The formulation of the international strategies of Czech universities

What is it about?

We explore the formulation of the international strategies of the publicly funded universities in the Czech Republic, in the context of institutional pressures, particularly from the Czech Government's Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Data were collected from 11 public universities in the Czech Republic using the universities’ mission and vision statements, their strategic plans and international strategies, and 40 semi-structured in-depth interviews. We find that public universities in the Czech Republic use symbolic international strategies, as well as substantive ones; sometimes concurrently. The international strategies are driven by concerns about legitimacy as well as competitiveness.

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Photo by Radek Kozák on Unsplash

Photo by Radek Kozák on Unsplash

Why is it important?

There is a voluminous literature on the internationalisation of higher education. However, there is much less written about the international strategies of universities themselves. The countries of Central Europe are a particularly important omission because of their distinctive history and culture and experience of post-socialist transition and subsequent accession to the European Union. The findings of this study have implications for other countries in Central (and Eastern) Europe as well as in other geographical locations.

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