How the Internationalization is Perceived as a Process?

It is argued that “the perception of foreign students as agents for change introduced the awareness of the qualitative dimensions of the internationalization” (OECD, 1996: 32). By 1990s, it was known or perceived by the western tertiary education institutions that the internationalization, conceptually do not designate only to student mobility among the industrialized world and the other. It was much more than the student mobility. The major importance of IHE is its role as a means to improve the quality of higher education, i.e. the presence of international students is more beneficial than their amount of fee payments.

However, it is emphasized that the internationalization of higher education is seen as a great opportunity especially for the less developed countries so as to improve the cost efficiency of their higher education systems (OECD, 2004a).

Knowledge intensive and service-based economy of future forced universities and states to operate with the international considerations in their higher education service. OECD document (OECD, 2004a) discusses that some national governments have made international student mobility an explicit part of their socio-economic development strategies. Likewise, the amandment to the Law of the Russian Federation on Education adopted by the Council of the Federation in January 1996 has overestimated the openness to the international arena by Article 57 “educational authorities of all levels shall be entitled to make direct contacts with foreign enterprises, companies and organisations” (OECD, 1999:15). It is argued by Yelland (2000: 298) that the biggest challenge is to achieve this integration while maintaining the traditional universal goals of higher education.

The internationalization secures a rational base both for professional and personal development of students and institutional growth and improvement. It provides international contributions on curricula, literature in foreign languages, and both teacher and students’ exchanges (Yang, 2002:

82). It is also seen as the tool providing less ethnocentric and more humanitarian or universal expectations from the education.

Similarly, it is claimed there are three major universal reasons for the internationalization of higher education; the interest in international security, the maintenance of international competitiveness, and the promotion of human understanding across nations (Aigner et al, 1992).

The presence of various international students at campuses enable students to learn living together and compose a peace ambiance. In that sense, AYU presents solid opportunities for the incoming students rather than Kazakh and Russian students who live together in a civic life for a long time.

The internationalization contributes to the curriculum development, decreases locality and provides inter-cultural awareness, sets and promotes standards as internationally recognized, innovate viable programmes of study and may solve local and regional problems (Shepherd et al, 2000). The student mobility as the core of internationalization provides some social and educational (academic) benefits, such as acquiring cross-cultural knowledge and competencies, improving foreign language proficiency, establishing international both personal and professional networks and getting familiarity with other cultures (Van Damme, 2001).

The OECD working groups of the Hague Conference have evaluated the circumstances emerged by the internationalization process (OECD, 1996; 20-22). These circumstances can be summarized as follows:

• Knowledge of languages, including the cultures and societies within which they originated, should be central to the internationalization

• Internationalization is a necessity for higher education and has research, teaching, language, and mobility dimension

• Internationalization is a righ, equitable access to internationalization activities should be basic principle for higher education

• Internationalization is a criterion of quality, in a time of financial constraints, it is important to demonstrate how the internationalization increases the quality of higher education programmes

• Internationalization is a responsibility of higher education which requires the university and other higher education institutions to mobilize their resources to provide assistance to less-advantaged nations and their students

• Internationalization can be tool for changing educational methods

• Internationalization can benefit students; a major benefit is the knowledge and the appreciation of other languages, cultures and societies

• Governments must be involved in internationalization, because of the importance of higher education for the internal and international economic success of a nation

• Internationalization can be means to improve higher education. It affects the content, the structure, and the participants in higher education. It forces the government, the institution, and the participants to recognize that higher education inherently is a supranational activity

• Internationalization is a process of specific exchanges. People, ideas, and experiences are exchanged through the process of international programmes

• Internationalism can redefine the nature of the university. Universities have a major responsibility for cultural and humanistic education. It may be that the universities’ role is better described by the phrase universialization than by that of internationalization

Apart from the quality assurance of IHE, its costs and benefits are defined variously. The costs are as follows:

• Brain drain effects. Particularly for smaller nations which may lose trained manpower to developed nations where much of the training may take place

• Requirements for more resources. The expanding internationalization will increase budget demands but little is known about the scale of these effects

• The loss of cultural identity. This is especially a risk when students are forced into a language environment (such as the need to use English in a course of study) which fails to accommodate for the broader needs of students

• Employment effects. If domestic unemployment already is high the importance of large number of foreign students can create conditions which aggravate the situation for domestic workers

• Constraining local educational development. The availability of education abroad may curtail the appropriate development of domestic higher educational opportunities among the sending countries

On the other hand, for the benefit sides the following effects are emphasized as follows:

• Development of a civil society. In addition to the economic benefits that normally are stressed, is essential to consider the effects of internationalization on the behavior, the attitudes, and the values of the citizenry

• Improvement in the broader cultural, political, and economic contexts, extending well beyond the immediate effects on students, faculty, and higher education institutions themselves

• Character-building among individuals, especially related to intercultural issues

• Network relations among individuals, groups and institutions; these can be the bases for the future economic and political as well as socio-cultural alliances

• Preparation for work abroad for students in the economies where employment opportunities are poor

On the other hand, according to the results of a recent survey report¹ of IAU (International Association of Universities) brain drain and the loss of cultural identity are the greatest risks of internationalization (Knight, 2003). However, student, staff and teacher development; academic standards and quality assurance; and international research collaboration are noted three most important benefits of the internationalization.

The benefits are quite compatible with AYU which is a case of internationalization achieved in Kazakhstan and allow the Kazakh students to internalize this process in their country without moving to the western countries. It can be stated that AYU has also function of preventing brain drain of Kazakh population. Kabasakal discussed “AYU today holds almost 25 thousand students. Most of those students may prefer study abroad if AYU was not available. The current students may have looking for opportunities to leave Kazakhstan to study abroad. In this respect, AYU has also highlighted Turkey as the country of transition for further destinations”.

On the contrary, it is usual that Kazakh graduates should share the employment opportunities created by multi-national corporations in Kazakhstan. However, they have also achieved further opportunities in terms of vacancies in the other economies through learning a few foreign languages and obtaining a diploma recognized in Turkey and other countries. AYU students have more advantage than the students of other Kazakh universities, because, they achieve intercultural relations, learn more alnguages, and make friends in other countries.

The rate of internationalization is strongly regulated by university’s internal culture.

Internationalization needs to “fit between cultural values, structural arrangements, and strategic

1 “Internationalization of Higher Education Practices and Priorities: 2003 IAU Survey Report”

plans within the whole university” (Bartell, 2003: 55). Bartell shows Sporn’s “typology of university culture” which is divided into four dimensions so as to explain whether internationalization is possible or not. First one is “weak and internally oriented cultures”; the second one is “weak and externally oriented cultures”; third one is “strong and internally oriented cultures”; and the fourth one is “strong and externally oriented cultures”. The last one owing to having best of both the university’s culture (strong) and cultural orientation (outward) dimensions is seen as the strongest case adaptable for the internationalization. (Bartel, 2003: 56-57). The mission of AYU which is consolidated by Yesevi’s thoughts and Turkestan’s spiritual climate allows the university to be categorized under the fourth dimension of the typology.