Internationalization of Brazilian Higher Education

Perspectives of the border universities

Abstract

Internationalization of Higher Education is a prominent theme within Higher Education Institutions globally. Its origin is intertwined with the neoliberal agenda leveraged at the end of the Cold War, the article studies the concept of internationalization by answering the questions, what is it, why to do it and how? It appears that the mainstream of internationalization strictly links to mobility; however, it is a complex and multifaceted process, as well as the educational process itself. After a brief introduction, is presented the methodology used, followed by an analysis of the theoretical framework, describing the origin and analysing internationalization from a political, economic and social/cultural perspective. At the sequence, a research carried out in 2019 with the mapping of border universities is presented, based on primary data and structured interviews, as well as some open interviews conducted with managers of border university international relations offices. We describe the potential of internationalization of these institutions, in a model focused on regional development, meeting the social demands of the territory. Finally, are inferred some perspectives for sustainable internationalization.