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This chapter analyses policy learning about higher education (HE). It draws on Dunlop and Radaelli’s typology of learning and the use of policy knowledge that contributes to the diffusion of HE policies within and across countries. It develops an account of learning through a comparative analysis that examines the implementation of the Bologna Process, internationalisation policies and legal provisions for the recognition of qualifications, with examples from Sweden and the UK. The chapter argues that reflexive and hierarchical learning have both soft and hard versions which can overlap and be linked over time. While reflexive learning is associated with the development of HE policies at a national  and primarily education institutional level, hierarchical lessons, are accepted by national policy makers and resemble policy transfer. 

This article presents an analysis of responses to some of the mutually reinforcing challenges facing European higher education (HE) systems. In a context of ‘polycrises’, defined by European Commission President Juncker (2016) along the lines of economic, financial, social, and security challenges across different policy domains, HE responses have been varied and reflecting the peculiarities of national contexts. We focus on Swedish shifts in discourses and practices in relation to HE internationalisation, as a response to the perceived geopolitical and security threats. These crises have produced policies with distinct effects on universities, and on individual academics. The article does two things: First, it presents a critical analysis of the crisis context across European HE policy and in the national and HE context of Sweden. Second, drawing on large qualitative research, it discusses the consequences of these crises on academic identities, with a particular focus on academic mobility. The article contributes to knowledge on the experience of individual academics who develop careers in often difficult circumstances and highlights the need to integrate individual experiences and perceptions with HE-wide policies and discourses. 

This article explores the themes of academic mobility/immobility in Swedish higher education. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, we provide an analysis of mobility decisions and experiences, across disciplinary fields and career stages. We identify narratives of transformative and pragmatic mobility experiences, and the (often high) costs involved in (im)mobility, in relation to career progression, emotional and relational dimensions of academics’ lives. We highlight the significance of university and national contexts for successful career construction.

Preparing student teachers for work in increasingly diverse Nordic schools has brought attention to thevalue of internationalisation that, until recently, was debated primarily in other disciplinary contexts withinhigher education settings. In this article, we examine how internationalisation is introduced and integrated in two teacher education providers in Finland and Sweden. Drawing on internationalisation as a policy idea with distinct cognitive and normative properties, we explore rationales, values and attitudes that underpin internationalisation positions and practices. The comparative study identifies different ways that the two providers introduced internationalisation into their existing practices, and, to some extent, different meanings and emphases internationalisation has in the two institutional settings. In both cases, the filtering ofthis policy idea and its embeddedness into teacher education is contingent upon curricular and organisational structures; university and faculty leadership; attitudes and commitments of academic staff. 

Die zunehmende Diversität nordeuropäischer Schulen, für die Lehramtsstudierende ausgebildet werden,lenkt die Aufmerksamkeit auf den Wert von Internationalisierung, die bis vor Kurzem vor allem in anderendisziplinären Kontexten der Hochschulbildung diskutiert wurde. In diesem Artikel untersuchen wir, wieInternationalisierung in zwei Lehrerausbildungsinstitutionen in Finnland und Schweden implementiert wird.Unter Rückgriff auf den Begriff der Internationalisierung als Policy-Konzept mit spezifischen kognitiven undnormativen Dimensionen untersuchen wir die zugrunde liegenden Begründungen, Wertvorstellungen undEinstellungen, die Internationalisierungsstrategien und -praktiken prägen. Die vergleichende Analyse zeigt,dass die beiden Institutionen Internationalisierung auf unterschiedliche Weise in ihre bestehenden Strukturen integriert haben und dass dem Konzept in den beiden institutionellen Kontexten teilweise unterschiedliche Bedeutungen und Schwerpunkte zugeschrieben werden. In beiden Fällen wird die Einbettung diesespolitischen Konzepts in der Lehrerausbildung durch curriculare und organisatorische Strukturen, die Führungsstrategien von Universitäten und Fakultäten sowie die Haltungen und das Engagement des wissenschaftlichen Personals bedingt.

Debates around internationalisation-at-home (IaH) focus on the benefits accrued to students from the integration of internationalisation dimensions in their studies, curricular developments and interactions with international students, but, with scant attention to how these vary in different subject areas. In this article, we focus on the disciplinary experiences and framings of internationalisation from the perspectives of students in two Swedish universities. Drawing on 67 interviews with students sampled across different subject areas, we examine how the disciplinary definitions of study objects and pedagogic approaches filter the students’ experiences and shape their views around IaH, and their ambitions for the future. Our findings suggest first, a discipline-specific set of positionings regarding the nature of subject areas as lenses through which internationalisation is understood. Second, the students hold strong views around the contribution of IaH in strengthening the disciplines themselves. In addition, the student voices paint a dynamic picture of internationalisation positions, not always consistent with disciplinary stereotypes.

Sweden has actively pursued internationalisation policies at national level, in parallel to the pursuit of internationalisation strategies of individual universities. Thisarticle focuses on university responses towards internationalisation, and the inter -play between external higher education environments and institutional positioning.We draw on empirical qualitative research in two of Sweden’s largest universities, toexamine institutional responses to internationalisation, expressed through documen-tary material and interviews with 32 senior leaders. Our findings suggest that theglobal research environment acts as a strong discursive driver for internationalisa-tion actions, manifested in the strategic partnerships pursued by the two institutions.An equally powerful driver, is the national higher education sector as a context ofconstant comparisons and competition but also as a source of collaborative learningand exchange. The two universities exhibit strategic autonomy in their reading ofthe internationalisation imperative, and in constructing their actions and responses,although these are significantly framed by size and geography. In the Swedish highereducation landscape, these two dimensions constitute a constraining physical anddiscursive context, underpinning the links between a global, internationalised envi-ronment, and the universities’ self-image and positioning.

This article examines the national and European policy contexts that shaped the Swedish internationalisation agenda in higher education since 2000, the policy ideas that were mobilised to promote it, and the national priorities that steered higher education debates. The analysis highlights how domestic and European policy priorities, as well as discourses around increasing global economic reach and building solidarity across the world, have produced an internationalisation strategy that is distinctly ‘national’. Drawing on the analysis of the most recent internationalisation strategies we argue that the particular Swedish approach to internationalisation has its ideational foundations in viewing higher education as a political instrument to promote social mobility and justice, as well as a means to develop economic competitiveness and employability capacity. In addition, internationalisation has been used to legitimise national reform goals, but also as a policy objective on its own with the ambition to position Sweden as a competitive knowledge nation in a global context.

Det här kapitlet undersöker lärarstudenters upplevelser av så kallad internationalisering på hemmaplan (IPH) och hur exempelvis interkulturella och internationella dimensioner inlemmas och kommer till uttryck i undervisningen. Den svenska högskolan har en historia av att arbeta proaktivt med internationaliseringsfrågor, men det har ofta kommit att förstås som en fråga om mobilitet och utbyten av olika slag. På senare tid har även IPH lyfts fram som en allt viktigare internationaliseringsambition för landets lärosäten (SOU 2018:3). I detta kapitel analyseras intervjuer med 23 studenter från olika program inom lärarutbildningens område. Resultatet visar att även om studenterna resonerar mycket insiktsfullt om såväl interkulturella kompetenser som färdigheter är de internationella dimensionerna de mött i sin utbildning starkt begränsade. Lärarutbildning som kunskapsfält uppfattas i mångt och mycket som en utbildning orienterad mot den nationella sfären och det påverkar hur studenterna möter de ämnesmässiga inslagen i utbildningen liksom hur de förbereds för det framtida yrkeslivet. En central slutsats utifrån studenternas berättelser är att det finns ett betydande utrymme för att utveckla goda interkulturella och internationella lärmiljöer som kan möta de krav som ställs på såväl en högkvalitativ utbildning som i den kommande yrkesutövningen. 

This article focuses on "internationalization at home" (IaH) for education students in Swedish Universities and its significance for their professional formation and future practice. We draw on research in two large institutions and explore the perceptions and experiences of internationalization of home students in education. We find that while the "intercultural" understanding of students is well developed, the international and intercultural dimensions of experiencing IaH are limited, due to several institutional and learning environment contexts. This has consequences for the social dimensions of future teaching practice. In addition, the perception of the discipline as "national" is significant in shaping the outlook of students toward international questions and their own future personal and professional mobility. We contextualize these findings using documentary analysis and staff interviews, and argue that to achieve intercultural and international learning environments of quality, social relevance, and long-term social benefit, we need to rethink how internationalization perspectives are integrated in teacher education courses.