From Enrolment Rates to Collaborative Knowledge Production: A Critique to the Internationalization of Higher Education in Canada

Abstract

Abstract Although not a new phenomenon, the evolvement, range and characteristics of the modern process of internationalization are worthy of attention. Despite many potential benefits of having a multicultural campus, internationalizing higher education requires more than the physical presence of international students. As stated on the literature, this process must value transnational knowledge as an asset to the educational experience, thus promoting collaborative knowledge production between teachers and students. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of studies done from the point of view of educators depicting how they perceive their graduate international students and internationalization itself. Therefore, through the perspectives of 10 professors at a mid-sized western Canadian university, this critical phenomenological research offers an analysis of the present condition of higher education in Canada. More specifically, this paper deconstructs some of the challenges of internationalization, in which graduates are to be recognized as active agents of circulation and production of knowledge and not just mere figures or passive recipients of information. Finally, questions about the complexity of incorporating epistemic diversity in a meaningful way through internationalization are proposed.