Internationalisation and Co-operation in Higher Education: A Multi-National Masters Degree Programme in Vocational Education and Training

Internationalisation is high on the agendas of national governments and institutions of higher education. European programmes, such as ERASMUS, and networks of universities are just two examples of how the international dimension has captured higher education over the past decade. When examining the definition of the term ‘internationalisation’ a number of different conceptions need to be taken into account and discussed. Itwould be much beyond the scope of this paper to analyse the many different definitions, terms and approaches to internationalisation in higher education. However, it can probably be agreed that ‘Internationalisation of higher education is the process of integrating an international/intercultural dimension into the teaching, research and services functions of the institutions’ (Knight and deWit, 1997:8).