Reconceptualising ‘internationalisation’ in higher education: The case of Hong Kong

• Published in: Higher education quarterly Vol. 75; no. 3; pp. 487 - 499
• Main Author: Pan, Suyan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Wiley 01.07.2021; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Benchmarking; Citizenship; Educational Change; Foreign Countries; Geopolitics; Global Approach; Globalization; Higher Education; International education; Neoliberalism; Politics of Education; Soft power; Statism; Universities; Hong Kong; Hong Kong China; China
• ISSN: 0951-5224; 1468-2273
• DOI: 10.1111/hequ.12286

This article examines the meaning and features of ‘internationalisation’ in higher education in the social and historical contexts of Hong Kong. From a perspective of shifting geopolitics of higher education aligned with a historical perspective of evolving academic traditions, this article discerns parallel developments featuring the transition of Hong Kong universities along two pathways—benchmarking Western universities’ internationalisation agenda, and converging with China’s projection for national integration and global outreach. The HK case provides a critique of liberal views of internationalisation of higher education based on the logics of neoliberalism, soft power, global citizenship, and internationalisation at home, suggesting a closer look at statist instrumentalism in conjunction with neoliberalism as competitive strategies in a realistic international higher education community. 摘要 本文探究 “高等教育國際化”在香港的社會和歷史背景下所呈現的含義與特徵。研究視角著眼於高等教育的地緣政治和學術傳統之間的聯繫，分析香港高等學府發展的兩條歷史脈絡：一則參照西方國家的大學國際化範式，二則趨於中國的國家融合和全球拓展計畫。這種發展軌跡反映以國家為中心的工具主義與新自由主義的戰略結合。