Portuguese policies fostering international student mobility: a colonial legacy or a new strategy?

Attracting International Students to Semi-peripheral Countries: A Comparative Study of Norway, Poland and Portugal

“…Second, for many countries, limited financial resources and a lack of economies of scale may mean an inability to invest in infrastructure (e.g., accommodation and library facilities), marketing/branding and human resources (as may be the case of Portugal and Poland, but not Norway). International student recruitment in countries not traditionally at the forefront of the international student market has been under-researched (França et al, 2018). This studycomparative in natureaims to find commonalities as well as national particularities and distinctive advantages that each country exploits in order to enrol more international students.…”

“…The rationales behind international student recruitment vary depending on context. Since the vast majority of previous research is naturally focused on the pioneers (França et al, 2018), it is worthwhile exploring what has driven internationalisation in semi-peripheral countries. In order to do so, we use the four different types of rationales for internationalisation (Blumenthal et al, 1996;Knight and de Wit, 1995;van der Wende, 1997).…”

“…Portugal, in contrast, aims to maintain its outstanding position as a student destination among Portuguese-speaking countries and to act as a bridge between these countries and the European Union, as stated in the above mentioned strategy (see also França et al, 2018 Portuguese language is portrayed as an asset for international recruitment. However, the 2014 strategy expresses a clear interest in diversifying the sources of international students, since the low number of enrolments from other countries represents a considerable growth opportunity.…”

“…The governments in Poland and Portugal see international student recruitment as an instrument to address internal challenges (e.g. underfunding of higher education or demographic decline) and to improve or maintain the countries' reputation or standing in a particular geographic area (see, for example, França et al, 2018). What traditionally lied at the heart of internationalisation namely enrich cultural diversity on the campus for academic purposes (Opper et al, 1990;Altbach and Teichler, 2001)could be expected only as a side-effect.…”

“…Nonetheless, the Statute maintains a special scholarship programme for students coming from the Portuguese-speaking African countries and East-Timor in order to preserve the privileged relationship with these countries. This programme has not been implemented yet (França et al, 2018 The last but not the least important were economic instruments (carrots). For universities, financial gains became one of the major driving forces for international recruitment.…”