International Universities as Role Models for Internationalization of Higher Education in Turkey

Transcription

1 International Universities as Role Models for Internationalization of Higher Education in Turkey B. Gültekin Çetiner*, Prof. Dr. (Yalova University, Faculty of Engineering) Mete Gündoğan, Prof. Dr. (Bartın University, Vice Rector) M. Kutluk Özgüven, Assoc. Prof. Dr. (International University of Sarajevo) Abstract Globalization of Higher Education in the world is nowadays a well-known phenomenon with an increasing trend towards over five million students worldwide. There are mainly three sets of countries exporting Higher Education to others ranging between the first group with very high number of ratios for both foreign students and academic staff and the emerging countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. However, Turkey is not in any of these groups and has not benefited significantly (if not at all) from this trend despite the potential power stemming from the long term relations amid the neighboring countries due to the historical and cultural common bonds. In recent years, many universities in Turkey have been trying to augment the internationalization by many ways some of which even include establishment of programs with medium of instruction completely in English. Obviously, this partial approach has not helped much for internationalization processes as seen from those universities where English has been the main medium of instruction from the beginning with a result of small ratio of foreign students not very different from other universities. The problem of internationalization in Turkey has to be tackled from different perspectives and needs to address both external and internal dynamics. We, as authors, suggest that several international universities should be setup in Turkey as role models in a pilot study fashion based on the principles of Internationalization processes aiming at startup a ratio of foreign students as high as 50 percent overall. By leaving the address of the problem to another paper from the external dynamics point of view, this paper focuses on the internal dynamics of such an international university. Establishment of the universities of this kind should be based upon some principles while setting up all processes related to academic and administrative ones. The paper elaborates the functions and internal dynamics of these international universities as role models and proposes six internal dimensions towards internationalization of Higher Education in Turkey. It also proposes how a strategic management tool, namely balanced scorecard may be utilized to satisfy the objectives effectively and efficiently related to those six dimensions. Keywords Internationalization, Higher education, International Universities, Balanced scorecard (*) Correspondence, bgcetiner@yalova.edu.tr Introduction Higher Education nowadays is highly competitive and a global trend exists in the world with a current total number of students approaching three million students (Hendric, 2009). The trend is expected to reach over five million students worldwide in only few years time. There are mainly three groups of countries exporting Higher Education to other countries. The players in the first group is highly 1

2 international as having very high number of ratios for both foreign students and academic staff reaching almost fifty percent in their foreign student population in some cases. Among some newly emerging countries, Singapore as an example has a ratio of nearly forty percent of foreign student population at higher education. Malaysia as another example has some universities reaching to thirty percent of their student population from abroad. However, Turkey is not in any of these groups and has not benefited significantly (if not at all) from this trend despite the potential power stemming from the long term relations amid the neighboring countries due to the historical and cultural common bonds. Recently, many universities in Turkey have been trying to augment the internationalization by especially establishing the new programs with medium of instruction completely in English. However, there is doubt that this approach will help much the internationalization processes since a quick analysis will reveal that the use of English as the only language of instruction could not achieve a higher ratio of foreign students. On the other hand, some countries such as Germany and Japan showed that the language itself is not the only way to bring in more of foreign students. Germany has a foreign student population of fourteen percent exceeding two hundred thousand students while Japanese story of admitting foreign students is a unique case where they initially set a plan in 1983 to accept 100,000 students and revised the new target in 2010 as 300,000 students by 2020 after successfully exceeding 120,000 in 2010 (Shao, 2008). Both countries have achieved the levels without sacrificing much of their languages by insisting on the use of their own languages and compelling the foreign students to learn them for undergraduate education. A country benefits a lot when she has foreign students especially when they are in excessive numbers. Firstly, they provide some important income generation. As an example, in the US alone, international students contributed 17,7 billion dollars to the economy in 2008/09. Cultural diplomacy is another aspect where students usually act as lobbying on voluntary basis. Future economic gains may also be obtained from graduates after returning to their home countries and possibly having the tendency to do business with the hosting country later. It also has brain drain feature by promoting innovation and productivity by gaining access to talent people all over the world. Universities may function better by achieving campus internationalization. Therefore, there is a tendency in many countries to promote internationalization in their homelands. Recently, the internationalization in Turkey has been a major issue and attempts have been made to encourage it among universities. Now, one can easily see a Turkish University taking a place in an international educational fair for promoting the university abroad. However, it is difficult to say that Turkey performs good at attracting foreign students by looking the steady number of students ranging between only fifteen to twenty thousand students in the last twenty years. The problem has to be tackled from different perspectives and needs to address both external and internal dynamics with a systems engineering approach. First of all, a unique vision is required such as a plan to admit 500,000 foreign students by The importance of vision may be seen in the example of Japanese case where they initially set the target for 100,000 foreign students by 2000 s while they had only 10,428 students in their universities in The planned and actual numbers of International Students in Japan shows the impact of such a unique vision on achieving a strategic target (see Figure 1) 2

3 Figure 1. Planned and actual numbers of International Students in Japan It is suggested herein that several international universities should be setup in Turkey as role models in a pilot study fashion based on the principles of Internationalization processes aiming at startup a ratio of foreign students as high as fifty percent overall. By leaving the address of the problem to another paper from the external dynamics point of view, this paper focuses on the internal dynamics of such an international university. Establishment of the universities of this kind should be based upon some principles while setting up all processes related to academic and administrative ones. The paper elaborates the functions and internal dynamics of these international universities as role models and proposes six internal dimensions towards internationalization of Higher Education in Turkey. External dynamics of internationalization are left for another paper where a set of unique vision is required as a plan to admit say for example 500,000 foreign students by Establishment of International Campuses as Role Models New international campuses may be established on different settings ranging from knowledge cities to independent campuses of international universities. It is very common nowadays for newly emerging countries to attract foreigners in the offsite campuses of internationally recognized universities. Many universities with international recognition have their campuses at different countries. As a result of its vision and strategy for internationalization, as an example, Nottingham University reached beyond the borders of UK to China and Malaysia with every aspects of university life. The flexibility of establishing universities by foreigners after the higher education reform in Malaysia helped achievement of internationalization where Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education set a revised new goal of attracting 120 thousand foreign students by 2020 (Bernama, 2010). Turkey needs to have not only international campuses but also so called knowledge cities where many international universities are established within the same compound. Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) known as the first free zone for academic city is a good example where there are campus branches of more than 27 internationally recognized higher education institutions in the small village established on an area of 2000 hectares in 2007 (Diac, 2011). It is reported that more than eighteen thousand students from more than 100 different countries which make almost the total population of foreign students in Turkey. Those international universities within the same campus have more than 3

4 300 different programs. Due to most probably the internationally recognized constituents, DIAC is ranked top 10 in the Middle East under Best Transportation category and top 25 in the Middle East under Best Overall category according to 2010 Financial Times Ranking (FT, 2010). On the other hand, private institutions of Higher Education are not allowed according to Higher Education Law of Turkey. Although foreigners are allowed to be members of foundations by the new foundation law, it is still not very attractive to bring full fledge commitment from foreign institutions of higher education. By allowing private and foreign universities in Turkey, a diversification of providers will be made which, we believe, will trigger positive outcomes immediately. Internal Dynamics for an International University Campus While setting up the campus facilities and later for functioning in an international manner, six dimensions are required as described in this section. The six dimensional mission described here is based on the long term observations and practices made on two different universities which from the beginning have defined their vision as international universities setting a target of fifty percent of student population to be foreigners and academic staff with a high percentage in similar manner. One of the universities in Malaysia was established as a joint international institution by Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) of which Turkey is also a founding member. This university, namely International Islamic University of Malaysia, has almost 5000 foreign students from 105 different countries in the campus (IIUM, 2011). The second university is another international university namely International University of Sarajevo established as a foundation university by mostly Turkish entrepreneurs (IUS, 2011). With nuances, both universities had addressed some of these missions. Based upon the observations discussed earlier, the mission of an international university may be based upon six dimensions as follows:- 1. Internationalized Higher Education 2. Intercultural Competency 3. Integrity with Universalism 4. Interdisciplinary programs 5. Civic Engagement 6. Comprehensive Excellence As a reflection of internationalization, the university needs to aim at recruiting both academic and administrative staff from a wide range of countries as well as admitting students on the basis of internationalization processes. Some Key Performance Indicators (KPI) may be set up to measure the performance of internationalization as described in the section describing the use of balanced scorecard. A typical KPI for internationalization may be a specific (usually high) ratio of foreign students and academic staff. Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures. A person who is interculturally competent captures and understands, in interaction with people from foreign cultures, their specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling and acting. Earlier experiences are considered, free from prejudices; there is an interest and motivation to continue learning. University required courses and co-curricular activities which are also mentioned herein to make all students able to communicate in a cross-cultural manner should be established. Integrity with universalism requires students being more tolerant to other religions, cultures etc. Some common skills requiring people to share the same campus without prejudices with unique 4

5 characteristics of universal human values should be developed as campus culture and shared among all members. Therefore, facilities, courses and services should be provided throughout the campus wherever necessary. As a result of Interdisciplinary mission of the university, the programs should be designed in a way to promote the students works in an interdisciplinary manner. Being interdisciplinary is essential in international universities since focus on programs may not be only based upon the local requirements. In order to meet the demands of global market, an international university need to setup curriculums respectively. Programs with transiency hence make the university highly adaptive to the construction of more of newly produced programs when compared to other Higher Education Institutions (HEI). The students in the first year may take general university courses then they choose their faculties and consequently their programs which later make double majoring and minor choices very convenient for students. Social aspects and needs of students are required to be addressed more in these universities to make the foreign students adapt to the environment. Therefore, social responsibility function of university may be enhanced by adding the curriculum a set of co-curricular activities as compulsory courses. Cocurricular activities-based courses common to Fareast countries (Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, etc) may be integrated with the civic engagement activities (service learning) in Western countries. Areas picked up selectively depending on the students choice in campus may facilitate intercultural communication and social needs of campus society. Areas may be selected from culture and arts, civic engagement, sports, family Management and parenting, and leadership and management with entrepreneurship, or many others. Students may be required to perform in at least one community project before their graduation. Therefore, all students may have to take a number of subjects followed by the required service learning course called Civic Engagement Projects. These projects volunteered by the students will direct the efforts to be engaged in community services by providing the required human capital. The basic philosophy for Comprehensive Excellence is the design and implementation of quality processes to achieve the best outcomes. It covers three fields as academic and research excellence, administrative services, and high quality community development services. The academic curriculum is revised and redeveloped continuously according to a unique set of accreditation standards stemming from several practices such as Bologna criteria, Washington Accords, and ABET-type ones. They are based on the outcome-based education principles. The outcome-based approach may be the guidance in all three fields of the services. The services provided in an international campus require both academic and non-academic ones to be able to communicate effectively and efficiently in an internationalized campus environment. A systems engineering approach is required to manage this six dimensional mission and a strategic management tool may be very useful to measure and develop the services effectively and efficiently in a continuous improvement manner. The next section describes such a method by adapting a well known strategic technique called Balanced Scorecard. Balanced Scorecard for Managing the Six Dimensional Mission The six dimensions should be facilitated throughout the campus life and managed in the best possible way. For continuous improvement of such a campus environment, a balanced scorecard is developed herein. The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management technique that is used virtually in all types of organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the 5

6 organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. It was originated by two Harvard Business School professors (Kaplan and Norton, 1996) as a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance. While the phrase balanced scorecard was coined in the early 1990s, the roots of the this type of approach go earlier, and include the pioneering work of General Electric on performance measurement reporting in the 1950 s and the work of French process engineers (who created the Tableau de Bord literally, a "dashboard" of performance measures) in the early part of the 20th century. The balanced scorecard suggests that we view the organization from four perspectives, and to develop metrics, collect data and analyze them relative to each of these perspectives (Figure 2). They include: The Learning & Growth Perspective The Business Process Perspective The Customer Perspective The Financial Perspective Figure 2. Management of four perspectives in Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1996) The original of the modified balanced scorecard in Figure 3 was developed at IIUM and has been accompanied by an IT system implemented throughout the campus. Thanks to the Balanced Scorecard system, individuals understand better how important his or her contribution is to the overall performance of the University. After successful implementation over the years, IIUM became the first university in Asia Pacific, and the first organization in Malaysia, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The balanced scorecard was reengineered for International University of Sarajevo by considering the six dimensions described in this paper. 6

7 Figure 3. Balanced Scorecard as a guide to International University of Sarajevo The following section explains how to use scorecard for measuring and satisfying strategic objectives. Either a box or a bubble, each element has a strategic objective and strategic measures, targets, and strategic initiatives associated with. For every strategic objective, a set of key performance indicators (KPI) is identified to measure the achievement according to a predefined target. Each KPI has a responsible person to collect data, monitor, evaluate, and to take actions (initiatives) to satisfy it. If some KPIs may not be met, some initiatives are suggested to meet the targets in the next cycle. Balanced scorecard is a kind of continuous improvement technique based on the four dimensions of organizations. Let's take P1 as an example. P1 refers to "Strengthen quality integrated curriculum". It is related to P7, C1, and S1 which means enhancement of quality service, achievement of a status as a leading international academic and research institution in Balkan Area and Producing well-rounded personalities and employable graduates, respectively. P1 itself is an internal process affecting both a customer dimension (C1) and a stakeholder dimension (S1) which means if badly treated and not satisfied, three strategic objectives will not be met accordingly. It will also mean that a prerequisite process (P7) will also be affected. All elements have their own KPIs. A KPI for P1 to measure whether the curriculum is strengthened was defined as: Getting accreditation for each program. Initiatives are then defined like the setting up related internal bodies within each faculty to take care of the accreditation processes during the accreditation cycles and make the necessary arrangements within individual programs. 7

8 All elements are defined with their KPI measures, targets and initiatives as well as responsible persons and bodies accountable for management of related KPIs. An IT system may later be developed to implement all processes based on the organizational structure. Conclusion Turkey needs to consider setting up policies and a unique vision to tackle the internationalization problem externally as well as constructing international campuses as role models. The internal dynamics of international universities are discussed herein and a six dimensional mission is suggested for those role models. It also proposes how to use a strategic management tool, balanced scorecard to manage the effectiveness and efficiency of target values related to strategic objectives of such models. References Bernama, (2010) Malaysian National News Agency, accessed 15 th April 2011 DIAC, Dubai International Academic City, accessed 15th April 2011 FT, Financial Times 2010 Rankings, accessed 15 th April 2011 Hendric van der Pol, (2009) "New Trends in International Student Mobility", Unesco Institute for statistics IIUM site, International Islamic University of Malaysia, accessed 15 th Aptil 2011 IUS site, International University of Sarajevo, accessed 15 th Aptil 2011 Oka, Masumi and Fukada, Hiromi (1995), "Chinese Foreign Students and Japan", Chugokujin Ryugakusei to Nihon, Tokyo: Hakuteisha Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton (1996), Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System, Harvard Business Review (January-February 1996): p. 76 Shao, Chun-Fen. (2008), "Japanese Policies and International Students in Japan", The 17th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA), Melbourne 8