Internationalisation of higher education in the peripheries

The ‘gear effect’ of integrated international engagements

There are cities and regions within countries and there are countries which are considered centres of civilizational and economic attraction – ‘centres,’ – and there are places less attractive to non-citizens, considered in the ‘peripheries’. Higher education institutions in the centres have natural advantages and a better starting point to internationalise. Namely, centres attract talent and talent in turn attracts more talent. Lacking these natural advantages, institutions in peripheral locations need a deliberate internationalisation strategy. This article highlights the ‘gear effect’ of an integrated institutional approach to internationalisation, in which international engagements within teaching, research and third mission are reinforced by four cross-cutting internationalisation functions: international institutional cooperation, international profiling, international recruitment and international mobility.