The international branch campus is a phenomenon on the rise, but we still have limited knowledge of the strategic choices underlying the start of these ventures. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the motivations and decisions of universities to engage (or not) with the establishment of international branch campuses. As a point of departure, institutional theory has been selected to frame the potential motives for starting an international branch campus. Secondary literature, including professional journals and university reports and websites, has been analysed to obtain information that alludes to the motivations of universities for adopting particular strategies. It was found that university managements' considerations can be explained by the concepts of legitimacy, status, institutional distance, risk-taking, risk-avoidance and the desire to secure new sources of revenue. We argue that universities should avoid decisions that are based largely on a single dimension, such as legitimacy, but rather consider a broad spectrum of motivations and considerations

Previous research has found that the images of universities formed by prospective students greatly influence their choices. With the advent of international branch campuses in several higher education hubs worldwide, many international students now attempt to construct images of these institutions when deciding where to study. The aim of this research is to identify the sources of information and other influences that impact upon the images of international branch campuses formed by prospective undergraduate students. The study involved 407 students studying at nine international schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was found that recommendations and feedback resulting from personal relationships was by far the most influential factor shaping the images of institutions constructed by students. It was also discovered that elite institutions can benefit from positive home campus images based on heritage and prestige, which positively influence the images constructed of the international branch campuses operated by these institutions. The implications of the findings for higher education institutions are discussed.

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In this article, we look at the barriers to international student mobility, with particular reference to the European Erasmus program. Much is known about factors that support or limit student mobility, but very few studies have made comparisons between participants and nonparticipants. Making use of a large data set on Erasmus and non-Erasmus students in seven European countries, we look at the barriers for participation. Results reveal the overall impact of financial barriers but suggest that it is personal barriers that help us to better differentiate between Erasmus and non-Erasmus students. The analysis suggests a two-pronged approach to increase participation: one focusing on better information and communication and the other stressing the benefits of Erasmus mobility.

In an attempt to better understand patterns of academic drift in higher education and to demonstrate the usefulness of institutional theory as a lens through which to use these patterns, the authors examine patterns of drift in multiple higher education systems and test the concept of "isomorphism in organizational fields", as discussed in institutional theory. The authors argue that the theoretical framework provided by institutional theory presents a useful lens through which to examine and to explain why academic drift occurs in higher education systems.

n recent decades internationalization has risen to prominence in higher edu-cation institutions (HEIs). Scholars have identified several rationales for internationaliza-tion. There is however a lack of conceptual understanding and empirical evidence forwhich rationale(s) for internationalization are chosen by a given HEI and why. The goal ofthis article is to fill this gap. We develop and test a conceptual framework to predict thesalience of a given rationale for a specific HEI. The framework integrates factors atmultiple levels, namely competitive and institutional forces in the global and nationalcontexts, the organizational goals and the influence of internal actors. The empiricalanalysis employs information on more than 400 European HEIs from two large datasets ontheir organizational characteristics and from a large-scale survey on internationalization ofuniversities. The findings show that the HEIs embedded in a global context more fre-quently conceive internationalization as an instrumental to prestige. The national contextsdo not greatly affect HEIs’ rationales, and the amount of res.ources is less important thanthe competition for resources. Organizational goals as well as the influence of students,faculty members and middle managers on the internationalization process partly predict theprominence of specific rationales. The paper closes discussing the findings and theimplication for scholarly researc

This paper contributes to the debate on institutional diversity in higher education systems by looking at the phenomenon from a comparative (crossnational) and longitudinal perspective. Despite the attention to diversity in policy debates, surprisingly, only a limited amount of studies address methodological issues. In addition, the number of empirical studies on institutional diversity is low as well. Data on various Western higher education systems are used to illustrate developments in systems' diversity. Furthermore, these data are put in the context of current national (and supranational) policy debates, particularly the role of governments and markets, on maintaining or increasing diversity.

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