Internationalizing the Education of Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Case Study of a Leading Specialist University

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Historical Trends and Policy Issues in Higher Education

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the dynamics between the university organization and the development of local disciplines. It captures the period when the impact of globalization has generated forces that are reshaping the way how knowledge is transmitted in universities. Internationalization of higher education (IHE) in this paper is arguably regarded as a simultaneously forming and diffusing institution which is increasingly engaging universities all over the world. By selecting a local discipline (Traditional Chinese Medicine) form a university in a less central position of the global academic map, this paper aims to explore the IHE process from an alternative perspective. Intensive analysis on how university as the key institution benefits and/or constrains the development of local disciplines is conducted. Neo-institutionalism is employed as the main theoretical lens for the analysis. Through the case study on how internationalization strategies are formed and practiced in a specialist university in China, the current study highlights the role of power relations (administrative and professional powers) in the process of IHE. A typology of the selected case, in terms of developer and follower, is proposed base on the analysis on the time point and outcomes of new institution adoption. The findings argue that the early adoption is not necessarily associated with developmental motivations.

Author

• Yun Ge, National University of Singapore