Over the last 30 years, the number of foreign students has risen five times from 0.8 million worldwide in 1975 to 4.1 million in 2010, according to OECD (2012). It is evident that “international skills” has become an important strategic priority for universities around the world to prepare graduates who are able to function successfully in more interdependent world - economically, politically and culturally. HEIs which are contemplating about internationalisation strategy development should assure that their culture is ready for it.

M.Agnew and W.D.VanBalkom study (2009) examined cultural readiness for internationalisation at two US universities at “individual”, “organisational” and “external stakeholder levels”. The Cultural Readiness for Internationalisation model was devised as an evaluation tool to recognise factors influencing organisational ability to change. First, the research showed how crucial it is for HEIs to achieve alignment between institution’s values, beliefs and normative practices at the “individual - individual” and “individual – organisational” levels. Second, the research depicted how important it is for an organisation to align its priorities with the existing systems. And third, it demonstrated that stakeholder economic and political demands placed on HEIs influence the extent to which internationalisation is identified as an institutional priority. Therefore, management of HEI considering about becoming more internationally oriented should evaluate its culture readiness for particular internationalisation strategy as it will determine the success of proposed changes.

Source: M.Agnew and W. D. VanBalkom. (2009): Internationalization of the university: factors impacting cultural
readiness for organizational change. Intercultural Education, 20 (5), pp.451-462.

OECD report “Education at Glance” (2012).