Africa must lead innovation in higher education internationalisation

By Hans de Wit. The internationalisation of higher education has been described by specialists from the South as a neo-colonial, imperialist or – more mildly – Western concept. It is an undisputed fact that the policy and practice of internationalisation has been primarily driven and controlled from the Anglo Saxon world and continental Europe, with the South being at the receiving end.
This is obvious in the dominance of Western higher education systems, research, academic publishing, patents, mobility flows, transnational operations and partnerships. The dominant position of Western universities in rankings also clearly shows that they still control global higher education policy and practice.
Western domination challenged
At the same time, we see an increasing challenge to this dominance of the North. The emergence of education hubs in the South, the shift to South-South mobility of students and scholars, the rise of Southern universities in the international rankings, and the quantitative and qualitative revolution taking place in higher education in the South, are challenging the traditional dominance of Western higher education and through that its internationalisation.