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Hong Kong has tried to develop itself as a regional education hub for a decade. However, the policy is being criticized because Hong Kong has neither diversified its student population ethnically and culturally nor expanded its share in the global higher education market. This paper explores this context to examine the significance of the education hub concept in the development of higher education in Hong Kong. Based on an analysis of the concept of education hub the paper argues that the purposes of building an education hub need to be defined. It also argues that an instrumentalist interpretation of internationalization of higher education is not enough to understand the importance of the education hub notion to the higher education development in the city. An idealistic and educational approach in this respect is a relevant idea for the prospect of Hong Kong as an education hub.

Higher education the world over has now become part of the globalization process and can no longer be strictly viewed from a national context. The realities of internationalization of higher education and its attendant impacts on the sector is an urgent priority for higher education, especially in developing economies such as Africa. This paper analyses the complex process of internationalization, its manifestations and current developments as well as the main challenges it poses to higher education in Africa. It illustrates the peculiar historical and political contexts of African higher education, the diverse national, regional and international actors, dominant rationales, challenges, risks and their implications for policy. The paper argues that, Africa, just like other regions of the world, or even each country of the world, approaches internationalization in a way that reflects its history, culture and context and in a way consistent with its current needs, priorities and circumstances. While there are areas of dissimilarity between Africa and other world regions, relating to rationales, risks, challenges and even opportunities, internationalization is a worldwide phenomenon that may require increased regional and international cooperation accompanied with workable policies, strategies and ethical standards.

Higher education the world over has now become part of the globalization process and can no longer be strictly viewed from a national context. The realities of internationalization of higher education and its attendant impacts on the sector is an urgent priority for higher education, especially in developing economies such as Africa. This paper analyses the complex process of internationalization, its manifestations and current developments as well as the main challenges it poses to higher education in Africa. It illustrates the peculiar historical and political contexts of African higher education, the diverse national, regional and international actors, dominant rationales, challenges, risks and their implications for policy. The paper argues that, Africa, just like other regions of the world, or even each country of the world, approaches internationalization in a way that reflects its history, culture and context and in a way consistent with its current needs, priorities and circumstances. While there are areas of dissimilarity between Africa and other world regions, relating to rationales, risks, challenges and even opportunities, internationalization is a worldwide phenomenon that may require increased regional and international cooperation accompanied with workable policies, strategies and ethical standards. Internationalization and its Implications for the Quality of Higher

Fairness is one of the most important quality criteria of assessments and a necessary condition for valid test score interpretations. In this paper, we describe findings related to an assessment of N = 7664 beginning business and economics students at 46 universities across Germany using a domain-specific higher education entry test. From the perspective of test fairness as defined by the internationally established validation standards outlined by AERA et al. (Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, AERA, Washington, DC, 2014), we identify which students had particular difficulty completing the test, taking into account gender- and language-related influence factors in the assessment of their test performance. Our results highlight the particular challenges in admissions testing in higher education. One of these challenges is finding a suitable way to address the disadvantages experienced by various groups of students to guarantee fairness and ethical integrity when developing and administering tests. Current migration developments and the overall internationalization of higher education have led to an increasing heterogeneity of student bodies. These challenges are therefore of particular relevance for education policy and practice when it comes to ensuring fairness when assessing learning outcomes for all student groups. This also applies in the context of commonly used standardized assessments and established examination practices in higher education.

As internationalization has become an increasingly central part of higher education (HE), the range and types of activities carried out in its name have grown exponentially. At the same time, and particularly in the context of reduced public funding for HE in some countries, internationalization and its related activities have come to be seen as having potentially wide ranging economic benefits. But what evidence is there that universities are pursuing internationalization for economic rationales? What has been the effect of the current global environment of reduced public funding for HE on internationalization? Are international student recruitment and other activities pursued by institutions for economic gain? By taking a critical look at the results of the International Association of Universities’ (IAU) 4th Global Survey on Internationalization of Higher Education, and particularly at data collected from the 604 European institutions who took part in the survey, this paper will examine the changing perceptions of internationalization of HE, and analyse whether the key motivators for institutions in pursuit of internationalization goals are indeed economic.

Institutions of higher education around the world are all faced with the universal impact of globalization and internationalization on higher education. At the same time, information and communication technologies (ICT) continues to impact on all aspects of contemporary education, requiring higher education institutions and stakeholders to be linked to each other through an advanced network that is connected to the rest of the world. Of particular interest now is the way in which African universities bring the region in touch with what can be referred to as the global village of higher education, and how universities bring Africa to the attention of the world. This paper explores the extent to which ICT is seen as central for internationalization and the opportunities that exist in Africa for the application of ICT in higher education. It demonstrates how the digital divide that exists within the process of internationalization risks increasing the gap between African higher education and the international community if efforts are not made to bridge it. Specific cases, especially within East Africa, are used to illustrate the arguments raised.

Internationalization of higher education in East Africa raises various questions related to its magnitude and intensity, its capacity to address issues of access, equity and regional research and developmental needs. Internationalization and regionalization as processes in higher education can synergize each other but can also limit the success of the other depending on their focus. In East Africa, internationalization has mainly involved new forms of provision of higher education and not necessarily relevant content. At the same time, regional approaches in the context of wider Pan-African concerns on the implications of internationalization in the continent are at play. This paper gives an overview of the two processes. A discussion of the challenges that internationalization of higher education has to regional quality assurance and knowledge production in east Africa is presented.

We review the recent and growing discussions on the internationalization of higher education and the equally recent and growing practice of world wide connectivity of academic environments through computer networks, mainly the Internet. We argue that developing sophisticated networks and facilitating its widespread use by the academic community is a powerful strategy to achieve the internationalization of higher education. The paper contains some recommendations.