Page 3 - Microsoft Word - de Wit-EH final2.doc

on the manner in which internationalization is implemented. Internationalization

distinguishes many motives and approaches. The mainstreaming of

internationalization assumes a more integral process-based approach, aimed at a

better quality of higher education and competencies of staff and students. Reality

is less promising, however, although the international dimension takes an

increasingly central role in higher education. Still, there is a predominantly

activity-oriented or even instrumental approach toward internationalization,

which leads to major misconceptions about the nature of this development. Nine

misconceptions will be described (two of them coinciding with a myth as

described in IHE by Jane Knight in “Five Myths About Internationalization,” no.

62, winter 2011), whereby internationalization is regarded as synonymous with a

specific programmatic or organizational strategy to promote internationalization—

in other words, where the means appear to have become the goal.

added values are developed among students; and more innovative reflection is

required on alternative ways of achieving these added values, for instance by the

use of distance education and virtual mobility.

AN INTERNATIONAL SUBJECT

A third misconception that continues to surface persistently is that

internationalization is synonymous with providing training based on international

content or connotation: European studies, international business, or universal

music. Within the institutions and schools offering these programs, the prevailing

opinion seems to imply that, in this way, internationalization has been properly

implemented. Without meaning to ignore the valuable contribution of such

! 3!