Why are research universities going global?

By Richard J Edelstein and John Aubrey Douglass. Despite the significant increase in the number and type of international activities – from branch campuses to MOOCs and aggressive international student recruitment – many institutional efforts appear to be launched without a clear idea of best practices or how specific activities might be productive and meaningful for a particular institution. Empirical knowledge of how and why institutions expand these activities, and whether they are successful, remains largely anecdotal.
Why do universities embark on new projects and activities that engage the institution outside of its national boundaries? What motivates individuals and their institutions to include transnational relations among their core strategic interests and concerns when considering the future path for success? Why are more foreign students and faculty recruited and why are curricula and research agendas more international and global in scope?
The motivation of institutions, and their leaders, appears to be multiple and complex. As part of our larger effort to generate a taxonomy of different kinds of international engagement by universities, and reflecting a recent research paper published as part of a larger project based at the University of California, Berkeley, we offer here an exploration of possible institutional logics and rationales used to justify what are sometimes significant financial and institutional commitments. More...