Outcome assessment of higher education internationalization

A guide for design and steps to begin

This article is about measuring the outcomes from the internationalization of higher education institutions. Its scope covers documenting outcomes for the teaching/learning, research/scholarship, and service/application missions of higher education. The issues and methodologies discussed can be applied to each of these missions individually, or to all. It includes a six step process for designing and starting the assessment process. The six steps build on critical contextual issues so that the utility of assessment can be enhanced. The context for assessment is that it be linked to institutional missions, core values and capabilities; to stakeholder priorities and needs for documentation of outcomes; and ultimately to serve as a means of documenting and justifying the growing size and complexity of resources and actions allocated to the internationalization of higher education. This article also introduces several key research design and data issues requiring attention if assessment is to produce valid and reliable findings.