INTERNATIONALIZATION AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY:

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1 INTERNATIONALIZATION AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: WHY ARE THEY DIFFICULT AND HOW TO MAKE THEM RELEVANT FOR REGIONAL UNIVERSITY COOPERATION DR KAZIMIERZ MUSIAŁ (UNIVERSITY OF GDAŃSK) PRESENTATION AT A SEMINAR: FRAMEWORKS FOR UNIVERSITY COOPERATION IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION - 28 OCTOBER 2013, TURKU, FINLAND

2 INTERNATIONALISATION A SIGNUM TEMPORIS A matter of definitions: The term international refers to relations involving more than one state internationalisation means processes leading to international activity, it may be international co-operation, international competition or international trade. A challenge resulting from globalisation TINA internationalisation is a way for nation states, higher education systems and institutions to meet global challenges

3 DRIVING FACTORS OF INTERNATIONALISATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION Technological Peripheral knowledge no longer marginal as internet and mobility annihilate the distance Economic Knolwedge economy provides pull-factors for students, research and researchers on international stage Political Governments encourage internationalisation to deborder national knowledge systems Cultural Reduced significance of national and local identities

4 REASONS FOR AND MANIFESTATIONS OF INTERNATIONALISATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS Traditional approach to internationalisation - academic and socio-cultural reasons - a responsibility for the individual student or teacher a bottom-up activity related to diversity a physical activity (for example through mobility) an informal and ad-hoc activity More recent forms of internationalisation - political and economic reasons - a responsibility for the department or institution a top-down activity related to standardisation a more technology enhanced activity (for example through ICT) a formal and routinised activity Source: Stensaker, B., Frølich, N., Gornitzka, Å. and Maassen, P. (2008). 'Internationalisation of higher education: the gap between national policy-making and institutional needs', Globalisation, Societies and Education, 6: 1, p. 4.

5 IDEAL TYPE OF INTERNATIONALISATION AT THE LEVEL OF AN ACADEMIC INSTITUTION Source: Luijten-Lub, A. (2007). Choices in internationalisation: how higher education institutions respond to internationalisation, europeanisation, and globalisation. Enschede: CHEPS.

6 HOW DO THE UNIVERSITIES INTERNATIONALISE? Institutionalisation of approaches to internationalisation in universities Source: Davies, J. L. (1995). University strategies for internationalisation in different institutional and cultural settings: a conceptual framework. In P. Blok (Ed.), Policy and policy implementation in internationalisation of higher education. Amsterdam: European Association for International Education, p. 16

7 CURRENT APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONALISATION IN THE BSR HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS - DIVERSIFIED Active and strategic approach Nordic countries D (central and systemic) Estonia (moving from C D) Less active, Bologna-based and economic motif Germany (moving from A B D) Lithuania & Latvia (moving from A C D) Slow changes based on Bologna Poland (slowly moving from A to B and perhaps D) Instrumental random approach or academic & political Russia (mostly A planning to move to C (starting with Academy of Sciences))

8 BUT! NO ALTERNATIVE TO INTERNATIONALISATION IN ORDER TO COMPETE ON GLOBAL SCALE Internationalisation of HE systems in the BSR could be a uniting factor enhancing regional cohesion and leading to: - an epistemic community constructing a regional knowledge-based economy - pulling resources for enhancing regional competitiveness but so far the national approaches are driven by different interests Why don t we learn more about these interests?

9 IF INTERNATIONALISATION IS A CHALLENGE, DEALING WITH PUBLIC DIPLOMACY MAY PROVIDE AN ANSWER PD is a set of instruments relevant in the BSR in two ways: 1) Managing external relation region branding and promoting BSR to a role model region - promoted by CBSS and BDF. 2) Enhancing internal cohesion provide a tool for regionalisation & mutual understanding - promoted by CBSS and realised mainly by NGOs

10 WHY IS A PUBLIC DIPLOMACY THEME PARTICULARLY SUITABLE? IT INTRODUCES NEW FOCUS ON AGENCY, PURPOSE AND MODALITY IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Agency Purpose Modes PUBLIC DIPLOMACY (in a nutshell) non-governmental practicioners unofficial active public mutual understanding dialogic, exchange two-way symetric change in behaviour TRADITIONAL DIPLOMACY government foreign affairs experts official, careful, scientific passive public or audience comprehension one-way informational two-way asymetric no change in behaviour Source: Snow, N. (2008), Rethinking Public Diplomacy, in: Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, Routledge, p. 8.

11 TYPICAL INSTRUMENTS OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY include: Listening Advocacy Cultural diplomacy Exchanges Influential broadcasting Recognise cultural framing and habitus as foundations of our worldview TEACH US ABOUT INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AS A STRATEGIC ASSET LETS US REFLECT UPON OUR OWN INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE AND WORLDVIEW

12 1) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AS A TOOL OF MANAGING EXTERNAL RELATIONS Region branding - European relevance of the Baltic Sea region experience addressing an invitation from the BDF s Political State of the Region Report 2013 [The report] wants to invite political stakeholders in the Region and beyond to think [ ] how to make effective use of the soft power potential of the Baltic Sea Region in the wider European context (p. 86). Promotion of the BSR as a role model expressed wish to make EU Strategy for the BSR a success and a role model for other European regions.

13 2) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY FOR ENHANCING INTERNAL COHESION OF THE BSR More important task for university cooperation! Employ public diplomacy for: Fostering intercultural understanding Learn how to deal with differences, divergence and variance of regional actors Creating an epistemic community Needed for reifying the region more as an action unit than action space THROUGH a web-based course on Public Diplomacy in the Baltic Sea Region.

14 PLANNED COURSE DESCRIPTION WHAT, WHO AND HOW How countries improve their economies, project identity, and achieve other policy goals by exercising their soft power. Contemporary as well as historical experience of public diplomacy as a political instrument in the Baltic Sea region Focus on how small states, big powers as well as associations of states and civil society actors in the region understand cultures, attitudes, and behaviour, build and manage relationships, and influence opinions and actions to advance their interests and values. Institutional partners: Gdańsk, Helsinki, London, Stockholm, St. Petersburg and others Course design: MA-level on-line seminar Credits: 4 or 8 ECTS

15 SUMMING UP: A COURSE ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY FOSTERS INTERNATIONALISATION IN THE BSR Region becomes an action space for HEI cooperation (internationalisation in the region) New way of looking at the region study of images and discourses that are nationally and transnationally produced (contrast auto- and xenostereotypes) Transnational and national perspectives recognised as equally constitutive agencies allowing an open dialogue and reflection on national discourses and strategies Seeking for common regional denominators among the course participants a genuine bottomup region building (negotiating meanings) Use of English as a lingua franca for to manifest the universal significance of the project Exploring the best case scenarios of pan-regional collaboration in education

16 THE GOOD NEWS! IT IS NOT ONLY A HYPOTHETICAL AGENDA BUT A NEW EPISTEMIC COMMUNITY BASED ON PD IS IN THE MAKING A point of departure: an innovative web-course (currently in the making) to generate a basic platform and repository of texts, images and to recruit relevant researchers to make use of modern media for communication and added regional value in education Pooling resources and researchers: conference participation (actively pursued) to gather existing research(-ers) and signal our existence regionally and internationally conference stream at Yale Conference on Baltic and Scandinavian Studies, March 13-15, 2014 Establishing a research network: public diplomacy in the Baltic Sea region context to build a truly area-based research community for an emerging cross-disciplinary field to provide for research-based expertise for regional decision makers (regional triple helix)

17 KIITOS! Dr Kazimierz Musiał University of Gdańsk