Internationalisation of Higher Education – A View from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract

The present paper aims to provide up-to-date information on the internationalisation endeavours undertaken in the last five years by the Romanian topmost economic university – the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), based on ambitious goals set by means of its “Internationalisation Strategy” launched in 2016. We first briefly refer to key national and international literature on the internationalisation of higher education, and to the University’s international dimension since its establishment in 1913: the enrolment of foreign students, the presence of study programs in foreign languages, the existence of student exchange programmes, cooperation agreements with universities from abroad etc. Next, the paper illustrates the measures taken since 2016 in four priority areas, where constant progress has been recorded: in-house internationalisation; internationalisation abroad; internationalisation of research; and consolidation of international prestige. The analysed data are collected mainly from ASE’s International Relations Department, the Rector’s Annual Reports (2016-2019), but also from various pages of the institutional website. The discussion and conclusion sections highlight the contribution and limitations of this paper to the national literature in the field.

Keywords

• internationalisation of higher education
• in-house internationalisation
• internationalisation abroad
• international university rankings
• bucharest university of economic studies (ase)