Academic Leadership and

Internationalisation
Professor John Taylor
Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation
Lancaster University, UK
New Approaches
• Internationalisation has changed
• Previously, unplanned and ”accidental”
• Now, planned and high priority for most universities
• Emergence of offices for internationalization, strategies for
internationalization
• In particular, new emphasis on leadership for internationalization eg
Vice-President for Internationalization, Vice-Dean for
Internationalization
Forms of Internationalization
• Recruiting international students (support, integration, languages)
• Providing an international experience for students (periods of study
abroad, exchange programmes)
• Appointing international staff
• Providing international experience for staff (exchanges, languages)
• International research activities (1:1, networks, working with
international business and governments)
• Trans-national higher education
• Internationalization “at home” – languages, curriculum, social
Motivation
• To understand leadership of internationalization, it is necessary to
understand the motivation of universities.
• Internationalization is often seen as an indicator of high quality and
status (is that always true?).
• Government encouragement, political factors
• Opportunities for research collaborations
• Income generation
• International development
New Pressures
• The new importance of leadership
• Increasing awareness of cost – travel, accommodation
• The need to be selective – institutional partnerships, but who with?
• Opportunity costs
• Pressures on time, of staff, of leadership/management
• Importance of ensuring quality, evaluating activities
• Risk management – costs, reputation
• Innovation in forms of internationalization
Some issues
• Resources and budget management
• Encouraging staff involvement – time pressures, complexity of
international activities, staff training
• Priorities – no university can do everything! Doing one thing means
not doing something else. The problem of saying “no”.
• The importance of strategy – understanding the environment and
competition, establishing realistic targets (links with resources),
monitoring and evaluation
Leadership
• All these changes, pressures and issues have placed a new
importance on leadership in internationalization
• Leadership at university level (strategy, priorities, key partnerships)
• Leadership in Faculties, departments (delivery of courses, research)
• Some necessary attributes: vision (what does the university want to
achieve and why), commitment (internationalization cannot be taken
lightly), acceptance of risk and risk management (new markets,
innovative approaches), willingness to travel (not always obvious),
tact and diplomacy, sympathy with different cultures and ways of
working.
Some questions
• What are the main priorities of your university in internationalization?
• Does your university have a strategy for internationalization? How
was it developed?
• Think of a new international development in your university, perhaps
a new exchange programme with an international partner or a
collaborative research project. Who led this initiative? What skills
and knowledge did they require?