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Internal collaboration is the key to successfully implementing an internationalised vision. By Phil Honeywood
Internationalisation in education has many dimensions. At its best it embraces student mobility, transnational education, internationalisation of the curriculum, academic exchange and extensive collaborative research outputs.
The federal government’s “Australia in the Asian Century” White Paper recognised the strong push by many of our education institutions to enhance their internationalisation strategies.
However, as internationalisation of Australia’s education institutions develops, there is increasing debate regarding the sometimes competing priorities between academic and professional staff. Who are the most appropriate people within an institution to implement the vision?
On one hand, Australia’s global leadership in international education owes much to professional staff who have developed specialised skills in establishing partnerships with overseas institutions, recruiting full-fee-paying international students, enhancing the student experience and abiding by complex compliance regulations.
On the other hand, as internationalisation becomes more focused on curriculum, research networks and post graduate student mentoring, there is a tendency for institution leaders to rely increasingly on academic staff to implement their internationalisation agenda.
At one level, increased academic leadership of international strategy is needed and should be welcomed. However, a number of variables have to be factored into this equation. First, is the institution prepared to provide appropriate incentives or KPIs to ensure that their academic staff will be meaningfully involved in ongoing international engagement?
Given teaching loads and heightened research publication expectations, it may not be organisationally possible for some academics to become key players in internationalisation strategies. Institutional self-awareness is sometimes lacking in this regard.
Second, academic staff will often have less of a business emphasis and more of a content and teaching and learning focus. While some are very capable in their own right in identifying and bringing back business opportunities, their main area of interest is around development and delivery of their institution’s academic “product”.
Professional staff involved in internationalisation can probably best contribute to the identification of international business opportunities and to the design and delivery of successful business strategies. They can also provide the ongoing business support at the implementation stage.
Not to be overlooked is the cross institutional memory and overseas networks they can bring to the table. Conversely, professional staff need to understand what drives academic interest, motivation and engagement.
There needs to be greater understanding of the often complementary skills that academic and professional staff can bring to their institution’s internationalisation strategy. Pooling of responsibilities and expertise to develop a culture of collaboration rather than competition obviously has merit. In order to overcome competing priorities and achieve a partnership approach a number of institution-wide goals should be agreed upon:
1. A greater emphasis within the culture of institutions that success will only be achieved through partnership and co-dependency between academic and professional staff
2. Effective partnerships will most likely be attained through shared design and implementation of the internationalisation strategy, and
3. Joint learning and professional development involving the two groups working together with a practical focus may be required to truly overcome competitive internal barriers.
As Australia’s education institution leaders grapple with the need for appropriate internationalisation strategies, they would do well to recognise the need for balance between academic and professional staff expertise. In all of this, providing leadership that endorses the importance of all internal stakeholders will ensure genuine implementation of the institution’s agreed priorities.
Phil Honeywood is executive director of the International Education Association of Australia.