ERIC Number: EJ1478400
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2340-8170
EISSN: EISSN-2386-3137
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Making the University More International: An Exploration of Higher Education Internationalisation Strategies in Africa from a Continental Perspective
Lazarus Nabaho; Wilberforce Turyasingura; Ivan Kiiza Twinomuhwezi; Kenneth Alfred Kiiza; Margaret Nabukenya; Felix Adiburu Andama
Tuning Journal for Higher Education, v12 n1 p25-43 2025
Internationalisation is one of the contemporary issues in the higher education (HE) academic and policy discourses. Since the 1990s, scholarship on the internationalisation of HE has burgeoned. Nevertheless, the internationalisation of HE in Africa is relatively under-researched. Using the African Quality Rating Mechanism (AQRM), an education framework of the African Union, this article explores the approaches to the internationalisation of HE in Africa. A qualitative descriptive design underpinned the study and the data was analysed using content analysis. The findings show that the AQRM comprises five dominant Eurocentric HE internationalisation strategies: student and faculty mobility, academic mobility, international research collaboration, dissemination of research at international conferences, and curriculum internationalisation. However, despite the similarity in the form, the substance of the internationalisation shows that attempts have been made to decolonise the Anglo-Saxon models of internationalisation. It can therefore be concluded that: (a) mobility (of persons and programmes), the elitist version of internationalisation, is integral to most internationalisation practices in the AQRM; (b) the AQRM was designed within the framework of the decolonial lens which repudiates the dominant colonial conception that what qualifies to be "international" must be associated with Europe and North America; and (c) political and academic rationales dominate the internationalisation discourse at the continental level.
Descriptors: Global Approach, Educational Strategies, Higher Education, Foreign Countries, Student Mobility, Faculty Mobility, International Cooperation, Research, Conferences (Gatherings), Curriculum Development
University of Deusto. e-mail: tuningjournal@deusto.es; Web site: http://www.tuningjournal.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A