Understanding the Internationalization of Higher Education in Indonesia: An Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) Case Study in 2018-2023

Abstract

Internationalization of higher education is inevitable amidst the increasingly globalized world. Incentivized by varying factors – ranging from global competitiveness, world university rankings, and government's policy, higher education institutions are pushed towards internationalization. One leading institution conducting this strategy is Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII), the country’s oldest national university. This thesis aims to examine the higher education internationalization in Indonesia, drawing from UII as a case study in 2018-2023. Through literature review and interviews with the university officers, this paper utilizes two frameworks to bring a robust analysis on internationalization: knowledge diplomacy framework and cross-border relations in higher education concept. This research seeks to analyze UII’s rationales, actors, values, approaches and instruments in internationalization, and subsequently identify the university’s definition of cross-border activities. This study finds UII’s elements of internationalization generally comply with knowledge diplomacy framework, with several exceptions. Particularly, UII’s main internationalization motives are its institutional history of mondial identity and vision as a globally recognized university. Knowledge diplomacy, comparatively, considers the strengthening of intercountry relationships as its main goal, while internationalization fairly perceives it as a by-product. Moreover, the analysis identifies UII’s cross-border activities as equivalent-mutual internationalization and partly interdependent globalization, with less multi-polar traits and no decolonial attributes.