Suchergebnisse

Internationalisation has been a major trend in higher education since early 1990s. The Finnish polytechnics came to exist at the same time. A lot of interest and efforts were focused on their internationalisation since early on. There were, however, no clear-cut models or guidelines on why, how and what polytechnic internationalisation should be all about. As a polytechnic Head of Internationalisation in 1995-2001, the author of the present study came to work on exploring and defining higher education internationalisation through a case study. The study was introduced in 1997 by semi-structured interviews of some 20 different actors of Vantaa Temporary Polytechnic (VAMK). Questions were posed to teachers, students and managers concerning conceptions of internationalisation in general and at VAMK. The interviews, as typed out, comprise some 300 pages of text. The theoretical study revealed there was very little written theory or studies concerning higher education internationalisation. Also, a more recent phenomenon, globalisation, was introduced into the same sphere as internationalisation, making the picture more blurred. Un understanding of internationalisation is approached through examining definitions of the term as well as by a brief study on globalisation. Another small study is done on Finland's internationalisation process with the EU membership in 1995 as a crucial turning point. More extensively, the author examines definitions of higher education internationalisation with particular focus on the rationales or motivations of the phenomenon. The research approach as concerns the empirical data is mainly ethnographic, i.e. the researcher is, typical of internationalisation study perhaps, setting on a journey of discovery, investigating the phenomenon as it was experienced by the various actors in the target institution. The research is also a discourse analysis focusing both on the discourse of the polytechnic actors as well as some political, academic and media texts of the time of the study, mid to late 1990s. The focus of the empirical study is on the rationales of internationalisation. While considering her research approach, the author had intuitively looked for metaphors as characteristic phrasings of internationalisation in the empirical data. One metaphor is used in the title of the study, under a bright star, which an informant used in order to describe how internationalisation was organised and targeted at VAMK in the early years. In the final phases of the study, metaphors formed a vital tool in the study besides the more conventional text analysis. Through the study of the empirical data the author has been able to refresh the mainstream typology of the rationales of higher education internationalisation as well as to contribute to the definition of the phenomenon. The author contends that the role of unofficial internationalisation rationales is bigger than conveyed in mainstream definitions. The metaphor study helped describe and understand concepts of polytechnic (higher education) internationalisation, at least at its early stages, by suggesting root metaphors or common underlying understandings of internationalisation such as travel, natural forces and fears of the foreign (languages). As this is a case study, it is not meaningful to make generalisations of the findings. They may, however, be helpful in understanding and analysing the features of education internationalisation, especially as concerns the early stages of the phenomenon in an institution. KEY WORDS: Higher education internationalisation, globalisation, rationales of internationalisation, metaphors of internationalisation.