Life goes on smoothly amid our deep grief over our King's passing ka!
I've read two articles from University World News (October 2016 Issue No:432) entitled, ‘New targets set to expand internationalisation of HE’ by Brendan O'Malley and ‘Internationalisation ambitions and funding realities’ by Darren McDermott, the latter was OHEC’s EU Expert before ka.
A brief summary of the Ireland’s Government’s strategies na ka:
The strategy: “internationally recognised for the development of global citizens through our internationalised education system and a market leader in attracting international student talent”.
Targets:
- Increase the number of international students by 33%, from 33,118 in 2014-15 to around 44,000 by the end of 2019-20, for the value generated to higher education from €819 million (US$910 million) to €1.15 billion (US$1.3 billion) over the same period. This is built on strong growth in international student numbers between 2010-11 and 2014-15, from 20,995 up 58% to 33,118 in public and private higher education institutions.
- Increasing outward mobility for Irish students and academics and researchers to foreign universities with enterprises in support of national economic ambitions and building world-class networks of learning and innovation
- 25% growth in the English Language Training sector raising its output value from €762 million to €960 million.
It’s hoped that the current €1.58 billion per annum will be raised to €2.1 billion per annum by 2020 for the Irish economy.
Actions needed: Regulatory environment for international education providers and students, and legislation may need to be brought forward on immigration, visa regulation and inspection
Comments from the two authors include the need to stress ‘…greater internationalisation of the curriculum, underpinned by principles of equality and diversity’. Moreover, other crucial dimensions that haven’t been discussed are the advantages of attending world-leading institutions abroad for outbound pool especially in terms of intercultural experience; the inclusion of the ASEAN Community; the immense intangible value that universities bring to Ireland by attracting international students; attempts to deliver its promise of the country’s potential innovation and best practices.
As always, I have quite a few comments ka:
- On the whole, the strategic plan on IZN is fact-based, built on the development for continuity, and quite integrated to include enterprises and related agencies that will influence the mobility of international students.
- What struck me is similar to Darren’s. It seems that the Irish Government focuses far too much on the income over the true value of internationalization. Its IZN focuses far too narrowly on mobility without mentioning about knowledge management to capture tacit knowledge from both inbound and outbound students and staff, as well as ways to spread the knowledge and experiences around more meaningfully. I’m thinking of IaH (Internationalization at Home), to come up with mechanisms to draw lessons from rich resources available on campus and in the country ka.
- The ASEAN region needs to be considered because of the long-term partnership, its unique cultural diversity, and the vast market.
My comments turn to some questions for our own Thai context ka:
- Does this strategy offer to us that the numbers we’re trying to reach must be fact-based? How good are we to work on that base ka?
- Could we have a real close look on our IZN strategic goals and the real benefits they’ll generate to work more strategically as part of the vision and missions?
- Should income be the main concern over the contributive value of IZN when our specific target is on the quality of graduates as global citizens?
- Is it time to seriously cooperate with relevant outside of the university circle to enhance the smooth mobility of both inbound and outbound student and staff? How to make it happen with enforcement, especially immigration-related issues, which requires policy-level commitments and actions?
