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Contemporary Danish Strategies of Internationalisation Through Student Mobility with China: The Development of Instrumentality in Interculturality

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Nordic-Chinese Intersections within Education

Abstract

This chapter examines current Danish strategies of developing internationalisation through student mobility programmes with China in higher education. By interrogating Danish policies of internationalisation, the chapter brings attention to contemporary conditions for Danish higher education to facilitate student mobility with its Chinese counterpart at a structural political level. By analysing motivations, assumptions and expectations for internationalisation initiatives, it is argued that policies developed and formulated at a national political level presuppose and favour certain meanings of internationalisation and culture and in doing so frame the understanding of these in a limiting sense. Instrumentalist discourses of the competition state enclose and marginalise other competing discourses of internationalisation and culture. The chapter further examines how this relates to the general tendencies of the current educational system in Denmark.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As is typical of political documents, there is no definition of the term ‘international competences’, but it is repeatedly used in connection to skills related to navigating in an international context and seems not to differ substantially from other more commonly used concepts such as intercultural skills or competence, and cultural awareness.

  2. 2.

    Other policy documents regarding Sino-Danish internationalisation strategies in higher education were identified (Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education, 2012; Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, 2008), but they either predate or reflect and elaborate on some (mainly technical and quantitative) aspects of the agreements also mentioned in the document at hand.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Niels Erik Lyngdorf

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  1. Niels Erik Lyngdorf
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Correspondence to Niels Erik Lyngdorf .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Haiqin Liu

  2. Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Fred Dervin

  3. College of Education, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    Xiangyun Du

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Lyngdorf, N.E. (2019). Contemporary Danish Strategies of Internationalisation Through Student Mobility with China: The Development of Instrumentality in Interculturality. In: Liu, H., Dervin, F., Du, X. (eds) Nordic-Chinese Intersections within Education. Palgrave Studies on Chinese Education in a Global Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28588-3_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28588-3_11

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28587-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28588-3

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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