We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us: The Role of the Faculty in the Internationalization of Higher Education in the Coming Decade

Abstract

This article argues that the chief challenge for developing and sustaining internationalization in the context of the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century is the engagement of the faculty. It argues that although higher education has been successful in providing mechanisms for student mobility because institutions have not successfully engaged the faculty that mobility is not as sizeable as it should be, but also, in and of itself, will not deliver the learning, discovery, and engagement that we seek through internationalization. To capture the faculty's interest in, and commitment to, internationalization, we need to move beyond the conceptualization of the internationalization or globalization of higher education in terms of how the different aspects of teaching, research, and service functions of the university are becoming more “internationalized” and examine how these activities encourage greater learning and discovery. Our challenge is to convince faculty that their scholarship and teaching will benefit from these efforts by considering the risk and reward structures within our institutions and faculty cultures.