Internationalization at Home and Virtual: A Sustainable Model for Brazilian Higher Education

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the strategies adopted by Brazilian universities for the continuity of higher education internationalization actions during the pandemic of COVID-19. Taking as a guide the stages of development of the internationalization of higher education proposed by Brandenburg; de Wit; Jones; Leask & Drobner ( 2020 ), a new stage of development is proposed: the virtualization. The research results suggest that it will continue after the pandemic. In an empirical qualitative study, conducted with six Brazilian Higher Education Institutions well evaluated by the Times Higher Education 2020 ranking, it was identified that the Internationalization actions developed to contribute to a new sustainable model of internationalization in the country, based on virtualization of Internationalization at Home, and that meets the main objective of the internationalization of higher education: to provide opportunities for all students to develop international perspectives and intercultural competencies during their formative journey.

INTERCAMBIO VIRTUAL EN AMERICA LATINA: REPORTE DE EXPERIENCIA EN INILAT mov+

“…Son innumerables los retos a superar en relación con la estrategia de internacionalización a nivel online, ya que requiere el uso de tecnologías digitales y exige accesibilidad y calidad de servicio (Bozkurt, 2020;Guàrdia, 2021). Los departamentos de internacionalización de instituciones públicas y privadas pueden estimular la formación de directivos, docentes y estudiantes para este nuevo modelo de movilidad (Stallivieri, 2020;Woicolesco, 2022). Tanto la superación de las diferencias en el dominio tecnológico, la alfabetización digital, la calidad de la enseñanza comprometida, la falta de infraestructura gerencial, como el dominio de la gestión de nuevos recursos y programas son destacados por Stallivieri (2020), como una oportunidad de desarrollo para las instituciones que promueven la internacionalización en línea y creando intercambios interculturales.…”

The road(s) not taken and internationalization in Brazil: journey or destination?

“…The imbalance between public and private HEI in Brazil was thus escalated and fought in a new arena: the internationalization of higher education (IHE). For virtual exchange to have more robust results in the process of IHE, it is essential that higher education institutions, both public and private, from the North and the South, participate more equally and sustainably in what some have called 'intelligent internationalization' (Rumbley, 2015), 'responsible internationalization' (Stallivieri, 2017), sustainable internationalization (Ilieva, Beck, & Waterstone, 2014), a sustainable model for internationalization at home and virtual (Woicolesco, Cassol-Silva & Morosini, 2022) or even an internationalization otherwise (Stein, Andreotti, Bruce, & Suša, 2016), that involve the recognition of power relations and diverse understandings coupled with a cooperative orientation.…”

The Relationship Between Internationalization and Environmental Sustainability in Non-Central Latin American Universities

“…) Latin American HEIs have been directly embracing the UN's broad proposal of global sustainable development, summarized in the SDGs, highlighting this agenda in institutional discourse. For example, the Incheon Declaration 3 strengthened the SDGs presence in educational discussions in the regional context and the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC), considered the international body that most closely links to the different contexts within Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, influences this work significantly (Woicolesco et al, 2022). The IHES concept, on the other hand, has to date only been indirectly associated with Latin America's higher education sector, but has shown inherent relevance and potential to be applied.…”