Page 5 - Brandenburg and de Wit-EH final-2

1. We have to move away from dogmatic and idealist concepts of

internationalization and globalization.

2. We have to understand internationalization and globalization in their

pure meanings—not as goals in themselves but rather as means to an end.

3. We have to throw off the veil of ignorance and ask ourselves: Why do

we do certain things and what do they help in achieving the goal of quality of

education and research in a globalized knowledge society? We also have to

regard mobility and other activities as what they really are: activities or

instruments—and therefore by definition not goals in themselves.

4. We should carefully reconsider our preoccupation with instruments

and means and rather invest a lot more time into questions of rationales and

outcomes.

While in need of more philosophy we also require a greater sense of

reality. We cannot continue to assume that certain types of mobility and other

international activities (such as exchanges and study abroad) are good in

themselves and that other types (such as recruitment and transnational

education) are bad. We have to dig deeper, place the options within a new set of

values and rationales, and ensure that we really achieve what is meaningful.

The future of higher education is a global one, and it is our job to help

preparing the higher education world for this. Therefore, what we need are

people who understand and define their role within a global community,

transcending the national borders, and embracing the concepts of

sustainability—equity of rights and access, advancement of education and

research, and much more. But essentially, we need to reaffirm the core role of