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This chapter explores the multimodal resources employed by three higher education agencies in the Baltic states in their effort to promote their universities internationally as attractive study places. In the context of the marketization of higher education, previous studies have explored the branding of universities from the point of view of manag...
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... even if consistent with the general trend throughout Europe, only 1.7% of all students in Baltic universities are enrolled in MA programmes officially taught in English, even though that percentage is double the amount of the same figure in 2007 (0.8% back then) (Wächter & Maiworm, 2014, p. 49). A similar argument can be made with regards to Erasmus exchange students: although showing a consistently growing trend, especially since the three countries' accession to the European Union in 2004, the number of incoming Erasmus students represents still a limited percentage overall (see Figure 1). In addition, the Bologna Process, signed by the three countries already in 1999, seems to have played an important role in both the expansion of English-medium programmes and in the increase of international student mobility in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (European Commission, 2014). ...
Citations
... Regarding factor 3, the perceived quality as a benchmark of competitiveness and legitimacy (Soler, 2020;Dennis et al., 2016) was consistently evaluated from the items of teaching, infrastructure and technological resources (PQ 1 = 0.54 and PQ 2 = 0.53) students regarding the missionary nature of the institution, which relates these variables to levels of satisfaction (Kaushal and Ali, 2020). ...
... HE, can be a strong component of a national brand and is beneficial to national brand building (Sataøen, 2015;Soler, 2020). The HE brand of a country depends on but is not the same as the national brand, which is conducive to the overall national brand building, and these two promote and influence each other (Lomer et al., 2018). ...
... Through activities such as essay competitions, international students were organized to tell their stories in China and spread the 'Voice of China' with their own personal experiences. The nation brand was subsequently promoted during this process (Lomer et al., 2018;Sataøen, 2015;Soler, 2020). ...
In the context of the internationalization and marketization of higher education, it has become a trend for a nation to build its higher education brand for global competitiveness. This paper analyses what is seen as the urgent need to enhance China’s international education strategy and how branding has assisted in this process. Drawing on document analysis and employing Khanna, M., Jacob, I., & Yadav, N. (2014). Identifying and analyzing touchpoints for building a higher education brand. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 24(1), 122–143. brand touchpoint wheel model and Kaneva, N. (2011). Nation branding: Toward an agenda for critical research. International Journal of Communication, 5, 117–141. categories of nation branding, this research aims to explore the historical development of China’s HE brand building, its strategies and main characteristics, and its relations to broader nation branding. Suggestions are made to improve policymaking and strategy design in the future. The article contributes insights into China’s case and experience in building a national higher education brand, offering an example and reference for other countries.
... The tension between monolingualism and multilingualism often leads to political controversies that revolve around cultural identity. For instance, the case of the Baltic states is striking, because monolingualism has served to shape national identity (Soler et al. 2018;Soler 2020). ...
The worldwide introduction of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) programmes has stimulated numerous reflections within and outside academia. These reflections find their expression in both scholarly studies into EMI and public debates about its impact. In this article we argue that one can distinguish two types of reflections about EMI. The first type focuses on improving EMI. The second type focuses on the legitimation of EMI, that is whether EMI programmes are justified in view of their assumptions and consequences. We investigate the genesis and the differences between two separate discourses that express the different types of reflections. We unfold a history that shows that roughly three phases can be distinguished in the development of EMI: the incubation of EMI, its consolidation and its politicisation. We argue that the heuristic value of the two types of reflection is that they are conducive to comprehending this development of EMI and look at it with critical eyes. In addition, we suggest that politicised issues like the impact of Englishization on the cultural identity, language hierarchies, top-down implementations of language policies and the inequalities regarding the access to EMI programmes might be fruitfully addressed in terms of linguistic justice and democracy. By distinguishing two types of reflection, blind spots in EMI research can be revealed.
... Ignorance, neglect, or denial of a plurilingual U.S. academy, it could be argued, may limit, or even tarnish a university's diversity brand in domestic and overseas markets as a growing number of institutions worldwide now offer English-medium instruction with the additional benefit of immersion in the local and national languages (cf. [34,35]). This is to say that, even when put under the neoliberal microscope-the gaze administrators most likely will adopt today-a greater visibility of the plurilingual potential on campuses is in the best interest of a 21st century institution of higher education. ...
This article opens an analytical window into the creation of multilingual guerrilla translations by participants in a preservice language teacher program at a public university in the United States. As an intervention responding to the prevalence of English monolingual signage on this highly diverse university campus, the college students invited a public audience into a joint critical interrogation of implicit institutional language policies, as their signage offered a necessarily incomplete and intentionally makeshift alternative to the official English displays. Inspired by the three-phase model of critical pedagogy, this grassroots endeavor embraced Freire’s notion of transformative praxis defined by the symbiotic relation of action and reflection. A closer examination of the scaffolding, which guided the planning and implementation, lends insight into activity design with the potential to nurture an activist aptitude among students. Comments from participants suggest that the conceptual stepping stones towards students’ collective critical engagement had a positive influence on their perception of language (teacher) advocacy and activism.
Este artigo relata o processo de construção da identidade internacional da Universidade Federalde Santa Catarina (UFSC), a partir do trabalho de Tradução Institucional realizado pelo Serviço deTradução da Secretaria de Relações Institucionais (SINTER). Apresentamos as ações realizadasentre 2016 e 2022 que contribuíram para ampliar e uniformizar a comunicação institucional emlíngua inglesa e dar maior visibilidade à instituição no cenário global. Dentre elas, destacam-se: atradução de websites institucionais; a disponibilização de um glossário português-inglês, contendotermos relevantes da estrutura acadêmica e administrativa da UFSC; e a elaboração de um guia deredação em língua inglesa. Essas e outras ações complementares buscaram aproximação com acomunidade universitária, unindo-se aos esforços do processo de internacionalização transversalem curso na UFSC.
The main objective of this study is to describe how through the internationalization of the curriculum strategy, professional can develop research competences, collaborate with others, and research impact can be achieved in the Baltic region. The phenomenon of globalization required countries to interconnect and be open to trade, generating a new economy based on knowledge. Which in turn demanded human capital to develop specific competences for doing research, create and innovate in their corresponding fields of study. Higher education institutions had to embrace the internationalization process and its four strategies:
Internationalization by Competencies, Intercultural Competence, Comprehensive Internationalization, and Internationalization of the Curriculum, from which the connectivism approach, and research competences are part of. These competences demand: 1) statement of a research problem, 2) development of a contextual framework, 3) review of the state of the art, 4) build and validate models, 5) create and validate a data collection instrument, 6) master data analysis techniques, 7) know how to structure a scientific document and master scientific writing, 8) know participate in a scientific activity as a lecturer and, finally, 9) have knowledge of languages and sensitivity towards universal art and culture. This qualitative analysis was carried out with the techniques: documentary review and literature review. It is concluded that in the Baltic region efforts have been made for the development of the competences previously mentioned through the internationalization of the curriculum strategy, but it could also benefit from the connectivism approach
based on their economic, geographical, physical or political possibilities.
This chapter outlines higher education language policies as historically and politically layered and contingent. I will first discuss the way in which I understand language both as a proxy for policies and ideologies and as a means for construing those policies and ideologies. My focus is on the layered and intertwined nature of history, politics, language and nation. The subchapter closes with a methodological discussion of “looking beyond” language—i.e. the ways in which we can take our focus from language to the underlying societal structures. I will then present the higher education context and the role of language in higher education. From there, a discussion of the main concepts related to nations, nationalisms and language follows. The chapter concludes with the contextualization of Finnish language policy.
This chapter presents the transition from a nationalist to post-nationalist period since the 1980s as the increasing systematic mobility and European cooperation as well as the fall of the Soviet Union turned Finnish higher education towards Western cooperation. The new internationalization strategies first aimed at founding mobility programmes for higher education and then particularly English medium study programmes. Post-national nation state emerges in the analysis mainly as an actor on the global economy. The discourses of competition and success in the global markets are interwoven with discourses of protection of the nation state. The use of English as an ostensibly self-evident and unquestioned lingua franca in the society increases, breaking the link between protection of “national” interests and national language.
