Internationalization in higher education in China: A practitioner's reflection

Since higher education reforms were started in the mid-1980s, higher education in China has experienced significant transformations. Changes have not only been revealed by the increase in numbers of undergraduates, but also by a significant expansion in postgraduate education in mainland China. In order to enhance its global competitiveness, the Chinese government has tried very hard to internationalize universities with the strong conviction to transform a few universities in China into 'world-class' universities. It is against this context that Chinese universities have experienced significant restructuring and governance changes. In the quest for internationalization, academics and students are under tremendous pressure to compete with the global research-led universities, while internationalizing curriculum and promoting international academic exchanges have become an increasingly important trend in China. This article offers a practitioner's critical reflection on internationalization in universities in China. The author has worked in different universities and unesco in the last few decades and also got many opportunities to represent China in different international educational organizations. The critical reflections to be discussed in this article focuses on developing countries in Southeast Asia, at a time when many of them are under pressure to internationalize their universities.