Iranian faculty members’ metaphors of the internationalization of medical sciences education

Faculty members’ beliefs can affect the trajectories of internationalization activities at a university. This study aimed to use metaphor analysis to discover Iranian faculty members’ beliefs about the internationalization of education at a medical sciences university. To collect data, a qualitative research design was adopted and interviews were conducted with the faculty members. The analysis of the interviews resulted in the discovery of 19 metaphors which were condensed into five themes of clinical culture, a road map for change, challenges, promotion, and links and relations. The faulty members particularly called for considerations for context-specific clinical setting conduct, urged a reform in the education system so as to include international and intercultural components in the medical education curricula, preferred the scientific and cultural reasons to the political and economic rationales for internationalization, described learning the local language and dialect as necessary for international medical students as they need to communicate with local patients and hospital staff, and viewed internationalization as an opportunity for the university to expand its health tourism industry. The findings have practical implications for medical sciences universities that aim to become an international educational institution.