A Critical Analysis of the Literature on the Internationalisation of Thai Higher Education: A Call for a Counter-Narrative
Keywords:
Internationalisation of higher education, Neoliberalism, Social constructionAbstract
This article examines literature related to the internationalisation of higher education (IHE) in Thailand. Through analysis of 38 publications on IHE in Thailand, the scope of literature is explored in order to determine how it frames the imperatives and narratives of IHE development, and to what extent neoliberal interpretations as drivers of Thai IHE explain practices and realities at the institutional level. The author puts forward the contextually and socially driven definition and concept of IHE by Williams et al. (2021) to both frame and recommend an alternative approach to the study of IHE as a phenomenon experienced and largely created by local institutions and actors. The article concludes that such an approach would provide a distinctive voice to the real and lived experiences of leaders and practitioners in higher education institutions in Thailand, and a counter-narrative to the dominant neoliberal assumptions of the global literature.
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