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The Drive to Internationalize: Perceptions and Motivations of Israeli College Directors

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Abstract

Given the relatively high degree of academic freedom granted to institutions in Israel in conjunction with the lack of governmental policy on internationalization, directors of higher education institutions comprise key agents in the institutional internationalization process that is taking place in Israeli higher education. In this study, we took a qualitative approach to explore the views and attitudes of seven college directors in Israel. We show that motivation for internationalization is a multifaceted phenomenon influenced by the college directors’ personal characteristics as well as by the colleges’ contextual factors. Moreover, it seems that second-tier colleges use internationalization to promote themselves towards the status of first-tier research universities. The study provides a first insight into the perceptions and motivations of Israeli educational institutions’ leaders regarding the development of institutional-level internationalization strategies.

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Notes

  1. Namely, ‘organizing the data’, ‘generating categories, themes and patterns’, ‘testing any emergent hypotheses’ and ‘searching for alternative explanations’.

  2. Teacher-training colleges are funded by the Ministry of Education and not by the Council of Higher Education, as are other higher education institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Tel Aviv University, P.O. Box 39040, Tel Aviv, 6997801, Israel

    Miri Yemini & Efrat Sadeh

  2. Holon Institute of Technology, 52 Golomb st. Holon 5810201, Israel

    Vered Holzmann

  3. Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation, UCSC, Milan, and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences,

    Hans de Wit

  4. Research Authority and English Department, Beit Berl College, 44905, Israel

    Anat Stavans

  5. Al-Qassami College, Tira, 44915, Israel

    Dalia Fadila

Authors
  1. Miri Yemini
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  2. Vered Holzmann
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  3. Hans de Wit
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  4. Efrat Sadeh
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  5. Anat Stavans
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  6. Dalia Fadila
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Yemini, M., Holzmann, V., de Wit, H. et al. The Drive to Internationalize: Perceptions and Motivations of Israeli College Directors. High Educ Policy 28, 259–276 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2014.9

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