title: Correspondence or discrepancy?
title: A multi-method examination of internationalisation agendas in Malaysian
      private higher education
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Wong, Shin Pyng
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2018
Subjects: internationalisation
higher education
legislation
policy and practice

description: Internationalisation has become a central agenda in higher education
      sectors around the world. Malaysia, where this research is conducted,
      represents a growing world education hub, where there are more than 40
      private universities which has led to a growing international student
      population. As non-government sponsored institutions, Malaysian private
      universities have a higher degree of autonomy in expanding their
      internationalisation agendas; they are able to establish more
      partnerships, recruit international talents, and grow international
      student markets without imposed limitations. Thus, the aim of this study
      is to examine the extent to which internationalisation legislation, policy
      and practice result in a relation of the correspondence or discrepancy in
      Malaysian private universities. It is also to explore the multiple factors
      that interact and influence the process of internationalising private
      tertiary institutions in Malaysia. The findings of this research can
      assist the stakeholders of private higher education to make informed
      decisions about how to effectively include an international dimension into
      the processes of policy making and practice.
      
      To elucidate this relationship the study employs a mixed methods approach
      combining textual analyses and qualitative interviews. First, 6
      legislative texts which relate directly to private higher education
      internationalisation were analysed, followed by the interviews with 20
      Senior Management Leaders (SMLs) from 4 Malaysian private universities. It
      is through the triangulation of data that an in-depth understanding of the
      phenomenon of internationalisation in Malaysian private higher education
      emerges.
      
      Theoretically, the thesis employs a synthesis of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory
      of practice, and Engeström’s activity theory. It is argued here that SMLs
      interactions with legislation, policy and practice, reveal the centrality
      of strong habitus at the organisational level of the university. This
      manifests in individualised and institutionally-specific
      internationalisation policies, which then must interact and align with
      government legislation. The textual findings indicate that legislation has
      granted the private university with a higher degree of autonomy in
      developing its power hierarchy and habitus geared towards
      internationalisation. The increasing self-governance of the private higher
      education field has allowed negotiations between the SMLs and the
      governmental authority in aligning the university internationalisation
      policy and practice with legislation. This advocates Engeström’s notion of
      knotworking in developing the SMLs’ and the governmental authority’s
      stable and institutionalised activity systems, and maintaining the power
      balance between both for implementing individualised internationalisation
      policies. The fierce local and international competitions between private
      universities have increased their motivations to individualise their
      internationalisation policies, for sustaining growth into the future.
      
      The discrepancy between legislation, internationalisation policy and
      practice is due to the strict legislative control on specific
      internationalisation areas such as accreditation and student autonomy,
      which impedes knotworking between the activity systems of the SMLs and the
      governmental authority. It results in the SMLs’ disempowerment,
      procrastination, negligence and eventually abandonment of realising an
      important internationalisation strategy. Both interacting activity systems
      have to address tension and disagreements, derived from their individual
      agenda of internationalisation, in order to establish the common
      internationalisation objective.