European Journal of Education Policy and Practice

The internationalisation of education is one of the core priorities in contemporary educational agendas. While this phenomenon is particularly prominent at the tertiary education level, it has increasingly permeated K-12 education systems. This article examines the internationalisation of upper secondary schools through four questions: how the concept is understood, how European policies support it, how it has developed in Italy over the past fifteen years, and which good practices emerge. Drawing on a review of international literature, European policy documents, and a detailed case study of Italy, the article uses longitudinal data from the National Observatory on the Internationalisation of Italian Schools and Pupil Mobility, as well as reports from award-winning schools. The findings show steady progress but also persistent challenges relating to access, equity, teacher preparation, and the coherent implementation of national policies. The article concludes by outlining implications for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, calling for more empirical research and more inclusive, evidence-based strategies to support meaningful and equitable internationalisation in schools.

This article reports on findings from a study that explored the international and intercultural aspects of doctoral student professional socialization in Hungary, from the perspective of both domestic and international students. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with 53 students from diverse national backgrounds that include students from Hungary, Nigeria, China and South-East Asia. Employing a hybrid deductive-inductive thematic analysis, the research identified three key themes: (1) the role of scholarship programmes in enabling doctoral studies and the financial challenges linked to them, (2) cultural challenges experienced by international students in the academic environment, and (3) the influence of international experiences on doctoral students’ career aspirations.

These themes align with international policy recommendations for doctoral training, such as the Saltzburg Principle (2005) or the European Commission (2011) recommendations for innovative doctoral training. Student narratives reveal a significant discrepancy between policy frameworks and the realities of national and institutional level practices. This policy-practice gap in the internationalisation of doctoral programmes directly impacts the academic and social experiences of doctoral students.

As higher education institutions (HEIs) increasingly pursue comprehensive internationalisation, a persistent gap remains between strategic ambitions and practical implementation across teaching, research, and societal ambitions. Although HEIs are the primary drivers of internationalisation, effective and sustainable progress depends on active collaboration with a broader range of non-HEI actors across various stakeholder groups, including intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations and higher education associations/networks, research hubs, and policymakers. Yet, the roles of these stakeholders and the extent to which different actors collaborate across groups and regions remain underexamined. This study aims to fill this gap through a systems thinking, multi-scalar framework, followed by an actor mapping and social network analysis to explore collaboration across sectors and regions. Empirical data consists of an actor matrix based on institutional documents and official websites, detailing formal partnerships and informal collaborations collected manually between December 2024 and February 2025. Results show collaboration within and across stakeholder groups, with some actors emerging as key bridges between regions and sectors. However, regional and structural asymmetries persist, particularly in developing regions and in links between research hubs and policymakers. Despite growing calls for equity-focused internationalisation, cross-sectoral collaboration remains limited, and socially oriented models seem to be disconnected from dominant intergovernmental and policy initiatives. These findings highlight the need for trust-based governance and more inclusive collaboration frameworks to achieve truly comprehensive internationalisation.

Our analysis overviews the current status of the internationalisation of higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean from a comparative, interregional, and global perspective. A description of the main characteristics of the process is provided, based on the main findings that emerged from the most recent global and regional surveys conducted by the International Association of Universities; and the UNESCO Chair Internationalisation of Higher Education and Global Citizenship at the University of Guadalajara. We note an important increase in internationalisation activities and committed engagement by academia and institutions. However, critical shortcomings hinder the region from reaping wider benefits from global higher education internationalisation. This is mainly due to limited planning and evaluation; insufficient financing mechanisms and little academic and student mobility; incipient curricular internationalisation and minimal international cooperation in research. Drawing on our analysis, we conclude by proposing steps that higher education institutions in the region should pursue in order to implement a new approach to internationalisation, more comprehensive and inclusive. Assessment on the progress and challenges of the internationalisation process are key for decision making on policy design.

Internationalisation has become a buzzword since the late 1980s, notably since the introduction of the European Erasmus programme in 1987 and the Bologna process which highly influenced higher education systems throughout the world. There have been positive and negative developments and some requests for the future that we would like to outline in this opinion piece.

On the positive side, many things could be mentioned but in this piece we concentrate on the major trends that Hans de Wit , Betty Leask, Elspeth Jones and me outlined in the University News articles and the DAAD report for IHES in 2019-2020: from individual activities (late 80s) to systematic institutionalized comprehensive internationalisation; from individual “nice-to-have” mobility experience to educating global citizens; the convergence of the concepts of internationalisation at home (IaH) and internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC); from living on myths to fact-based accountability; and last but not least from Anglo-western and European-centred internationalisation to a truly global approach and regional self-confidence.

In the article we compare the relevance of these positive developments for Europe and Latin America, where positive effects seem to be closely linked to the establishment and implementation of nation-wide higher education policies and accreditations processes which refer to Internationalisation. In the countries where such initiatives have been put in place, we are able to find positive examples of this process, which will be further outlined.