Exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization: a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four European university strategies
Internationalization is often regarded as a tool for enhancing the quality of education and research, but the question is how are they related? This paper aims to address this by analysing the way quality and internationalization are represented in strategy documents of four universities, looking in...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2025-02-01
|
| Series: | Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20020317.2025.2462061 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832540918992863232 |
|---|---|
| author | Hanne Kirstine Adriansen Lene Møller Madsen Taina Saarinen Johanna Waters |
| author_facet | Hanne Kirstine Adriansen Lene Møller Madsen Taina Saarinen Johanna Waters |
| author_sort | Hanne Kirstine Adriansen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Internationalization is often regarded as a tool for enhancing the quality of education and research, but the question is how are they related? This paper aims to address this by analysing the way quality and internationalization are represented in strategy documents of four universities, looking into how quality and internationalization are discussed together, what kinds of premises are present about their relationship, and how quality relates to universities’ geographical positioning. We do so by analysing strategies in four European universities; two ‘capital’ universities and two ‘town’ universities. First, we analyse what quality means in relation to internationalization within the strategies and show that the meaning is often empty; then, we unfold the implicit meanings of this ‘self-evident quality’. With a spatial perspective we analyse how the universities position themselves in the world and how this is intertwined with notions of quality. The discussion compares and contrasts the four strategies and shows more similarities between universities of town or capital origin rather than universities with the same nationality. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c9a28f65ad50404abe4dfdc588e6cd00 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2002-0317 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy |
| spelling | doaj-art-c9a28f65ad50404abe4dfdc588e6cd002025-02-04T12:23:28ZengTaylor & Francis GroupNordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy2002-03172025-02-0111510.1080/20020317.2025.2462061Exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization: a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four European university strategiesHanne Kirstine Adriansen0Lene Møller Madsen1Taina Saarinen2Johanna Waters3Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, DenmarkDepartment of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkFinnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, FinlandDepartment of Geography, University College London, London, UKInternationalization is often regarded as a tool for enhancing the quality of education and research, but the question is how are they related? This paper aims to address this by analysing the way quality and internationalization are represented in strategy documents of four universities, looking into how quality and internationalization are discussed together, what kinds of premises are present about their relationship, and how quality relates to universities’ geographical positioning. We do so by analysing strategies in four European universities; two ‘capital’ universities and two ‘town’ universities. First, we analyse what quality means in relation to internationalization within the strategies and show that the meaning is often empty; then, we unfold the implicit meanings of this ‘self-evident quality’. With a spatial perspective we analyse how the universities position themselves in the world and how this is intertwined with notions of quality. The discussion compares and contrasts the four strategies and shows more similarities between universities of town or capital origin rather than universities with the same nationality.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20020317.2025.2462061Higher educationuniversity strategiesqualityinternationalizationspatial perspectives |
| spellingShingle | Hanne Kirstine Adriansen Lene Møller Madsen Taina Saarinen Johanna Waters Exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization: a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four European university strategies Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy Higher education university strategies quality internationalization spatial perspectives |
| title | Exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization: a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four European university strategies |
| title_full | Exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization: a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four European university strategies |
| title_fullStr | Exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization: a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four European university strategies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization: a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four European university strategies |
| title_short | Exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization: a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four European university strategies |
| title_sort | exploring the peculiar relationship between higher education quality and internationalization a discourse analytical and spatial reading of four european university strategies |
| topic | Higher education university strategies quality internationalization spatial perspectives |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20020317.2025.2462061 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hannekirstineadriansen exploringthepeculiarrelationshipbetweenhighereducationqualityandinternationalizationadiscourseanalyticalandspatialreadingoffoureuropeanuniversitystrategies AT lenemøllermadsen exploringthepeculiarrelationshipbetweenhighereducationqualityandinternationalizationadiscourseanalyticalandspatialreadingoffoureuropeanuniversitystrategies AT tainasaarinen exploringthepeculiarrelationshipbetweenhighereducationqualityandinternationalizationadiscourseanalyticalandspatialreadingoffoureuropeanuniversitystrategies AT johannawaters exploringthepeculiarrelationshipbetweenhighereducationqualityandinternationalizationadiscourseanalyticalandspatialreadingoffoureuropeanuniversitystrategies |