Internationalisation: A New Challenge for Universities Author(s): Hinrich Seidel Reviewed work(s): Source: Higher Education, Vol.

21, No. 3, Higher Education and the Flow of Foreign Students (Apr., 1991), pp. 289-296 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3447135 . Accessed: 02/02/2012 13:54
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21:289-296,1991. Education Higher Printed O 1991Kluwer Academic Publishers. in theNetherlands.

Internationalisation: a new challengefor universities

HINRICH SEIDEL
Hannover 1, 3000Hannover 1, Germany University, Welfengarten

Fourfactorshaveled to the evolutionof the moder massuniversity in Europe,namely Abstract. thepattern anddemocratic theuniversity's roleineconomic demographic developments, development, in scientificadvancesand politicaldevelopments in Europe.These trendsare linkedto certain in thelabour whichleadto themodern andtheyreveal thedemands market, university's developments dualroleas a regional as wellas an international of theuniversity Theinterationalisation institution. hasbeenfurthered and the mobility of students whichpromote by innovative exchange programmes adda scholars andflexibility in academic theprogrammes andinstitutions. Nonetheless, programmes to the existing and the successof the academic and research aimsfor mobility, politicaldimension to support to depend on thedevelopment withinuniversities of adequate exchanges appears capacity international flowsof students andscholars. expanded

Introduction In consideringthe challengeof'interationalisation' for universities,it is important to ask first what should be internationalised.Science?Scienceis internationalitself. University administration? Experience has taught that adding administrative structures has been largely ineffective. University courses? To internationalise courses by setting common standards would destroy the rich multiplicity which exists among the universitiesof Europe. The internationalisationof higher education needs to be seen in relation to the dual role of the modern university, as a regional as well as an international institution. Its scientificachievementsshould be competitive internationally,while its students need to be able to compete in the national as well as internationallabour markets.To understandthe new challengefor universities,both perspectivesneed to be taken into account. This paper has two parts. The first part describes the evolution of the modern mass universityin Europe and its growing interdependencewith the economy, the labour market and the professional world. The second part of the paper explores more fully the strategiesto promote the internationalisationof the university. The universityat the end of the 20th century The post-war experiencein the westernpart of Germanysuggestssome of the more importantdemographic,political and economic trendswhich have given rise to the development of the modern mass universityin Europe.

290 After the war, the whole of westernEuropeexperienceda strong increasein birth rates. The peak in the birth rate, reached in 1966/67 in the western part of the Federal Republic of Germany, led twenty-one years laterto a demographicpeak in the numberof those reachingthe age of universityentrance.But, whilethe declinein the size of subsequentbirth cohorts should have led to a decreasein the number of university beginners, this has not happened. Participation in education has continued to increase,as has the proportionof pupilsenteringhigh school and going on to university.The rateof access to 'gymnasium'has reached40 to 50 per cent of the relevantage cohort; about 75 per cent of these students go on to university. In the western part of Germany, other factors countering the once anticipated declinein student numbersare also at work. Therehas been a gradualincreasein the numberof foreignersat German universitieswho were born in the country, i.e., the childern of 'Gastarbeiter'.There also has been an increase in the proportion of young people who have come to the Federal Republicas 'resettlers'.Added to these developmentsis the reunificationof Germany,the enrolment impacts of which are not known. At present,thereare 133,000studentsin the easternpartof Germany. If students had been admitted to universityin the same proportion as in the western part of the country, there would be about 450,000 students. Continuing Europeanisation, combined with future economic developments,make it likely that this number will be reachedin the medium term. A second factor which has influencedthe evolution of the moder universityis its emergenceas an instrumentfor economic development. Experiencesin the United States and Japan as well as trendsin the professionalworld were taken into account to justify the expansion of higher education in general, and new universitieswere establishedin order to supportregionaleconomic developmentand regionallabour markets. The pattern of advances in science also has contributed to the evolution of the modern universityin Europe.One discerniblepatternis that scientificdevelopment is now marked, on the one hand, by increasinglysophisticated basic researchand, on the other hand, by increased efforts to tackle general problems such as the environment,public health systems and conflict research.Both tendenciesreflecta trend toward interdisciplinary work, i.e., toward deeperscientificengagementwith complex questions which span disciplinaryboundaries. For the university,the trend toward interdisciplinary work has had the effect of blurring the traditional differentiation between the technical university and the ordinaryuniversity.The classicaluniversity,in the sense which Humboldtdescribed it at the beginning of the 19th century, no longer exists. The technical university, which proliferatedin the late 19th century,also no longer exists. Elements of both types of institutions can be found within the institutions which have grown out of eithertradition.This developmentwas inevitable,and has been accompaniedby the establishment of new types of institutions (e.g., specialised colleges in Germany, polytechnics in the United Kingdom, 'instituts universitairesde technologie' in France). The 'traditional' university has lost both its 'classical' mission and its monopolist position. A second pattern, the rapid pace of scientific advances, has brought about a

291 certainobsolesence of the scientificknowledgeacquiredin a first degree.As a result, it is now recognised that graduates must be provided with further professional education over the course of their lifetime. While universitiesnow are expected to take on this role, industry already has developed specific forms of continuous training.Thus, one implicationof these developmentsis that, in co-operation with industry,new roles for universitieswill need to be workedout. In the westernpart of Germany, universities and industry, representedby the German Rector's Conference (WRK) and the BDA respectively, have come to an agreement on the question of profession-orientedfurthertraining.A second implicationis that a new balance betweenprimarystudies and courses for continuingprofessionaleducation will have to be established. One of the principal tasks of university reform, the reorganisation of study courses, will inevitably lead to a significant reduction in primarycourses. Also influencing the present development of universities is the change in the structure of Europe, including the dynamic development of the European Communitywith its 320 million people and the end of the division betweeneast and west which had cut off 130 million East Europeansfrom the 360 million people in the EC and EFTA.

Developmentsin the labourmarket The broadertrendsin the evolution of the modern mass universityrelatedirectlyto developments in the labour market itself. In this regard, developments in four 'sectors' - in the public service and industrialsectors of the economy and in the political and scientificworld - have given rise to new demands on the university. The public sector requiressubstantial numbers of academically educated men and women in such areas as health and educational services, the judiciary, and public administration.Not surprisingly,the labour marketand professionalworld of public servicehave had an important influenceon courses at universities.This is seen particularly in those fields where examinations are not controlled by the universities themselves but by the state (e.g., teaching, the law and medicine). However, precisely because public service is defined and regulated in relation to specific country (or state) contexts, the intemationalisationof universitycourses in these fields is limited. The largest employment sector is industry. This sector encompasses an extremelydiverseprofessionalworld which rangesfrom production firms in heavy industry to service enterprises such as banks and insurance companies to independent professions. The industry sector has grown in importance as a destination for graduatesof universities.According to a recent OECD analysis, 65 per cent of all universitygraduates in the westernpart of the Federal Republic of Germany went into industryin 1990, and about 35 per cent into public service. In 1965, the percentageswere approximatelyreversed with about 65 per cent of all graduates entering public service and 35 per cent taking up employment in other sectors (mostly in industry).In absolute terms, the number of employees in public

292 service has grown slightly while employment in industryhas multiplied. Demands from the industry sector on the contents and the organisation of that graduatesare expected universitycourses reflectthe diversityof responsibilities to assume, and these responsibilitiesincreasinglyinclude internationaldimensions. However, the direct influence of industry demands on the design of university courses and examinationshas been limited.This is because it has not been possible for universitiesto addressin detail the varieddemands arisingout of the numerous sub-sectors in the economy. Moreover, since the development of new university courses requiressome time (from 8 to 10 years), it is not always possible to orient courses quickly to the more rapid changes in the labour market.At a fundamental level, emphasis on the unity of teaching and researchin the universityimplies that study courses should reflectboth the orderlydevelopment of science as well as the short-termdemands from the labour market. Nevertheless, the scope for greater co-operation and critical exchange between universitiesand industrycontinues to be discussed.In 1988,the EuropeanRectors' Conference and the European Round Table of Industrialists(ERT) founded the University-IndustryForum to discuss these issues and to put forwardsuggestions for discussion at the Rectors' Conferencesof the various Europeancountries. The political world, including political parties and associations of all kinds, constitutes another 'sector' giving expression to new demands for high level education. Decision-makers in legislaturesand in the executive now must have a solid education in order to make factually based, appropriate decisions (for example, for the work in important parliamentarycommittees). Scienceitself might be considereda separate'sector'of the labourmarket.Science directlyinfluencesand entersinto the work of the public sector and industry,and in this sense it could be considered as a special area of the labour market and the professionalworld. Apart from universities,the work in this sector is carriedout in the great researchinstitutes such as the 'FrauenhoferGesellschaft'and the 'MaxPlanck Gesellschaft' as well as in departmental research institutes, government research institutes and others. In France, the 'Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique'(CNRS) and a growing number of researchinstitutes in industry are responsiblefor much of the work. Importantly,the demand for specialistsfor these researchinstitutes is growing. The internationalisation of the university How universitiesshould react to the developmentsjust describeddepends on what graduates will be expected to do on the job. Although the future configurationof jobs is not knowable with certainty(as recentevents in Europe have demonstrated), it seems clear that international dimensions will assume greater importance. An aspect that is acquiring more importance is the incipient de-nationalisation, or 'Europeanisation',of the labour market. This development is still not sufficiently taken into account in the curriculaof universitycourses, even though in a few years it may become a criterion for employment of graduates. In this connection, the

293 challenge of internationalisation for universities appears to be linked to the development of strategies which promote mobility for students and scholars and flexibilityin programmesand institutions. Mobility is almost alwaysunderstoodin a geographicsense, and moregenerallyit can be characterisedin the following ways: (i) as a means for gaining personal experiencesor, as 'travellingscholars';(ii) as a precondition for an integralpart of high qualityscientificexchange,i.e., internationalscientificco-operation;and (iii) as a response to the demands of the labour market for university graduates. In the western part of Germany, as elsewhere, a variety of international relationships already exist. Programmesto send German students abroad as well as to support foreign students at Germanuniversitiesare common. There are some 1,500formal co-operation agreementswhich, when combined with a large numberof less formal contacts, form a wide international network. The contacts between individual scholarsnot only influencethe directionand methods of researchbut also stimulate mobility among students. In this way, the unity of teaching and researchexpands and shapes itself internationally. Although experienceabroad is seen to provide personal, social and professional benefits - and in spite of the number and breadth of international relationships which alreadyexist - significantobstaclesstandin the way of greaterparticipationin periods of meaningfulforeign study and research.First, the acceptanceof foreign students is difficult in Germany (as in other European countries) because universities have had to cope with large numbers of domestic students as well as foreign students, and there have been limited facilities to physically accommodate them. This problem has its source in failures of the past and, in spite of numerous efforts, seems to be beyond a quick solution. Second, in current academic programmes, students who undertake foreign study are put at a disadvantage because the academic creditsearned abroad are not always recognised. Strategies to promotemobility To overcome the difficulties, universities have searched for solutions which go beyond the opportunitieswhich have existed for individualmobility. In Germany, for example, the German Academic ExchangeService(DAAD) has supportedthe initiatives of universities (in the 'integrated study abroad' programme) and the developmentof new ways for universitiesto modify existingacademicprogrammes. The co-operative agreements and partnerships between German and foreign universitiesprovided a frameworkin which special provision for academiccourses and living arrangementshave served as the basis for the further development of exchange programmesor made 'one-sided' stays abroad possible. The internationalisationwhich characterisesthe relationshipsbetween universities often does not turn out to be 'one-sided', but rather bilateral or even multilateral.Many universitiesco-operate through common study programmesor course modules and the awarding of joint or dual degrees. Highly integrated arrangementsfor co-operationhave also developed in regionalcontexts, encourag-

294 ing new forms of mobility. Examples of such regional (and multi-national) cooperation include arrangements between Saarbriickenand Nancy; and among Freiburg, Basel, Miihlhausen and Strasbourg. To these arrangementsshould be added the new EC programmesfor mobility, such as ERASMUS, COMETT and LINGUA, and the broaderinitiativestaken at national and internationallevels to promote exchanges with east and central European countries. Universities in the western part of the Federal Republic of Germany are particularlyaffected by the reunificationof the two parts of Germany. Formerly, the differencesbetween the westernand easternpartsof the country werehandledthrough mechanismscreated for foreign countries. The relationship between the two parts of Germany is now losing this character, with the consequence that co-operation programmes are becoming more difficult to manage. These varied developments have in common the emergence of a considerable political dimension to international academic co-operation and mobility. The political dimension introducesa number of new possibilities and challenges. With respect to the EC's mobility programmes,for example, institutionalco-operation among universities is linked with mechanisms for personnel exchange. These arrangements also lead to changes in academic requirements. Thus, the programmesserveto improvethe qualityof the exchangerelationshipand the ease with which student and staff flows take place. Concernswith new mobilityprogrammes At the same time, the expansion of the new programmes for mobility and international co-operation raises concerns. First, qualitative improvements in academic courses and student learning may be given less emphasis than other objectives. With respect to the EC programmes, the language requirementsand targets set for quantitativeflows (ten per cent for intra-Communitymobility) are often seen in relation to EC-wide political interests,i.e., 'to get students ready for Europe'. Another declared aim is to use higher education as an instrument to integratefurtherthose countries in Europe which hold marginalpositions in terms of their current levels of development. The new TEMPUS programme clearly highlightsthis aspect. Second, though the new ideas and structuresenrich and stimulate programme development within universities,there is some concern about whetheruniversities can keep pace with Brussel's'production' of new programmes. Short application deadlines and new, unfamiliarmechanismsof co-operation have imposed difficult requirementsfor participatinguniversities,both with respect to the bureaucratic with university exchangewith Brusselsand the deadlinesset in formal arrangements in other In have not countries. a such situation, partners developed in an projects in terms of of solid and the students, academically way foreign study experiences contents and general conditions, have fallen short of their own expectations. Finally, there is the new dimension raised by exchanges with east and central Europeancountries.The developmentsin these countrieshave completelydifferent

295 points of departure.Universitiesin the areaof the OECD arebeing askedto respond to expectationsof, and pressurefor, action on a nationalandmultinationalscale (as, for example, in the TEMPUS programme).There are the expectations,as well, of the universities in east and central European countries. The extended 'span of attention' demanded by these universities would seem to call for an extended academicresponsibilityfor each programmeengagement.This must be understood in general and, for each participant,in very practicalterms. In this context, evaluation takes on a dimension which could not have been foreseen by those involved in the definition and design of the co-operative programmes. To its role as an instrument of 'ex post' programme analysis and assessment, evaluation must give attention to the practicalissue of feasibility, i.e., the extent to which universitiesare able to respond to the demands made on them. To take one example, the German rectors' conference will ask its associated universities to examine a list of almost 100 specific requests for co-operation put forward by universitiesin the Soviet Union. This list contains various interrelated proposals for the joint development of curriculaand for the exchange of students, lecturersand trainees. The concernsraisedrequirecarefulconsideration.At the most fundamentallevel, far-reachingquestions about the pedagogic and didacticforms most appropriateto the timing and content of the programmesneed to be addressed.Closely relatedare concernsabout the meansto build up facilityin the languageof instructionfor those students lacking such knowledge. Finally, there are the very practical questions concerning the ability of universities to manage the programmes, and, more specifically,the adequacyof administrativeand academicsupportfor the exchange of a large number of programme participants. As already mentioned, the acute shortage of student accommodation represents another serious obstacle for increasedmobility. Even with these concerns, the development and broadening of student mobility should continue. However, the problems can only be solved if the universitieshave the materialresourcesto addressthem. futuredevelopments Conclusion: To conclude, and by way of a partialsummary,threeareasof developmentlikely to influencethe evolution of the universityin its national and internationalroles can be identified. The ties betweenpolicy, industryand science will grow stronger Majorcontemporaryproblems can only be addressedwithin a frameworkwhich is i.e., multinational, i.e., in co-operation with all Europeancountries;multifunctional, in co-operation with the various sectors of the economy; and multi- and i.e., in co-operation with a number of scientificdisciplines.Useful interdisciplinary, solutions to the problems raised are possible only with contributions and cooperation from all three areas.

296 further into the professionalworld Scientificadvanceswill accelerateandpenetrate Universitieswill need to reorganisecourses,giving emphasisto generaleducationin primary courses and to expanded further professional education offerings. These changes will requirea closer relationshipwith the professional world. On the other hand, the private sector will have to do without large parts of the specialised curriculumnow found in primary courses and to co-operate with universitiesin setting up and expanding differentiatedscientific further education programmes. Since the professionalworld increasinglywill requirepeople familiarwith scientific procedures but who need not be involved in researchwork, colleges and similar institutionswill become more firmlyestablishednext to universities.In universities, researchwill need to be carriedout on an interdisciplinary basis, with the resultthat the distinction between pure and applied research will become more difficult to discern. Industrywill co-operate with universitiesto an even greaterextent in such areas as research, furthereducation and technology transfer. The latter aspect is particularly important for medium-sized enterprises and in eastern European countries.

will continue Europeanisation With a decline in the differences within Europe in standards of development, in easternEurope).The market participationin educationwill increase(particularly for academic personnel will be widely 'Europeanised',and many EC regulations concerning education, the professions, researchand industry will be extended to other Europeancountries.Everyeducatedpersonin Europeshould be able to speak at least two European languages other than his or her own language, and this recommendationshould extend beyond the professionalworld into all areasof life. The major issues of ecology, division of labour in the primaryand tertiarysector, and the decline of social differenceswill be linked to solutions based on European co-operation in the areas of politics, economy and science. In consequence, universitieswill have to orient their courses in all disciplines more broadly toward Europe.