Abstract:
Internationalization of higher education has become an ever-increasing imperative of a
modern society. Mainly led by theories of globalization and knowledge economy discourse,
internationalization is reshaping the university functioning – even on the margins. This
has been emphasized in a large-scale survey conducted by the International Association of
Universities. In this survey, 87% of respondents identified internationalization as a central
element in the strategic development of their institutions (Egron-Polak & Hudson, 2010).
While some scholars explain the importance of internationalization by the challenges of a
globalized world (van der Wende, 1997; Altbach & Knight, 2007), it is also true that each
university has its own sociocultural context that can shape its perceptions and experiences
of internationalization (Yang, 2002).