The Internationalisation of Higher Education in the Mediterranean
The internationalisation of higher education is aimed at enhancing the quality and standards of
teaching and research. This study addresses mobility and cross-border education trends in the
Euro-Mediterranean region, with special emphasis on academic exchange, involving students,
scholars and administrative staff, as well as on the strategic international partnerships across
the globe. The study focuses on 10 countries: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya,
Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. It aims to investigate the internationalisation of
higher education focusing especially on resources and opportunities available at the national and
regional levels, to identify obstacles and challenges and to outline transferable inspiring practices
and finally to make a series of recommendations for the Union for the Mediterranean to foster
regional integration. As for the methodology, a survey investigating teaching and administrative
staff as well as student mobility was submitted to a sample of universities representing the 10
target countries; further interviews with international and regional stakeholders were conducted,
focus groups were established, involving the universities covered by the study and a thorough
desk research was undertaken. As a result, the report presents a detailed context analysis
with a focus on mobility flows to and from the 10 target countries, complemented by a wide
range of inspiring and scalable practices, as well as an overview of the role played by regional
organisations in providing opportunities, creating synergies and making resources available for
the higher education institutions in the Mediterranean. Country-specific recommendations were
designed in order to address national challenges. At the end of the research and consultative
process, a number of common themes for the Euro-Mediterranean region were also identified,
in relation to which additional recommendations were drafted, with the aim of enhancing the
internationalisation of higher education in the region. We are still far from the finish line and this
report has the ambitious goal to represent a building block for those willing to further explore
the issue. Here follow the main findings, which are common to more than one country: Erasmus+
emerged as the programme generating the largest impact on the internationalisation strategies
of higher education institutions; the need for university leadership to consider the administrative
staff as a key element to support internationalisation; the high fragmentation in the procedures
and systems of credit recognition and assessment of qualifications; difficulties were encountered
in collecting reliable and comparable data. Obtaining visas for international mobility, especially
for MENA countries to access Europe, has always been a serious obstacle to exchanges and
international cooperation should focus more on human and social sciences, often neglected
compared to hard sciences. Above all, the study highlights how, in most cases, internationalisation
is simply identified as mobility, while a more comprehensive internationalisation strategy would
be highly beneficial for institutions and staff and may increase attractiveness and participation. arabic 7 English 58
UNIMED(1-2021)
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