08 May 2024

In general, 77% of higher education institutions cited internationalisation as an important aspect, whereby the average importance has increased across all types of higher education institutions, even where it was or is rated as rather low. The majority of higher education institutions offer joint degrees and double degrees. Only a third of the institutions surveyed are involved in transnational education programmes, while a large majority participate in virtual international projects. In Europe, the increased workload for staff was clearly cited as the greatest risk, while the potential emigration of academics (brain drain), particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is perceived as a risk of internationalisation. External factors of internationalisation also vary between regions – for example, Latin American and European institutions often mention the interest of foreign universities in cooperation, while in the MENA region, national and international rankings are frequently cited as a reason for internationalisation.

85% of European institutions state that they have an internationalisation strategy in place, more than in any other region. The involvement of students in the design, evaluation and implementation of the internationalisation policy/strategy/plan through student organisations and/or student representatives was also only common in Europe (with a rate of 63%).

The importance of internationalisation for institutional leadership was rated as high by 70% of respondents in Europe in the last report in 2019 and has risen again to 85% in the current report. As a rule, the number of participations per country is too low to be statistically significant and thus enable a national analysis (exceptions are Mexico and Azerbaijan and, to a lesser extent, Germany and Argentina).