Influence of higher education in Portugal on students beliefs toward internationalisation

• Autor(a) principal: Turcu, Ion
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/24471
• topic: Internationalisation; Higher education; Currículo -- Curriculum; Cross-border education; Internationalisation-at-home; Internacionalização; Educação superior; Educação transfronteiriça; Internacionalização em casa

Multiple Portuguese higher education institutions (HEIs) have aimed to internationalise their curricula to contend with advancing technology and increasing globalisation. However, there is little research on whether the students of these HEIs have become more internationalised as a result. Thus, this study aimed to explore the influence of the HE system in Portugal on students' beliefs towards internationalisation. The study sought the views of Portuguese students pursuing various degrees across Universities and Polytechnics in Beja and Lisbon to examine how internationalisation strategies impact perceptions on internationalisation and studying abroad. The research was premised on Knight's (2012) two-pillar framework for internationalisation, which helped provide insights into internationalisation-at-home (IAH) and cross-border education strategies for HEIs. The Mann-Whitney U test, as well as Spearman's correlation coefficient, were employed in the quantitative data analysis to establish any significant differences in the implementation of IAH and cross-border strategies across HEIs in the two regions and their relationship with students' views of international issues and overseas study. The findings revealed a significant difference in the implementation of IAH strategies across HEIs in the cities of Beja and Lisbon. No significant difference was found in implementing cross-border education strategies across HEIs between the two cities. The findings also indicated a positive correlation between internationalisation strategies and students’ views regarding international issues and attitudes towards studying abroad. These results have significance for Higher Education executives in Portugal as they are in charge of making institutional and curricular changes to improve internationalisation and influence the student body perceptions.