By Norm Friesen and Patrick Keeney. One of the most profound recent changes to Canadian higher education seems to have gone little noticed: namely, the increasing numbers of students on campus whose native tongue is not English. Some of these students may be first-generation Canadian or landed immigrants, while many come from other countries. Most universities now have departments dedicated to the recruitment and retention of international students and are busily criss-crossing the globe in search of new customers. Governments and senior administration in universities have been successful in persuading Canadians that “internationalizing” the campus is a positive development for all concerned. Yet, there is a dark and worrying side to this that is felt most acutely in the teaching of the humanities and critical studies. There is no sugar-coated way to say this: many of those who are welcomed at our universities are simply unprepared for the rigours of the university classroom. More...

By Stephanie Hobbis. Both foreign students – and their teachers – need support if the goals of an international campus are going to be met. The following is in response to the opinion piece "Internationalizing the Canadian campus: ESL students and the erosion of higher education" by Norm Friesen and Patrick Keeney.
When I first read the commentary by Drs. Friesen and Keeney on “ESL students and the erosion of higher education,” I was astounded and in disbelief. As an English-as-a-second-language student, I could not but feel offended. Yet, the more I reflected on their sentiments the more I came to see a much broader issue than xenophobia, linguicism or simple ignorance as suggested in some of the reader comments. Internationalizing the Canadian campus is not simply a matter of recruiting more international students. It is also a matter of providing the facilities that are needed to cater to new needs while not only profiting financially but also academically from an increasingly diverse community of students and faculty alike. I came to Canada after completing my undergraduate and first graduate degrees, in English, in the U.K. and in Japan. I had been raised in German in Germany. My English was good enough to get accepted into an English degree program, but not to inevitably succeed in it. The challenges of higher education were multiplied – not only did I have to learn to think academically, but I had to do so in a foreign language and in a cultural environment that I was barely familiar with. Read more...

By Matthew Wood. On 11 July 2013 the European Commission issued a communication on its new Internationalisation strategy “European Higher Education in the World”.  The communication examines how the EU, individual Member States and higher education institutions (HEIs) should work closely together with sophisticated internationalization strategies for cooperation with partners in other parts of the world, not only in terms of student mobility but also at the level of strategic academic partnerships. 
The Commission highlights that education is at the heart of the Europe 2020 Strategy to make Europe a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy to generate growth and prosperity.  Its communication aims to contribute to these objectives by encouraging Member States and individual HEIs to develop strategic partnerships to deal with the global challenges.  
The international landscape for higher education has been changing considerably in the last few years with the emergence and competition from new powerful regional higher education hubs in other parts of the world.  New technological developments such as the developments of the MOOCs (massive open online courses) are also calling for higher education institutions to rethink their international education in the face of global competition. Strategies for “internationalization at home” and digital learning are critical to provide an international dimension to study programmes for non-mobile students. Read more...

In 2011, the European Commission came up with a Communication entitled Modernising Europe’s higher education systems. This document unfolded the Commission’s policy objectives mainly for intra-European cooperation in the tertiary sector. A similar document, relating to the Commission’s intentions in a global context, is expected to follow, most probably in June. The ACA Newsletter - Education Europe has been able to gain insight into some of the key issues of this document, which is likely to be named European higher education in the world.
One of the principle notions behind the document is that of comprehensive internationalisation strategies, which universities and member states are expected to develop and pursue. Such strategies would entail at least three elements: the mobility of students and staff (plus related issues such as recognition, visas, etc.); the internationalisation of curricula (known as ‘internationalisation at home’) and digitally-based learning; as well as strategic cooperation, partnerships and capacity building. At the level of detail, one can spot many of the pet subjects of recent years, but also new phenomena. One of those is the MOOCs, which the document will apparently highlight as a major development in higher education, even though it is not entirely clear which conclusions to draw from this assessment.
Concerning its own EU-level contribution, the Commission is likely to point to the increased opportunities for third-country cooperation under the new Erasmus for All Programme (which may carry another name in the final version) and the Marie Curie scheme, as well as to U-Multirank and its various other ‘transparency tools’. From all we know, the Communication will at long last pick up a long-time ACA proposal for complementing national information and marketing efforts by a European promotion dimension. It also appears that there are plans to widen the ‘evidence base’ supporting policies on global higher education, by commissioning studies, statistical analysis and expert consultation.

The long-awaited ACA 20th Anniversary Conference was held in The Hague on 09-11 June. As usual one step ahead of current developments in international education, ACA invited the most outstanding pundits and practitioners of international mobility and internationalisation in Europe to deliberate on the future of student mobility, policies and higher education.
The secret of ACA’s continuing success in shaping higher education policy debates in Europe lies in its ability to ask the right questions and in staying loyal to its constructive esprit critique. Will our graduates become the next intellectuals? Is there any internationalisation without values? What are the drivers of mobility? Who benefits from transnational education and how can we make intercultural education work? How stratified is the world of partnerships and networks?  How should academic cooperation be approached in times of crisis in Europe?
These questions and many more dominate the discussions not only in Europe, but around the world. Over 200 people of countries as diverse as Japan and South Africa, New Zealand and Russia, the USA and Kazakhstan, China and Saudi Arabia, attended ACA’s conference and seemed to be equally preoccupied with these issues.
The 20th anniversary conference was certainly a joyful cause for celebration for ACA, its member organisations and friends. It was also a lot of hard work, especially with the new analytical frameworks being set for mobility windows and the new technology-driven educational trends being grasped.  Analyses of these topical issues will be continued in the coming months at ACA’s popular European Policy Seminars. Stay tuned.

Communication

With the assistance of an expert Advisory Committee and support from our sponsoring partners, British Council, the European Commission, NAFSA and EAIE, the IAU has now launched the survey which will collect institutional data on the state of higher education internationalization worldwide. 9,000 universities and other higher education institutions have been sent an electronic invitation to take part in the survey by completing an online questionnaire. The initial deadline for completing the questionnaire is June 30 and each institution can chose to complete the survey in English, French of Spanish. All respondents who complete the questionnaire fully will receive a copy of the Executive Summary of the 4th Global Survey Report which will be prepared by IAU in 2014.
The invitations have been sent to the Heads of HEIs and/or to the individuals responsible for International Relations/Office. IAU aims to double its sample size in this 4rth edition of the Survey and so, everyone’s help is needed. Please ensure that your institution is completing the questionnaire and if you have doubts or wish to receive more information, please contact the IAU at: iau@iau-aiu.net.
More information on the 3rd Global Survey Report published by IAU in 2010 is available here.