LUMBRES, ALMIRA GELES B.

Educational Development Planning and Evaluation

Internationalization of Higher Education

A Glimpse on European Nations’ Journey across Centuries

The article tells us a story -a story on how higher education evolves

through the years from the experience of European Nations.

“Internationalization” is not a new concept for the West. In fact, they have been doing it
even prior to the conceptualization of the ideals on globalization and international partnership.
As early as the 13th century Europe, the control of the super-ordinate authority in Europe as
expressed by the power of the Church and the Emperor over the universities had influenced
greatly the mobility of students to pursue education across the borders. Although others might
debate on the use of the term- internationalization1, one might also point out that this early
attempt to cross higher education among nations serves as a basic framework on how we theorize
internationalization today. Successful or not, it created an impact and sketched a mark on the
history of higher education.
The conflict among universities as triggered by partial decisions made by the super-
ordinate bodies had resulted to the creation of local universities in the 14th -15th century Europe.
This event had introduced and shaped the role and function of the Nation-State affairs in the
arena of higher education. With this decentralization, the mobility of students became limited as
it accommodated only those who are well-off. Along with this occasion, more issues related to
the politics, management, and systems of higher education arose from both the collective and
individual nation’s perspective. Let us try to discuss two of the big issues conveyed in the article.
First is on the diversity of approaches on managing higher education among the nations.
This one is an expected outcome of the devolution of control on higher education throughout the
nations. This should not be a problem if European nations act more of an individualistic country
rather than a nation-state. But that is not the case. Despite their autonomy over their jurisdiction,
one nation’s tie over other European nation is embedded within their system and perhaps greatly
affected by their geographic proximity. This concept of United Europe should be considered in
making decision not only on the area of education but on all aspects shared by them.
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1
Neave explained in his article that European Higher Educational space instead of international
mobility should fit best to describe the thirteenth century Europe educational system. He further argues
that no real internationalization happened during that time as the academe in Europe back then used
common religion, uniform language, same program of study, and unified evaluation. This shows no trace
of “internationalization” but more of “inter-territoriality”.
 The Roman2 and Saxons3 models are only two extreme examples on how higher
education works in European nations. The complexity will even be exaggerated once other
intermediate systems are discussed. This diversification is the reason why accreditation and
certification among universities became a pertinent problem of higher education in Europe. This
was even verified by first-hand experience of one of the European international students in class.
Yes, it has great contributions on the development of the academe but sometimes too much
freedom might lead to greater conflicts.
Second issue is on the translation of theoretical values learned in the academe to those
practicalities in nation-building. It was stated in the reading that university that time served as the
apex in defining national identity. But somehow, missed links on the disciplines offered on the
universities and to the specializations needed by the nation do not seem to match the vision of
creating a national identity. In spite of this, efforts were made to bridge the gaps on discipline
and practice through introducing courses related to public service and, in the case of France,
through institution- building. Through time, private and other non-government institutions assert
themselves and enter the arena of higher education.
The idea of mobility was again reintroduced into the inter-regional setting in the late 20th
century and extends to international arena over the years. This reinventing of internationalization
concept was facilitated by programs such as Erasmus Mundus, Marie-Curie and others. Still, one
cannot completely discount the concerns (i.e. the cost of exchange, control and management, and
the differences on the systems of the universities) over this form of engagement which is vital to
its learning process. Today, the “European Dimension on education exists for the promotion of
students’ mobility and foundation of interdisciplinary study programmes and specializations on
issues related to the European Union and international cooperation (European Dimension in
Education 2011)”.

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2
Roman model shows focus on a centralized body governing the matters of the state. All
information and policies come from the central government from which the localities depend. According
to Neave, the model was difficult to manage during that time especially with the primitive form of
communication and technology.
3
On the other hand, Saxons model is the inverse of the Roman model. The growth of the nation
comes from the grassroots level. In this ideology, nation is perceived as the sum of its all local
communities.
 Summing up, I would like to emphasize on the two main points of this commentary.
1. The complex higher education systems in Europe elucidates that there is beauty in
diversity. But still points of commonalities and agreements can help improve how the
system works together. In such, a better understanding on European academic culture can
eventually be actualized.

2. The changes and complications on European higher education as shown in its history
gave us a platform on where to start in our quest for learning. Specifically, primacy is
given in their experience on internationalization of higher education as the current trend
in this global world.
In the end, we based our decisions today from what has transcribed and tested from
yesterday. This is the function of history. This is the function of European Nations’ experience
on higher education for me.

REFERENCES

Neave, G. 2001. The European Dimension in Higher Education: An Excursion into the Modern
Use of Historical Analogues. In J. Huisman, P. Maassen and G. Neave. Education and the
Nation State: The International Dimension of Higher Education. IAU Press, Amsterdam.

European dimension in education. 2011. Proces Bolonski. Retrieved at

<http://www.procesbolonski.uw.edu>