Problematizing Internationalization of Higher Education: Using China as the Methodology

• In Event: Identity, Advocacy, and Transnational Experiences for International Students

Proposal

The world witnessed a linear and unprecedent development of internationalization in high education in the past two decades, featuring ever growing internationally collaborative research and publications, student mobility, and emergence of knowledge and science diplomacy. Put explicitly, internationalization of higher education tied world knowledge and research communities closer than ever, and even ushered in the opportunity of modifying the centre-periphery equation (particularly with the case of fast-progressing Chinese universities). Nevertheless, such a development is currently being challenged and problematized, when research collaboration and student mobility are more and more linked to national security or even the notion of “weaponization.” How can we reconcile such sharp changes and envision what is coming down the road? Drawing on the neo-realist thinking in international relations theory, this presentation aims to tackle such an important question, while using China as the methodology. Methodology is about research strategy that determines how to conduct a study; China is chosen as a critical case, as China sits right in the core (and often taken as the reason) of such dramatic changes. Hence, this study promises a unique and insightful angle examining the course and development of internationalization in higher education on the global horizon.

Author

• Qiang Zha, York University