Transcending Shallow Internationalization: Best Practices for Attaining Excellence in International Higher Education

The context for this study is the volatile, turbulent, and disruptive environment that affects higher education everywhere. A plethora of key problems facing higher education are identified. Among these are escalating costs and declining public support for higher education. This means that international education must compete with other possible priorities, such as strengthening disciplines or making campuses more attractive to prospective students. The basic aim of this paper is to develop a set of best practices to promote excellence and rigor in international higher education. In that sense, this could be called action research. This could also be considered the story of how to develop excellence and rigor in international higher education. The major methodology for this study is multiple case studies research and mixed methods research. Another method is reflective participant experience based on the author’s seven decades of engagement with the internationalization of higher education. Both value premises and positionality, which might influence the research are openly shared. In terms of theoretical foundations, key genres of internationalization are identified and described, such as critical, comparative, and comprehensive internationalization. Then, in terms of results, in the next quantitative section of the paper, eight statistical tables are shared that show the current status of international higher education, primarily in the U.S., while also including a table showing the most international universities in the world. Then, in the next qualitative part of the study, 11 exemplary cases are presented, such as CAMPUS Asia, Volunteers in Asia (VIA), and the International Cooperative Learning Project. These projects involve a total of about 20 countries. The criteria for selection were factors such as depth, sustainability, and impactful, transformative learning. The paper concludes with an articulation of the best practices to achieve excellence in international education and the principle that true liberal education is inherently international and intercultural.