A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya
The alliances have highlighted the opportunity of giving internationalisation another look, and of incorporating more explicitly into the quality assurance of all university activity.
.jpg)
The level of internationalisation in Catalan universities is high with regards to Spain: it has the best indicators in incoming and outgoing mobility; in the total number of foreign students, with 22% of the Spanish total (excluding mobility); in foreign academic staff (6% of research teaching staff, which is twice the Spanish average); in the attracting of resources from Europe and the rest of the world, and in presence or positioning in global rankings. This level of internationalisation could, however, still be improved upon if it is compared with that of countries from Western Europe or simply with the European Union average.
The above paragraph offers an extremely quantitative understanding of internationalisation. In fact, said indicators (and others) are particularly useful in providing an image of how the activity of a university extends beyond its location and its country. However, does it truly reflect the level of internationalisation? The answer is clear: it depends on what we understand by internationalisation.
The latest European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF), which took place in Aveiro last November, was entitled “Internationalisation in a changing world. New trends and challenges for QA” and, naturally, the concept of internationalisation was subject to debate. Personally, I agreed with the definition proposed by Hans de Wit, Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, who said that “the internationalisation of higher education is defined as the intentional process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions and delivery of post-secondary education, in order to enhance the quality of education and research for all students and staff and to make a meaningful contribution to society”.
In short, internationalisation is not a goal in itself but a necessary means to achieving a higher quality of higher education and research to benefit our society, and said indicators are effective in obtaining a limited yet useful measurement of the level of internationalisation.
One of the key topics of the forum was that of the European university alliances, in which the presence and involvement of Catalan universities is significant. Operationally speaking, they put universities under considerable stress, particularly those responsible for coordination, and they challenge the small print of the international agreements on mutual recognition, especially in terms of quality assurance. The European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes must be strengthened in these processes (AQU Catalunya already plays a leading role through its collaboration with the alliances involving Catalan universities), and we should ultimately see quality assurance systems that are based more on trust between accredited institutions in all areas. Exceptions in government legislation that must be mediated from those currently considered, for the time being, pilot cases should become the new normal.
On all accounts, the experiences underway are extremely interesting and, we hope, might also be very positive. At present, they make one think of the crux of the matter: is a European university alliance an “international” experience or should it have —or start to have— “regional or local” components in terms of it being identified by its European nature? In other words, will we ever seriously talk about true European higher education institutions that are presented to the world as such?
More focused on the matter of quality assurance —if we are drawn to the definition of internationalisation proposed by De Wit and believe that internationalisation is necessary for higher quality university, teaching and research activity—, there is a kind of paradox in the university structures and in the quality policies. On one hand, on browsing the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), which represent the common European framework for quality assurance, it is seen that very little reference is made to internationalisation. This must certainly be one of the cornerstones of the next review of the ESG. On the other, there were no experiences of combined or coordinated work between the quality assurance and internationalisation units of universities until the appearance of the European alliances.
The alliances have therefore highlighted the opportunity of giving internationalisation another look, and of incorporating more explicitly into the quality assurance of all university activity. It must undoubtedly also be taken into account during the next review of institutional accreditation criteria.
A well-known Catalan saying goes “que el llegir no ens faci perdre l’escriure” (“reading should not make us lose the ability to write”) and, effectively, we do, in fact, have many things to "write" in 2024 within the common area of responsibilities of the universities, the administration and AQU Catalunya: new accreditations of teaching staff, review of the VSMA framework (verification, monitoring, modification and accreditation), review of the institutional accreditation, and the start of the assessment of research units within the framework of the University Strategic Plan in pursuit of excellence. However, a long-term view must be developed and maintained. Therefore, we need to "read" as well as "write" and the role of internationalisation in quality assurance forms part of this necessary shared vision of the Catalan Higher Education System.