Internationalization and the new academic generation (original) (raw)
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The Internationalisation of the Academic Profession
The Internationalization of the Academy, 2013
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International academic careers: personal reflections
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2014
University business schools are increasingly adopting an international outlook as they compete for students who are aiming for global careers. A natural consequence of university internationalisation is the need to internationalise the academic workforce, resulting in increasing attention on, and recognition for, the academic with international teaching and research experience. Yet the effort and complexity involved in making an international academic transition is often overlooked. Academic institutions' efforts to recruit international academics often outpace their expertise and support in the inpatriation and orientation processes. Academics interested in international mobility may find it difficult to obtain helpful information prior to arrival in the new country and encounter problems adjusting to their new job and surroundings. This paper presents personal experiences of a select group of academics who have moved between countries. Their reports illustrate differences in teaching loads, language, student behavior, recruitment and career ladder issues across countries as well as strategies they have used to adapt to their new surroundings.
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International Journal of Higher Education, 2013
Increasing numbers of academics world-wide are migrating as higher education institutions internationalise. Yet academics' experiences of cross-cultural transition remain under-explored, especially in comparison with students. This small-scale narrative study, employing focus group interviews, aimed to explore the cross-cultural transition experiences of international academics at one multi-campus university in regional Australia. This research was not institutionally-driven. Rather, it was instigated by the researchers out of concern for the welfare of new international academics at their institution. The findings are compelling, some of which underscore existing research findings of other migrating groups -for example, the complex, challenging, highly individualised nature of cross-cultural transition experiences. Some findings, however, are unique to this group of academics -for example, the 'culture of silence' that permeated most aspects of their professional lives as well as the challenges inherent in developing a professional identity in a small, isolated, parochial community. These latter findings are disquieting as they highlight a gap between policy and practice within the university. More disturbingly, they are resonant of the neoliberalist ideology currently dominating higher education where hyperindividualism and survival-of-the-fittest mentalities erode collegiality. There are salutary messages for the myriad groups who work in higher education institutions about the 'cost' associated with an absence of comprehensive, systematic institutional transition support for international academics. Recommendations specifically aimed at new international academics include: a revision of workload models; general and pedagogically-specific induction workshops; professional learning (cross-cultural transition) workshops for support staff and senior management; and the establishment of support groups for the academics and their families.
Internationalization of the academy: Rhetoric, recent trends, and prospects
Springer, 2013
Academics work in institutions that are primarily situated in particular nations. Academics work in institutions, public or private, that reflect the values and development objectives of the respective nations. Yet, there are aspects of academic work that reach beyond national borders. Constructed interrelations of the national, international, and global purposes and content of higher education have been shifting throughout history --- depending on the socio-economic and political context. Therefore, focusing on the academic profession, this chapter considers the internationalization of the academic profession as the shift in academic work that takes place in national systems and their constituent institutions on a continuum from a primarily national focus to a more borderless or international focus. This shift can be manifest in many aspects of academic work- the increase in the international mobility of students, the increase in the international content of courses, and the increase in the cross-border collaboration of researchers and institutions.
Professors: The Key to Internationalization
International Higher Education, 2015
A key factor in internationalizing any university is the academics who work there. This article notes that analyzes the attitudes of the academic profession and notes that most academics are not very internationally minded. Results from two international studies are used for this analysis.
Brock Education Journal, 2013
The Changing Academic Profession (CAP) international survey was designed in part to consider the effects of globalization on the work context and activities of academics in 19 countries or regions around the world. This paper draws from a subset of these data to explore the extent to which academics are globally connected in their research and teaching, and the ways this connectedness relates to global migration. Across multiple measures, immigrant academics (i.e., academics working in countries where they were not born and did not receive their first degree) were more globally connected than national academics (i.e., those working in the countries of their birth and first degree). Global migration by academic staff is clearly a major contributor to the internationalization of higher education institutions, yet there was no evidence these contributions led to enhanced career progress or job satisfaction for immigrant academics relative to national academics. The international expert...
2016
Introduction Universities around the globe, particularly those in the industrialized world, claim internationalization of their institutions as a key element of their mission statements, including my own institution (University of New Brunswick, 2010). Internationalization initiatives include increasing international student recruitment, study abroad programs, and international development projects. Beyond increased student enrolment, many institutions view internationalization as a way to engage with other cultures, to develop teaching and research relationships internationally, and to develop global citizens.