhanced within an online learning environment through the appropriate use of discussion boards and other online learning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Bologna Process is one of the most extensive examples of policy borrowing processes. Based on qualitative data, this article argues in favour of studying part of this process as ‘global smallness’, centring on the organisational effects of the implementation of a globalised curriculum. Through Derrida's notion on hauntology, Fenwick and Edward's analysis of multiple reals, and Barad's understanding of entanglement and time, this article explores how the implementation processes evoke simultaneously existing worlds of practices propelled by the agency of the past troubling present higher education reform. Finally, this article addresses how ongoing reforms tend to increase the stretch between ‘what is performed on the outside’ and ‘what is practiced on the inside’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that the adoption of the competitive Vocational Education and Training (VET) markets in Australia resulted in shifts in institutional perceptions and practices. Using situated experiences and perspectives from quality assurance auditors, training managers, international students and VET teachers from seven commercial for-profit private VET institutions in Melbourne, Australia, the article suggests that there are emerging patterns of institutionalised market-based relationships, which can have long-term implications for pedagogy, learning and international students' outcomes in VET. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Transnational education, primarily at the tertiary level, has been growing rapidly, bringing with it high hopes and expectations of benefits to institutions in the countries of origin and destination. However, these potential benefits come with a set of challenges that must be overcome. These challenges include the need to reconcile the often-conflicting objectives of the stakeholders involved, bridge learning traditions/styles and cultural divides, and harmonise cross-national standards. These challenges are on display in transnational higher education involving UK and Malaysian institutions, which have not only had a long history but also host a large number of students. In the Malaysian case, education policies that are designed to serve affirmative action complicate this collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalisation is a buzzword in European higher education, and many universities work hard to devise and implement strategies that will help facilitate increased transnational student mobility. In this context, English is commonly seen as the ‘natural’ choice for university internationalisation, and English is accordingly promoted as the ‘obvious’ language of instruction for international education in many university policies. This article argues that the idea that university internationalisation should equal the exclusive use of English as a lingua franca is essentially misguided. Not only is it at odds with the available empirical evidence, it also puts unnecessary constraints on the potential that transnational education holds for cultural and linguistic exchange and development. The article is based on a case study where the patterns of language choice of three student project groups at an international study programme in Denmark were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The analysis shows that although there is a quantitative preference for English in the three groups which matches the general pro-English language ideology at the programme, the groups have nevertheless, to varying degrees, developed practice-based language policies ‘from below’ that allow for alternating and sometimes syncretic use of English and Danish. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

European higher education institutions are in general highly committed to internationalisation, seeing it as providing ways into the global education market, as an indicator of academic excellence, and for generating income. In multilingual settings, minority languages are not always given adequate consideration in this process and may be a source of tension and ambiguities in the local communities and universities. We report on part of a study of international and home students at universities in two bilingual contexts: the University of Lleida (UdL, Catalonia) and Cardiff University (CU, Wales). The students were asked about their understanding of what an ‘international university’ is, and also, how they saw the implications of internationalisation in the universities for the respective minority languages. Results show some differentiation amongst the student groups. For example, in the case of the first item, the Lleida home students associated international universities with opportunities for travel, exchange and employment advantages far more than the other groups. And in the case of the second, international students at Lleida showed greater negativity and opposition towards the minority language than other groups. Findings highlight the difficulties in reconciling the vitality of minority languages with the forces and the priorities of internationalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The learning of prestigious international languages becomes a process fraught with tensions in multilingual settings. The process of internationalisation in many universities has led to the spread of English-medium instruction (EMI), which tends to raise linguistic debates particularly in the case of bilingual institutions. However, and despite a few exceptions, there is scant research into the effect of EMI on the different bodies that make up the university community, especially in the case of teaching staff and administration personnel (as most studies focus on students). The participants in this study were 648 students, teachers and administration personnel who filled out a questionnaire. The analyses of the data revealed the existence of language tensions among the different languages in contact. Parallelisms and differences were found among the three different bodies, which led us to put forward a series of implications related to the implementation of EMI courses, as well as to multilingual language policies at university. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cross-border higher education has created a need to build capacity – particularly in the internationalization dimension – for national quality assurance agencies to evaluate cross-border education provided by foreign educational providers, or jointly by local and foreign institutions. This is quickly becoming a key issue in the Asia-Pacific region. National accrediting agencies in Asia, which implement accrediting tasks domestically, are attempting to internationalize themselves through internal and external approaches. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of this cross-border accreditation on national quality assurance agencies in the Asia-Pacific region. The approaches that national quality assurance agencies adopt to enhance their internationalization are discussed, as are the efforts the regional networks make to help Asian quality assurance agencies build capacity. Taiwan's case and the challenges it is faced with are also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

‘Flying faculty’ models of teaching represent an important aspect of the internationalisation agenda. As short-term sojourners, these overseas visits provide academics with disorientating dilemmas that can stimulate transformational learning. This study explored the impact of flying faculty teachers' experiences on their work, lives and identities and used the Biographical, Narrative, Interpretive Method (BNIM) for both data collection and analysis. The findings provide rich, colourful pen portraits of the motivations for, experiences of, and benefits from teaching overseas. Cross-case analysis highlighted the physical impact of overseas visits; the search for equivalence; relationships with local staff and students; and concerns about internationalisation as a means of income generation as important to the interviewees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]